Josh Martinez has become one of the most polarizing cast members in The Challenge’s 39-season history, and fans continue to criticize him during Season 40.
Despite multiple appearances, the former Big Brother winner has yet to reach a final, let alone win a season of MTV’s competition series.
His appearance in MTV’s Battle of the Eras surprised some fans who might have expected his fellow castmate and another Big Brother star, Faysal “Fessy” Shafaat, to be there.
However, it’s hard to argue against Josh being an individual who brought some of the show’s emotional and dramatic moments in recent seasons. Those highlights seemingly qualified him for Season 40’s Era 4 team.
He’s survived past eliminations through most of the early season because he hadn’t been a target for his team. However, that nearly changed in Episode 5.
Luckily for Josh and his teammate Jenny West, Era 4 won the daily challenge, allowing them to choose which of the losing team’s targets went into elimination. However, fans didn’t all agree with Josh’s decision.
Josh had a difficult decision in Season 40
After Era 4 defeated the other three teams in the daily challenge, they had to decide who would face Rachel Robinson and Brad Fiorenza, the losing team’s targets in the elimination.
They had to make what Josh called a difficult decision between Era 2’s Johnny Bananas and Laurel Stucky and Era 3’s Cory Wharton and Jonna Mannion.
Josh considered Cory his best friend and also was mulling over the fact he screwed over Bananas during their time on The Challenge: USA 2.
Bananas mentioned the USA 2 move to Josh to remind him about it and say he could make up for that by not sending them into elimination. In a confessional interview, Josh said it hurt for Bananas to bring that up in front of everybody.
However, he also said he and Cory always tried to work together as allies on the show.
Cory reminded him that two show winners, Laurel and Bananas, were sitting there, whom they could potentially send in now to get rid of early.
Ultimately, Josh saved Bananas and Laurel by sending Cory and Jonna into elimination. Cory reminded Josh that he was his friend but keep doing this, and he would view it as a shot fired.
Cory defeated Brad in elimination, but Era 3 lost Jonna after Rachel defeated her. As Monsters and Critics reported, Jonna said she was “set up” after the MTV episode and called out the Vacation Alliance for reducing her chances of winning.
On Thursday, Bananas also reacted to Episode 5, as he suggested he executed a plan and used Josh to help pull it off.
Fans said Josh was ‘pathetic’ and ‘scared’ with his decision in Season 40
Josh regularly shares his thoughts about Season 40 on X. H shared a message about how his decision in Episode 5 was also because of his friendship with Rachel and making sure she’d face Jonna instead of Laurel in the elimination.
“while this whole edit revolves around mine and bananas. friendship Rachel was also down in the sand and I wanted to give her the best shot to stay,” he wrote.
While some fans saluted Josh for being a good friend or loyal to allies, others slammed him for his choice.
“Even Laurel knew the correct decision was to send her and Bananas down. My word,” a commenter replied, with another telling him, “Or you’re just easily manipulated.”
One commenter told him, “There truly never has been a worse competitor in 40 seasons.”
Another suggested that everyone knows Josh plays “a scared game.”
A commenter told Josh that Bananas “served the master class in manipulation,” and another echoed the sentiments that Josh is “so easily manipulated by Bananas” and “even he knows it!”
Another commenter posted a GIF of Patrick Star from the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon with a wooden slab on his forehead, making him unable to walk through an open door.
“josh sending in cory instead of bananas is the reason why his dumb*** will never win the challenge let alone make the final,” the commenter said on X.
Battle of the Eras is Josh’s sixth MTV season and seventh of The Challenge, with USA 2 included. As mentioned, he hasn’t reached the final in any of these seasons. Based on fans’ reactions to his decision in Season 40, he may have reduced his chances of getting there for the first time.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
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