In the world of MTV's The Challenge, eliminations are a strange wild card that can get rid of some of the best players while allowing weaker players to use their unusual strengths to get further in the game. Even the GOATs of The Challenge know to avoid elimination, because no one can ever know what will happen.
They tend to be diverse when it comes to concepts and executions too. They can be intellectual, strategy-based, strength-driven, or just an test of what one person can endure. Grueling challenges is what The Challenge is good at, and these are their 10 most grueling eliminations of all time.
Reverse Tug Of War - The Gauntlet 2
Reverse Tug of War might not be the most physically painful elimination in Challenge history, but it's certainly one of the most grueling if the competitors are even remotely evenly matched.
The game relies on brute strength as well as strategy, but strapping two people together and having them compete to get past their own opposing finish lines is not easy. It's difficult enough to drag dead weight, but pulling someone who is pulling away from you with all their might? It's a simple but strenuous elimination.
Knot So Fast - Invasion Of The Champions
This is yet another great game that forces challengers to utilize their strength, dexterity, and strategy skills all at once. While the elimination itself typically clocks in at under an hour, that hour is some of the hardest labor any competitor has to do.
The fundamental idea is that each competitor weaves an insanely thick and heavy rope through a jungle gym, trying to make it as difficult to untie as possible, for 20 minutes. And when the 20 minutes is elapsed, they switch, and whoever unties their opponent's knots first is the winner.
Exile - Fresh Meat
The Challenge will always come up with eliminations that truly force the challengers to display every game skill that they have, but there will never be any that are more grueling than the actual mini-marathons that have become an elimination staple.
One of the earliest and toughest versions of this was the Exiles in the first Fresh Meat. In this elimination, the Fresh Meat teams were given bags that equaled the weight of their luggage and sent off on on a race. And of course, depending on how much stuff they brought, the Exile could be insanely grueling.
Banded Together - Battle Of The Exes 1 & 2
No elimination should be easy for anyone to win, but this Battle of the Exes elimination gem seemed like it was almost impossible to win. Like many of the best and hardest eliminations, the concept was simple.
The couples were attached by a rubber band that was attached to a pole, and the teams had to reach a pole on the other side of the Dome and hold on to it for 5 seconds to win. The problem is, the rubber band is so tight that it's nearly impossible for both teammates to crawl through sand in order to get to the finish line.
Ankle Breaker - The Gauntlet 3
So in theory Ankle Breaker was very similar to Reverse Tug of War, but in spirit it was far more brutal. It was the same basic premise, two competitors are attached to one another and aiming towards opposing finish lines, however what distinguished Ankle Breaker was, you guessed it, that they were attached at the ankle.
Honestly this is one grueling elimination that seems downright dangerous, because putting hundreds of pounds of pressure and strain on a single body part, possibly for hours, is not a good time for anyone.
Pole Wrestle - The Duel
The Challenge has done this elimination or eliminations that were obviously inspired by it many times, but it's easy to see why. It's an oldie but a goodie, and although if two contestants are mismatched it can be an easy win, it can be one of the most brutal eliminations for challengers who are.
Many Pole Wrestles have been memorable and brutal, but the insane match between Challenge beasts Wes and Derrick really showed the potential brutality of this particular game.
Crazy 8 - Vendettas
The concept behind Crazy 8 is easy. A figure 8 is hanging in the center of a ring, and someone has to run, grab the ring, and hang it back up on their designated pole. And again, like most eliminations, the difficulty depends on the competitor.
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But the duel between Joss and Derrick showed just how tough this elimination can be, and these two walked out of the ring looking worse than most professional fighters look when they leave an MMA cage.
Thai Rise - Invasion of the Champions
An elimination where the challengers essentially have to beat the hell out of each other is always going to be the most physically painful kind of challenge, but they're not necessarily the most grueling. The Thai Rise elimination was probably one of the physically less painful eliminations, but the level of endurance that it took to win it is pretty impressive.
The goal of this elimination is to get to the top of of the Tiger Cave Temple, grab a bag of rice, and race back down. Except the Tiger Cave Temple is famous for it's never ending, super strenuous set of stairs.
Water Torture - Battle Of The Seasons
Most people can endure a somewhat normal state of existence for a very long time, even if it's uncomfortable. But submerging yourself in water for any extended period of time is unbearable. It comes as no surprise that an elimination with the word "torture" in the title is a grueling one, but Water Torture is exactly how it sounds.
One teammate in a duo is assigned to solve a puzzle, and the other teammate, attached with a basic pulley system, is hanging upside down and has to pull themselves face first into a tank of water in order for their other teammate to be able to reach the puzzle.
Weight For Me: Blackout - Fresh Meat 2
Weight For Me is the kind of perfect storm of grueling eliminations. It's a long trek, it involves carrying a heavy, unwieldy weight, and to make it all even crazier, it takes place in the pitch dark night of British Columbia.
Honestly, this elimination round was probably more difficult than a lot of finals in The Challenge, and it's no surprise that Landon and Carley, one of the winners of this insane elimination (who were borderline delirious by it's end), wound up winning the entire game.