Wes Bergmann Says He Put on 'a Schtick' on House of Villains Season 2 and 'Tied for First' with Safaree (Exclusive)

• The Challenge’s Wes Bergmann came in second place on House of Villains season 2 behind Love and Hip Hop Atlanta’s Safaree Samuels
• Bergmann tells PEOPLE he considers himself “the People’s Champion of season 2 of House of Villains”
• The reality star says his fake immunity card started as a prank: “I was going to watch it explode in their face”

Wes Bergmann blames himself for giving Jessie Godderz the idea to make him beg for the Big Brother alum’s tiebreaking vote against Safaree Samuels on House of Villains.

“The producer pulled us aside probably 10 minutes before the vote and she had to give us a really fluffy, meaningless pep talk, but that’s when it was dawning on me what was happening, so I had an idea,” Bergmann, 40, tells PEOPLE. “I think Safaree thought he won unanimously. I was like, ‘I really do think it’s tied.’ So then I mentioned something about it being a possibility to the other two guys — that was my mistake, because that gave Jesse 15 minutes to think about what he would do with the tie-breaking scenario.”

Bergmann and Samuels, 43, both received four votes from the eliminated villains and Godderz, 38, received zero. But he used the final moment on House of Villains’ Dec. 19 finale to make sure he wouldn’t be remembered for that. When host Joel McHale informed Godderz that he’d have to cast the tiebreaking vote between Bergmann and Samuels, the wrestler told the Challenge champ to “get on your knees and beg” for the win — and he did.

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“The options were 0% or 1%,” Bergmann says of winning at that point. “You got to hand it to him because he threw this Hail Mary to get some attention, and he did it and it caught. So he ends with this great moment, debatably the best moment he’s ever had on reality television. But we don’t get to celebrate a man that just got zero votes.”

Godderz ultimately chose his ally Samuels as the winner of the $200,000 prize. But the way Bergmann sees it, “I tied for first place with him and lost the tiebreaker to yet another bitter person who was not going to vote with me regardless of what had happened,” he says.

The father of 14-month-old daughter Lucy shares the origin of that fake immunity card, which castmate he thinks “was just f—ing mean” and his thoughts on The Challenge 40.

‘House of Villains’ season.2 finalists (from left) Safaree Samuels, Wes Bergmann and Jessie Godderz.

Casey Durkin/E! Entertainment

PEOPLE: When it came down to you, Jessie and Safaree, did you really think you had it in the bag?

WES BERGMANN: I’m not going to lie to you. In the several hours as we were preparing to go into that thing, I was counting the money. I thought it was going to be, as New York would say, a who-namimous decision. And that’s obviously an exaggeration. I thought I was going to get one or two, either bitter or confused people, but I am the People’s Champion of season 2 of House of Villains. 90% of the internet that watched this with a clear head has said I absolutely dominated that season and I am the champion, and that is what I went in there for. The money is nice. I will never be rich enough to where a $200,000 shot to the bank account isn’t effective. $200,000 is a big deal. But I came in there to steal the show and when the fans look back on this season, they’re going to remember me. I came in there to win the show. I did, just not formally. I have informally won House of Villains season 2, and not even the people that voted against me that would disagree with that statement.

PEOPLE: Do you think if you didn’t get down on your knees and beg Jessie for the win, you actually would’ve had a better chance?BERGMANN: In my head, it wasn’t like a “don’t beg” or “beg,” it was a “beg and make it at least sort of funny and have a 1% chance of it working” or start swinging. And I am too old to assault another human being. But that literally went through my head. I’m like, do I just start hurting him? And then I thought back to all the money. Not only would I have not won that game, I would’ve been sued. I think I made the right choice.

PEOPLE: Did Jessie’s actions further feed into your perception of how Big Brother players stack up against Challengers?

BERGMANN: We’re the NFL and they’re high school football. They’re good high school football. It’s probably like a Texan, Friday Night Lights situation, but I am the Kansas City Chiefs. My show is the NFL. I am Patrick Mahomes. It’s not comparable and quite frankly, House of Villains is Big Brother. Let’s be real. It’s the exact same game. And the fact is, I stepped into his game and he got zero votes and we did everything we could to carry him to the end. He was our layup. We brought him there for exactly that reason and he thought he had was about to win, and he just was not.

PEOPLE: Do you feel like you ultimately lost for playing so aggressively?

BERGMANN: Oh, did the villains not like being played aggressively with? Oh, poor little baby villains. Listen, I walked into that house and within 30 seconds, I already heard the word “threat.” It’s not like it’s any different than anything else that I do. I don’t get to sit back and do nothing. That’s just the reality of my situation. Had this been a little bit more of a Survivor-type jury, aka people that understand what you’re there to do and what the purpose of the game is and all this stuff, it would’ve been unanimous. But instead, they were like, “Oh, he hurt my feelings. He is the reason I’m gone.” I’m only there because I found a way to outsmart people and instead of people being like, “Okay, cool, good job, you beat me.” It’s like, “Oh, he beat me and therefore I’ll just…” It’s lame in that regard, but it was still a great experience.

‘House of Villains’ season 2 finalists (from left) Safaree Samuels, Wes Bergmann and Jessie Godderz.

Casey Durkin/E! Entertainment

PEOPLE: You also campaigned hard and Safaree did not. Did you ever consider not trying to politic?   

