The Challenge Season 42 is here! Throughout the season, Parade.com will speak with the challengers who were eliminated from Cutthroat.Sixteen years ago, Brad Fiorenza entered the 20th season of The Challenge, which was given the theme of Cutthroat. Put on a team alongside close allies, including his then-wife Tori Hall, he was able to dominate strategically, never going into elimination all season. By the end, he helped make up a fierce foursome that dominated the final, giving him his highly-coveted first win.This year, Brad Fiorenza entered the 42nd season of The Challenge, which was also given the theme of Cutthroat. Unfortunately, he was not able to replicate his team's success whatsoever, drafted into a mishmash of seasoned vets and fresh-faced rookies. The group lost each of the first three dailies, with emotions running high and even building to a fever pitch when he and Nelson Thomas got into a fight while trying to figure out the cause of one of their numerous failings. And Brad was far from safe from seeing the arena, as Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio was eager to put him into elimination. It wasn't done out of mal intent, however, as the fellow vet thought he would be the best fit to try to weaken the Grey team and take out Keanu Soto. However, the Big Brother standout proved his worth immediately, dominating the elimination and even getting physical at points. Keanu had Brad's number that day (literally), ensuring the fifteen-time competitor would not see another Cutthroat win.Read on for our full interview with Brad. New episodes of The Challenge: Cutthroat drop Wednesdays on Paramount+.
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Let's start with that elimination. I had no idea climbing a wall would be a contact sport, and I'm sure you didn't either. Walk me through what you were thinking throughout your time in the sand, especially when things got physical.All I can say is Keanu is an absolute beast. Hats off to him. I mean, that was his day. And when I pulled up to that elimination and I saw that it was climbing, I felt like this was going to be my night. And I thought there was no other option other than taking the W back to the house and trying to reverse the energy of losing on our team. We lost three challenges; this was our third elim. And as it started to unfold, the contact started to get heavier and heavier. And Keanu's a big boy. I'm roughly just under 200 pounds, 195. He's got to be pushing about 260, and he's fast. He's not just a heavy set guy. He's got a background in football. When he started to put those hits on me, the game got a lot more intense real quick, and it all happened so quick. One of the things that most viewers probably wouldn't know, Mike, is that Keanu wasn't feeling well. I ended up catching whatever was going around the house a little bit later. But I spiked 103-degree fever the night before I even went in. I hadn't had a fever in like over 10 years, and I'm under my covers, just shivering. I had to reschedule my interviews. And I know he was going through something similar leading up to it, but we went out there and we left it all on the field. And I kept seeing the moments where I missed the point by a fraction of a second, and the mistake that I made by not fully understanding that there were buzzers. I thought we were supposed to hit the numbers. And that first point I lost when I actually beat him to the number, I tried to shake that off the best I could. And I had some close points with him, but I just couldn't get it done. When I watched him and I compete, I was kind of thinking, "God, who would play harder in a physical elimination?" I don't have an answer for that. I'd rather go against CT three times in a row than that guy again. He's an absolute beast. He's a force to be reckoned with. It was a hell of an elimination. I'm sorry I couldn't get it done.Well, let's talk about what got you on that wall in the first place. You had mentioned that you hoped Bananas wouldn't send you in based on being a fellow vet. But you also knew Josh had a relationship with him outside the show. So how surprised were you when you put you into elimination?So honestly, whenever I'm even remotely up for elimination, I feel like in my mind I'm already going in. I feel like it's the safest play. You don't want to get caught off guard. Even when Johnny went in on the first one, I was waiting to be thrown in for some reason, so this was a lot. I was waiting to hear my name, but hoping that I didn't. And when I did, I was already mentally checked in. I had a feeling Johnny would go in this direction. I had heard that his objective was to weaken the Grey team as much as possible. And I saw the climbing, and I felt like, "Alright well, if I do go in, this is this is something that I'm comfortable with." And then I also thought Johnny's probably thinking the same thing. And after hearing his his interview clips, it sounds like he was, and that was that was my fate.We need to get into the argument you had with Nelson after the Blue team DQ'd during the heights daily. How did that build to such a fever pithc?Well, the emotions were definitely high on our team. We had Cara saying she wasn't even going to do the challenge leading up to it, which meant we were automatically DQ'd. We tried talking her into just staying positive and giving it a shot. She told us that she would be willing to go in, and no matter what, she wasn't going to do it. So we didn't even know we were going to get the chance to compete. Then we did get the chance to compete. Mike, I stood on the edge of that building for about 40 minutes. So you can kind of tell that we got DQ'd and they brought out another group. But you didn't really know if you were going to get dropped. So I'm kind of just hanging on for like 40 minutes. My legs are starting to cramp. I don't even know how they or why they were starting to cramp. But you're like waiting for this fall that never happens. It goes on for like 40 minutes. Then we find out we were DQ'd twice, and then Nelson starts to yell at the girls on the team. And as I'm listening to him yell, I'm thinking to myself, "What is his objective? There is no objective. This is just chaotic emotional venting towards the females on our team." I'm extremely frustrated that this is taking place. So then I start to yell at Nelson. He tells me not to cuss at him. I get where he didn't want me to cuss at him. But at the same in that moment, I'm like, "You're not going to tell me who I can and cannot cuss at. You were just yelling at the females on our team with no objective!" So the frustration levels were super high. Then he starts telling me he's not afraid of me. I did have a little bit of a daydream where I slapped that helmet out of his hand. [Laughs.] But I'm glad that I didn't on the show. And I immediately apologized afterwards to him, and he apologized to me as well. And I think that if anything, that was a good opportunity to take the chaotic venting on the the female players on our team. At least it brought Nelson and I eye to eye, and then we were able to squash it quite quickly. So in a weird way, that kind of that was probably our best case scenario. Because as he was yelling at the girls, I just felt very uncomfortable about it, and I didn't see the objective. So at least we were able to divert that and then kind of squash it as quickly as possible.After your elimination, Josh says that one of the reasons Blue is struggling is because there was no leader. Did you have any authority at all, considering you were the most-tenured vet on the team?Honestly, Mike, I would say not. I don't feel like the team was looking for a leader. I feel like we were on a team with a lot of chiefs and no Indians. In our planning, there was a lot of people that were sharing their ideas without listening to other people's. So what I realized is, in my opinion, the best role that I could have played, unless I knew that I had whatever's in front of us mastered, less noise is better. I was listening to different people's ideas, and I would try to mediate who should be talking by not doing it myself. For example, if I got three people trying to say they have it figured out, and we're all talking over each other, which was pretty much what we were dealing with, I would, as a listener, say, "I want to hear more of what Anna Leigh's saying. I agree with what she's saying on this." And then probe for some more information and try to model what listening looked like in the deliberations, because there really wasn't much. It was "I think this, I think that," and there was no resolution. It was more argumentative. And I just felt like by trying to model what listening looks like, and by trying to ask questions in the direction of the person that I thought had the most figured out, that that was the most helpful role that I could play at that time.In honor of the infamous "S—t They Should Have Shown" episode of the old-school days of The Challenge, what's one moment from your time on the show that you wish you had made the edit?Ooh, maybe a little bit more of Tori's birthday party. That was really a fun night. We had so many good times, just making the little outfits and everything, and trying to surprise Tori with the party. We really did have an amazing night. I know they show some of it, and it does still look pretty incredible in my opinion. But I wish they would have shown a little bit more from that night. It just kind of felt like the old days where everybody hung out and truly celebrated the moment. And that was definitely one of my favorite memories for sure.
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