Everyone who watches The Challenge knows there’s a huge divide between those who have played the game before and those who have yet to prove themselves.

MTV switched things up this year with their installment of Invasion, where previous winners will face off against the underdogs. However, that’s a twist that the losers aren’t aware of yet.

Cory Wharton spoke with me on the Candy Dish podcast to talk about how this season, his third time on the show, varied from his previous experiences.

“I would say my mindset on this Challenge was a little different,” he says. “I’m looking around and I’m the vet, so I’m like, ‘Holy — this is a lot different than what I’m used to. So I’m kind of excited at this point. I’m licking my chops ’cause I got all these rookies around me and I’m the vet. It’s time for me to get a win.”

Underdogs 🐶💪🏽

6days away from the premiere ⛺️🇹🇭#TheChallengeInvasion pic.twitter.com/Jiv0WxaRn5 — Cory Wharton (@CoryWharton) February 1, 2017

Instead of feeling like a lost puppy, Cory had an advantage of knowing what to expect.

“It felt good to know that, hey, I’m one of the most experienced guys here. It kind of gave me that leg up. It was weird for people to come up to me and say, ‘Which days are Challenge days? How does elimination work?’ For me to be answering those questions was weird because just two seasons ago, I’m coming up to Bananas or whoever it is and I’m asking them the same thing. It was definitely different.”

So did The Real World: Ex-plosion alum expect for Johnny Bananas, CT, Laurel, and the rest of the champions to show up later in the show? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

Listen to Candy Dish via the SoundCloud embed below or find us on iTunes.

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Cory spills on his season of The Real World and his ambition to be someday be on The Bachelor. In fact, he also tells a story about running into some contestants from Nick Viall’s season!