According to Brad Fiorenza, he once again wasn’t in the best headspace when he competed on The Challenge: Battle of the Eras.
Brad was part of the legendary Era 1 team on the 40-person cast, including other MTV OGs such as Chris “CT” Tamburello, Tina Barta, Mark Long, and Rachel Robinson.
After appearing on multiple installments of The Challenge: All Stars spin-off and his mercenary guest role in MTV’s Season 39, he appeared as part of MTV’s flagship show for his first full-time season since Final Reckoning.
However, his time competing on Battle of the Eras got cut short due to his lack of strategy and success in the elimination event.
Era 3’s Cory Wharton defeated Brad in a game that involved throwing balls at speartips pointing out from a wall. Cory managed to get more of the balls he threw to stick on spears and eliminated all the balls Brad had to win the event.
That sent Brad home early again, ending his time on MTV’s The Challenge, similar to All Stars 4: Without an appearance in the final.
Brad says he came into Season 40 dealing with another ‘traumatic experience’
In addition to Brad, Era 3’s Jonna Mannion was the other elimination on Season 40, Episode 6. She and Brad appeared in an interview with Parade’s Mike Bloom on YouTube to discuss their experiences from MTV’s Battle of the Eras.
Brad indicated it was a tough time for him again, mentioning he’d been working with a therapist before his return to MTV’s show.
“Prior to Season 40, and a lot of my castmates know this, I was unfortunately going through another traumatic experience that was probably a little bit worse than All Stars 4, unfortunately,” he shared.
“I went four full nights, almost five nights, with no sleep due to jet lag,” Brad revealed.
Jonna said that “the adjustment period was hard” once they got to Vietnam.
Brad said he didn’t have any sleep medication and tried to use relaxing music to get himself to sleep. However, Jonna said it was noisy in the house with all the people making it difficult.
“Just to get back to your question, it was another challenging season for me,” Brad said.
Brad gave an update on his situation with Emily after their Season 40 showmance
Although Brad didn’t reach the final on Season 40, he established a meaningful connection with castmate Emily Schromm during Battle of the Eras. Their relationship became one of the stories revealed throughout their time on the show until Emily got eliminated right before Brad.
During the recent interview, Mike asked Brad to discuss his and Emily’s relationship and how things had been going since filming ended.
The former Real World: San Diego star indicated that he began daily meditations to express gratitude for things in his life before getting to Season 40. He continued with them once he was there and would go out by the pool at sunrise. He often found Emily there doing the same.
Brad said they established “rapport” over that shared experience and began to get closer and “hooked up” while filming for Battle of the Eras. However, their showmance didn’t extend beyond filming because they don’t live near one another.
“We are still really good friends. We’re not romantically involved anymore, but I will say she’s a beautiful person. She’s a beautiful energy. I appreciate her and the energy she shares with the people around her,” he said of Emily.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
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