The Challenge: Battle of the Eras features an epic cast of 40 competitors divided between four groups.
Each group features 10 iconic stars from an era of the MTV competition series, many of whom are Challenge legends.
They include multi-time champions and finalists who have performed well on the show, such as Veronica Portillo, Mark Long, Cara Maria Sorbello, Jordan Wiseley, Chris “CT” Tamburello, and Johnny Bananas.
While 2012 Battle of the Seasons winner Zach Nichols reacted to potentially being the “biggest snub” from the cast, he’s also reacting to the cast list.
In a clip on social media, he criticized Amanda Garcia as part of the Season 40 cast, leading to her firing back with remarks about him and his wife.
In another series of comments, he discussed one era’s “weakness” and revealed several women from the cast he would want as a teammate for a final.
Zach called out Season 40 group’s ‘biggest weakness’ but praised two legends on their team
Four teams will participate in Challenge Season 40: Era 1, Era 2, Era 3, and Era 4.
Era 1 includes the show’s earliest competitors and cast members, such as Brad Fiorenza, Derrick Kosinski, Mark, Darrell Taylor, and CT.
Rachel Robinson, Jodi Weatherton, Katie Cooley, Tina Barta, and Aneesa Ferreira are the women of Era 1.
When discussing the team on his Zach Nichols Podcast, Zach said he felt the “weakness” of their 10-person team was “unfortunately, the females because it’s not as solid.”
During his podcast video clip on Instagram, he mentioned two of Era 1’s women he felt were among the best to compete in The Challenge: Jodi and Rachel.
“Jodi is a beast. One of the best to ever do it,” Zach said, adding, “She’s a two-time champ, but she won a Duel, which is an individual game. So it meant she was the best girl on that cast.”
“And Rachel won The Gauntlet, which obviously is a team game, but The Duel 2, she beat all the guys,” he said, adding, “She was truly the first solo winner that didn’t get paid for it.”
Zach revealed three Season 40 women he’d choose for a final
“Those two, solid as they come. I would run a final with or be a partner with those two in any challenge. Actually, Jodi and Rachel, if I had the whole cast of Challenge women in front of me- minus maybe Cara, I would choose them first,” Zach said.
Interestingly, that particular clip doesn’t mention Laurel Stucky as a pick with Cara, Rachel, and Jodi, although the clip was a shorter video from the full podcast episode on Patreon.
The former Real World: San Diego star invited Cara and Laurel to the Zach Nichols Podcast. They discussed their previous MTV seasons and All Stars 4 in separate podcast episodes. Zach was among Laurel’s former castmates who praised her All Stars 4 win.
During his seasons of The Challenge, he had several women as partners, including Zahida Allen for War of the Worlds, Jonna Mannion on Battle of the Exes, and Amanda on Final Reckoning.
As mentioned, he recently blasted Amanda as a Season 40 competitor, calling her “trash” and saying she was only there to provide drama. She’s part of an Era 3 team that includes Jonna, Nia Moore, Tori Deal, and Averey Tressler.
Amanda fired back at Zach’s remarks and included comments about castmate Jenna Compono, now his wife and the mother of his three children.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras premieres Wednesday, August 14, at 8/7c on MTV.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
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