Watching Ashley be crowned a champion on her second season of the Challenge was beautifully unexpected. In recent years, the Challenge has somewhat become monotonous when it comes to who is winning the seasons. In most seasons it feels as if either Bananas wins, or whoever Bananas nemesis has won. In the previous 8 seasons, Bananas won 4 times, then the combo of Wes/CT, Sarah/Jordan, Cara/Jaime were able to pull out titles, with the only other win being Team San Diego (a non-Bananas season). It’s often been the evil empire and the dominant players who win with little surprise.

Ashley winning represents to me what the Challenge is at times. It’s a dynamic game that can be played multiple ways, and dominated in different fashions. People were mad that the best physical players didn’t win, well I’m sorry, watch the Olympics. It’s not Ashley’s fault that Nicole can’t multiply or read, it’s not Ashley’s fault that Camila yells and emasculates all her partners, and it’s not her fault that Amanda hated Nicole enough to pull them together so that Ashley could get the bell in the three-way tug of war. At the end of the day, she won and is rightfully a Champion.

I watched that final again before writing this, and the underrated part is that Ashley got the worst partner on 2/3 days, and the second worst on another. During day one, Nelson was by far the worst swimmer, Ashley had to wait quite a bit for him to get to shore. She did the puzzle in seconds, and right away they were behind CT/Camila who had a big lead on them from the swim. If she had Cory, who was a terrible swimmer, but a few minutes better than Nelson, she wins day one. On day two, getting CT was fine, could have been way worse with Cory, though if she had gotten Nelson, the only male who could support his own frame up the tight rope (CT was too big, and Cory too weak), she likely win days two. Day three, she got Cory after he was visibly defeated from his day with Camila, and considering the other two work horses, she could have done better and maybe won day 3 as well. AND SHE STILL WON. Like you can shit on Ashley, but she definitely deserved the win in that final.

She had a decent physical showing on Champs vs Pros, winning eliminations against Veronica in Wall Brawl, against Ashley K in Balls In, and a great loss to Lolo Jones in the variation of Knot So Fast. While her freak outs were annoying, she performed admirably when it was time to play.

Now here’s a review of Ashley as a competitor, as well as her social media handles:

Skills & Physical Strength: After winning Invasion, Ashley got breast implants, which is pretty cool, I’m pro fake boobs, also pro real boobs, I’m pro all boobs really. They did not seem to really get in the way that much for her during Champs vs Pros, then again they never did any super endurance events while she was there. Even in the one endurance mission, she was the puzzle person.

The history of good competitors with big boobs:

Camila (1x Challenge Champion, 3 finals, 9 seasons) Natural

Coral (1x Challenge Champion, 4 finals, 6 seasons) Natural

Veronica (3x Challenge Champion, 4 finals, 8 seasons) Natural

Paula (2x Challenge Champion, 5 finals, 9 seasons) Implants

KellyAnne (0x Challenge Champion, 1 final, 4 seasons) Implants

There is a history of girls competing with implants being successful, though girls like KellyAnne with implants have complained about the back pains of straining endurance events, and from there, we even have the famous Shauvon busting an implant moment from the Ruins.

Ashley does put in time at the gym, runs, does yoga, and is pretty fit. She is a good swimmer, alright cardio (not stellar), and has great height at 5'8. While she is skinny, her height makes her bigger than most girls.

Social & Mental Game: Invasion was the example of how one season can set you back a couple seasons. When Wes won the Duel 1, it somewhat set him back politically for a while, as well as his actions on the Ruins/FM2. He alienated himself from the people who he sent home, and almost made it personal. Ashley & Amanda played a great social game where they got the whole against the best female athletes on the Underdog team. How they did it so easily, I can’t comprehend. They way they played the game was dirty though, and now they have the vets gunning after them, and Kailah/Jenna going after them again. The numbers are flipped, not in their favor.

We know Ashley can do puzzles.

Eliminations: Her elimination record stands at 1–1 (3–2 if you include CvP). Her one true win was due to Amanda being petty, and not wanting to lose to Nicole in the threeway tug of war. Her loss…we’ll just blame it on Cory.

During CvP she showed strength in adversity. She fell down the Wall during her elimination against Veronica, then she got right back up it and won the elimination. When she went down 1–0 to Ashley K in Balls In, she took her straight to the ground on her next defensive attempt, got dirty, and even made a jump shot like she was Steph Curry (seriously, in a decade of Balls In games, nobody has ever made the jump shot before). Ashley gave Lolo a good run for her money, and made some good maneuvers when navigating the ropes, alas, she physically couldn’t compete with a dual sport Olympian.

Ashley should smash all low tier girls in eliminations, and be competitive with the rest.

Final Potential & Endurance: She’s won a final. That’s an experience you cannot take away from a person, and an edge she has.

Final Score: 87/100