WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Ready?
When we spoke to Jordan Wiseley before the premiere of MTV’s The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2, he spoke about how scary it was to compete with then-girlfriend Tori Deal on what turned out to be a roller coaster season of the competition series.
Now, not only did Wiseley get through the season with his relationship still intact. They’re now engaged thanks to a surprise proposal in the middle of the season, and the couple is $250,000 richer after Wiseley finished with three other members of the UK team to beat the United States squad he and Deal defected from.
On Thursday, after the season’s finale, Wiseley spoke once again to For The Win and took us behind the scenes. Here’s what we learned:
1. Leaving Tori behind in the finale was as hard as it looked
The competitors were tasked with individually finishing a puzzle and only four members per team would move on to the final stage. Wiseley finished fourth out of all the UK and Deal was stuck behind.
My heart broke in half when I had to leave @tori_deal on that beach
— Jordan Wiseley (@jordan_wiseley) December 12, 2019
“The most heartbreaking thing I’ve had to do in this world is to leave Tori on that beach,” Wiseley said. “ARGH! She should have won! She had the best season of anyone!”
But he did say that this win — remarkably, Wiseley’s third victory overall in four finals out of five appearances overall — was “more special than any others” because he won it with her.
That's the silver lining! #TheChallenge34 pic.twitter.com/Y608SzzcU3
— The Challenge (@ChallengeMTV) December 12, 2019
2. They almost switched to the UK team earlier in the game
They could see how alliances were lining up, particularly with Paulie and Cara Maria running the show for the Americans. So the couple discussed the idea of going over to the Brits and trying to get them to win more challenges, but according to Wiseley, “Tori was so against it because she was like, ‘Yo, I want to win! And the Americans are so much better.'”
3. The final was brutal from a weather perspective
Wiseley knows this final wasn’t as long as the one finalists ran in War of the Worlds last season. But he said it was 95 degrees with 100 percent humidity in Thailand. He reported losing seven pounds during the 16-mile run that left Paulie completely wiped out and nearly out of the game.
Speaking of which, his rivalry with Paulie comes out of respect.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Paulie as a competitor,” he says. “He’s a stud. He knows it’s a game, we’re here for competition and we can have these moments when we’re talking back and forth, and then afterward (say),‘That was a stinger, man. That was a good one, good job.’”
4. His surprise proposal was nearly ruined
During the first week, Wiseley and others were living out of suitcases … and it just so happens that he had hidden the engagement ring for Deal (which was Deal’s mother’s ring that she gave to him) in his bag. Fellow competitor Nany Gonzalez stumbled over his suitcase and walked up to him with the box in her hand asking if he was really going to propose. Luckily, she kept the secret until Wiseley popped the question — right after he handed the ring to a talent coordinator before his elimination bout.
5. He has his eye on breaking a Challenge record
Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio has won six titles, and Wiseley thinks it would be “cool to chase that.”
“Maybe we stay for a little while and see if we can’t that in a much timlier fashion than he did it,” he adds, clearly throwing some shade at the vet who has appeared on 19 seasons and who also eliminated Wiseley from the only season in which he failed to reach a final, Free Agents.
But if he appears on future seasons, he confirms he’s doing them only with his fiancee.
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