During The Challenge: USA, Survivor star Sarah Lacina wanted a way to showcase her competitive abilities and began announcing some bold intentions to her castmates.
In Episode 8, she was looking for a way to prove herself and add more money to her personal bank account since she wasn’t qualified for the final.
The only ways to add money were by winning daily challenges, which Sarah hadn’t done, or earning money in eliminations. Sarah had been to one elimination alongside Leo, but the team they defeated only gave them $3,000 to split. That put Sarah at $2,500, and she still needed another $2,500 to qualify for TJ’s final.
Throughout the first seven episodes, The Algorithm assigned each cast member a new random partner for the episode. That changed in Episode 8 when TJ Lavin told everyone it was now an individual game.
With that, Sarah had a chance to win the daily challenge and qualify for the final but got edged out by her rival Angela Rummans. Adding to that was the fact it was a men’s elimination day.
However, Sarah announced to her castmates that she wanted to go into the elimination and prove herself, making history on The Challenge by defeating a man in the elimination. Her castmate, Leo Temory, recently commented on those bold claims.
This report will include spoilers for Episode 8’s elimination results.
Hall Brawl elimination made The Challenge: USA debut
In The Challenge: USA, Episode 8, viewers saw Ben Driebergen and Angela Rummans win the daily challenge, getting the fastest overall times for the men and women. They edged out Sarah Lacina and Leo Temory in the competition.
Meanwhile, the slowest man in the daily event was going straight into The Arena, and that was Big Brother star, Enzo Palumbo. He’d also cut his leg during the daily, resulting in several stitches for the injury.
Later, the cast went out to a bar, and a scene showed Enzo talking about his injury to Sarah and several other castmates. Once he walked away, Sarah began talking about going into elimination against him to make Challenge history.
That came up a few more times during the episode, but ultimately, it didn’t happen. Ben and Angela sent Leo into his third elimination, this time as an individual, and when they arrived at The Arena, it was Hall Brawl.
Unfortunately for Leo, he was outsized by Enzo, who defeated him in two-straight rounds, sending the Amazing Race star home from the competition.
Leo comments on Sarah’s Hall Brawl claims
While appearing on Rob Has a Podcast for an exit interview (below), Leo was asked if he thought Sarah could’ve won Hall Brawl against Enzo. Leo laughed for a bit before answering.
“You see, I love Sarah. She came to compete, and unfortunately, she didn’t get chances to showcase her competing, right? So it was a wild thought for her to go up against Enzo, but being a Hall Brawl, no, she wouldn’t have won,” Leo said.
“Like at that point, it’s straight physics, you know? MMA has different weight classes for a reason, right? Enzo had 60 pounds on me. When I saw that, I’m like, ‘Well, I’m out,'” he said in his exit interview.
He said he had some game plans going into Hall Brawl, but the runway was shortened, making the strategy of trying to go low difficult. Ultimately, he said the only competitors who would’ve fared well against Enzo would’ve been in the same weight class as him.
It’s unknown if Hall Brawl will return for a women’s elimination, but Sarah still seems eager to prove herself competitively based on teasers for the upcoming episode. If the classic Challenge event shows up again, she could even volunteer herself again to showcase her abilities.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.
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