‘The Challenge’: A ‘Total Madness’ Finalist Said He’s ‘Cried in the Shower’ Every Day Since the Finale
The Challenge: Total Madness is over, and Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio and Jenny West each took home $500,000. Rogan O’Connor was hoping to make it to the end as well — but he couldn’t make it happen. Now, he’s talking about his time on the show. And he told the Challenge Mania podcast that he’s “cried in the shower” ever since. Here’s what he mentioned.
Johnny ‘Bananas’ Devenanzio won his 7th ‘Challenge’ season with ‘Total Madness’
Devenanzio is known as one of the greatest Challenge players of all time. And with his seventh win out of 20 seasons played, no one’s arguing with that status anymore. While the Total Madness finale was grueling, Devenanzio played smart and got it done. And he’s since said he’s glad the Rivals III “curse” has been lifted off of him.
At the end of Rivals III, Devenanzio chose to take all the money and run rather than split it with his partner, Sarah Rice. Since then, he hasn’t been able to win.
“I think that the Sarah thing … now looking back on it, I really do think that the whole curse thing that evolved from that, I ended up getting on board in a way with that too, because, I mean, it got to the point where it’s like, there’s gotta be some other explanation for this drought,” he told the Chicks in the Office podcast.
“This season I exercised all my demons and couldn’t be more ecstatic about it,” he concluded.
Rogan O’Connor was eliminated by Devenanzio during the final
O’Connor won War of the Worlds 2, but many fans thought he skated by to the end without doing the work to really become a champion. For Total Madness, O’Connor made it known he wanted to leave his mark on the game, win eliminations, and earn the $500,000 grand prize. While he came far in the game, he couldn’t push through with a win. And his final elimination against Devenanzio did him in.
The final elimination was during the finale, and none of the competitors saw it coming. Devenanzio was sent in against O’Connor. The challenge involved running and hitting a bell above their heads that was located halfway between them. Whoever hit the bell twice won and moved on — and, in this case, that was Devenanzio.
Unfortunately for O’Connor, he wasn’t able to actually put his hands on Devenanzio during the final elimination. He’s stated that if contact would’ve been allowed, he would’ve had a better shot at defeating Devenanzio.
O’Connor said he’s ‘cried in the shower’ since the finale
While O’Connor will certainly be back for future Challenge seasons, he took this loss particularly hard. And he told the Challenge Mania podcast that he’s spent a lot of time crying in the shower since the end of the season.
“It was short and sweet — it was two rings of the bell very quickly. And then, that was it. And I could go drink beer in the cabin and they could go freeze,” O’Connor told the podcast.
O’Connor added that he felt somewhat relieved after he lost since the finale was so grueling. But he’s still “cried in the shower every day since. But, at the time, at the moment where I was told by T.J. [Lavin] Johnny had beat me, it was relief.”
Even with the relief of the end, though, he wished he could’ve pulled through. “This loss to Johnny … at first it was like, a relief, it was cool, and congratulations to Johnny,” O’Connor continued. “And then it’s like, I’ll be walking on the treadmill, I’ll be walking my dog, and I’ll think, what if, man. Why didn’t you f*cking try harder? Why did Johnny have to win?”
We’re sure O’Connor will be looking for redemption on future seasons of The Challenge.
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