Hate me if you want to, but Snapper, aka Blind Stick Fighting, is my favorite elimination in Challenge history. Sometimes we as fans (me especially), take the game way too seriously. We talk about how one person would dominate another person is this physical, or someone would outrun another player in a final.

At the end of the day, players are on their knees at the whim of the Challenge gods (aka production). If production goes, “hey before you get to the final worth 125k, we’re gonna have you stick fight blind-folded to decide who gets to stay”, you have to do it. The Challenge is ridiculous sometimes, and either you have fun and adapt, or you whine and complain.

The funniest part about this elimination is it includes Knight and Preston. Historically, two of the worst competitors in Challenge history (Knight has the lowest daily challenge win % of anyone who has participated in 15 or more). Somehow they figure out an ingenious strategy. Knight stays low and away while Preston directs him using their code word “NOLA” until it is the right time to strike. It resulted in Knight and Preston winning an elimination and influencing how players would play the elimination years later on Champs vs. Pros. Knight and Preston walked so CM Punk and Wes could run. Also, MTV named an episode the prior season “The Dark Knight,” and for this episode, it was aptly titled “The Dark Knight Rises.”

3 Zach vs. CJ Battle of the Seasons

What sometimes gets forgotten in the Zach and CJ elimination is that CJ was a college football player. Yes, he was a punter. He played football for a lot of his life, and athletically he’s probably not far off from Zach when you include skill, balance, and timing. In this game, CJ remembers his tackling drills and automatically takes out the big guys’ legs. It makes sense why Zach was a wide receiver instead of a tight end; his blocking skills are atrocious.

When watching this elimination, most fans were rooting against Zach. Zach and Frank were the bad guys. They were the evil duo running the game and treating their teammate (Sam) awfully. Then they get put up against CJ, the male model with Christian beliefs leading his team to victory with hard-work and a can-do attitude. It was a battle of good vs. evil where the good guy kicked the bad guys’ ass repeatedly. CJ won the first round 2–0, and then in a sudden death best of 3, CJ had his most decisive win over Zach to go up 1–0. There is an added subplot of Zach is dating Jonna (CJ’s teammate), and CJ is trying to woo Ashley Kelsey (Zach’s teammate and ex GF).

TJ blows the horn for the second overtime round, and Zach leaps over CJ when he attempts to hit him low. I was still very new to the Challenge when I watched that elimination the first time, and let me tell you, my jaw dropped. The concept of one big male jumping over another grown man in a tiny hallway never crossed my mind until it happened. CJ expects Zach to repeat the same strategy the next round, Zach does not go for a leap, and out-muscles CJ to get the third point and eliminate Team Cancun. My heart drops. The good guy loses, and we never see CJ Koegel on a Challenge again. His return on Battle of the Seasons was reminiscent of Frank Roessler from Gauntlet 3. He came from out of nowhere and stole our hearts, and then he’s gone for good.

I tell people that the Battle of the Seasons is an excellent season if you want to learn about life. You detest Team San Diego, yet they keep winning. Not all stories have happy endings.

2 Derrick vs. Wes The Duel 1

This is THE Challenge Elimination. Challenge eliminations were still relatively new by the time the Duel happened. By this point in time, players had created resumes, though. Derrick had the most elimination wins in a season by a male competitor by winning four times on the Gauntlet 2. The following season, Wes broke the record and won 5 exiles on Fresh Meat 1. Wes’s record of 5–0 went toe to toe in elimination with Derrick (5–2) after Wes called Derrick out in the Duel. It was a heavyweight championship battle between the two biggest prizefighters. The winner would remain in the game and hold the record for most elimination wins.

Wes had never lost an elimination. One could argue Wes’s wins were less impressive due to the fact he and Casey carried much less weight than any of the other teams they faced. Likewise, he was entering a physical elimination, which was Derrick’s forte. Derrick was a humble, hard-working player, while Wes was an arrogant work smarter, not harder type of player. In a cutthroat elimination, the players go back and forth and continually get reset as you are not allowed to stand-up in this version. Derrick is savvy in physical eliminations; he knows the angles and will know when to get a restart when his opponent gets momentum. Watch his elimination with Joss closely, and notice how Derrick uses the restarts to his advantage. It’s almost like a wrestler having the awareness to roll out the ring to prevent their opponent from getting the pin.

In the end, Wes gets the win and it propels him to the stratosphere. He is now 6–0, has eliminated the other elimination beast. His previous wins get validated by beating someone of Derrick’s caliber. Wes then wins the entire season. He rides this win for over a decade. In many ways, it overshadows the fact he’s generally been not great in every other physical elimination he’s done. Regardless, nobody can take away the title of the elimination king from Wes. He had the greatest start in Challenge history and is possibly the most important player in the show’s history.

When Derrick loses, he talks about needing to reevaluate his life. This confessional rips my heart out as you can tell, Derrick hates losing, and especially to someone like Wes. They play the game in such opposite ways, and he is questioning his existence. Luckily, Derrick comes in the next season on the Inferno 3, wins the final elimination, wins the whole season, and then goes on a three-season winning streak with Inferno 3, the Island, and the Ruins. Today, he is still around hosting the Challenge Mania Podcast and kicking British ass as a mercenary.

It’s hard to imagine us getting an elimination of this scale anymore.

1 CT vs. Bananas Cutthroat

For this video, I made sure to copy the URL at the time of the CT/Bananas backpack. When people ask me why I watch the Challenge, this is the clip I show them.

A 180 lb grown man is not supposed to be lifted in their air off another grown man’s back like that. Cutthroat CT probably could have stormed Area 51 without a problem. I don’t really know what to say about this elimination that you can’t just see in the video.

Honestly, the highlight of this elimination is Abram’s face after CT wins:

He looks so disgusted that he’s going to need to create another tattoo just to get over the traumatic experience.

The Challenge is awesome sometimes.