BERGMANN: Safaree is easily one of the coolest guys that I’ve met in the last year, and I hope to be friends with him forever. This man would be very good at Big Brother. He would be very good at The Challenge. His social game was better than anyone’s I’ve ever, ever played with. And he’s not doing that on purpose. He’s just that likable and funny. I am glad he jabbed me a little bit like, “Oh, I don’t have to campaign.” You want to know what he did instead? He gave a $5,000 fur coat to a drag queen right before she’s voting. So you could sit there and say, “You’re not campaigning,” all you want. That’s the ultimate campaign. And so shoot, if I knew that Kandy [Muse] was prepared to take bribes, I would’ve just given her $15,000. I would’ve given her $50,000. You can’t tell me that a $5,000 fur coat isn’t catnip to a drag artist.

PEOPLE: Do you hold any grudges towards anyone who didn’t vote for you?

BERGMANN: I have essentially nothing but positive things to say about all the other villains. Each one of them possesses, in their own way and their own personality, such things that I’m very proud to say that I know them about. Whether it’s humor or intelligence or how nice they are or whatever the case is. They each have some incredibly redeeming qualities. And I came out there to steal the show and with all due respect to everyone that I just gave compliments to, that’s how you stay famous for 20 plus years, is you do things that are memorable in a decade.

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PEOPLE: It didn’t seem like there was a world in which Kandy Muse would’ve voted for you, but were there any votes that went to Safaree that you expected to go to you?

BERGMANN: There’s a spectrum of how disrespectful some of them are. Like Teresa [Giudice], I think she was not taking the game into consideration at all. She just really liked Safaree better. She liked me, but she liked Safaree better and I don’t blame her. He’s more likable than me. I’m not really mad at Teresa. I think that when she was making the decision, the parameters of what she was judging were not correct. Larsa [Pippen] was just f—ing mean. Camilla [Poindexter] and Kandy, there is love and respect for me to them. They’re great. Us three were in the van on the way back to the hotel after all this went down. Kandy was like, “When I heard that there was a chance that it was fake, I thought about asking my friends to make me one and bring it over to the house.” They might not have used the word bitter, but they were like, “Yeah, we were totally just getting you back.” And that was very valid. I appreciated them telling the truth about that. The internet is going to refer to them as bitter for the next decade, and it just is what it is. I won and that’s all that matters to me.

PEOPLE: How and when did you get the idea for the infamous fake immunity card?

BERGMANN: I did this in the charity version of The Challenge close to a decade ago, and they cut it out and I used it as a prank basically just to laugh at somebody that was being mean to me. I put it in their peripheral and they found it and they played it, thinking they were going to have all this power, and then they didn’t. They got laughed at and it was fantastic. So I was going to do that again. That was the plan was, was that I was going to use it as a prank and I was going to watch it explode in their face. And then after we made it and I got in there and I started looking around, no one was being mean to me. No one deserved that level of prank. And then I’m sitting there holding it. I’m like, this is actually a higher quality production immunity card and necklace than what the Knock Blocker thing was. So I got greedy and I used it on myself successfully. Had I not used it, I would’ve been kicked out of the game episodes ago. So it worked. It was brilliant.

The ‘House of Villains’ season 2 cast.

E! Entertainment

PEOPLE: It does mirror the note prank that Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio pulled last season, and on The Challenge as well.

BERGMANN: It’s fair to make that comparison, but this is at such orders of magnitude more important and bigger to the game and better production value and hilariousness that it’s not even comparable. And then again, if you take the story that I just said, I’ve done this 10 years ago, which preempted any of his notes. And so if we want to do the family tree thing, it is a stolen idea from Survivor. So I’m not even the inventor of this. I’m now in the very small list of people that have faked one of these things successfully, which is ridiculous.

PEOPLE: Bananas also came in second on House of Villains season 1. He did Worst Cooks in America, and now you’re going to be on it. What do you make of all the parallels being drawn between you two?

BERGMANN: Bananas is the Christopher Columbus of the Challengers. He is very good in this medium and I understand why he can and should be put on absolutely everything.  He’s going out onto all these shows. And the ones that don’t work out, I’m just not going to do. And the ones that do work out, I’ll just follow in his footsteps. I do not mind. I also understand why the casting director is like, “For the next season, what’s like Bananas but not Bananas?” And then I get to come in and I’m as, if not more, proven as a television star, but with a very different personality. It’s not like Bananas 2.0 comes in. We’re very different.

PEOPLE: You certainly put on a show this season, lying about being in Mensa and passing the bar. Did you think of those things in the moment?

BERGMANN: No one called me on the fact that I said I’d passed the bar. And not just passed the bar, in 15 states! I don’t know if anyone ever has needed or wanted or has ever … But what I hope the people that are really paying attention, especially those that have followed me for a long time, know this is a schtick. I’m a little douchey and I’m a little cocky, but then I just dial it up to an 11 or a 12 when it comes time to, especially a satirical parody show called House of Villains that is meant to be a comedy. I’m just a giant troll, trying to be funny. I’m trying to entertain the viewers at home. It’s fun taking the viewer on the journey with me. I kept upping it and upping it and upping it, just waiting for people to call me on it. And they didn’t.

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PEOPLE: I have to ask about The Challenge as season 40 is nearing its finale. Any thoughts on who made it to the final?

BERGMANN: This has been a fantastic season to watch. I’m not going to lie. I don’t want to butter anybody up unnecessarily, but I have been thoroughly entertained by this season. They took all the best elements from things that they had invented over the last 20 or 30 years, and they plucked from it, including the cast members from all the different generations. To me, it was just a giant chef’s kiss. I also want to acknowledge, I obviously have a ton of FOMO, but it is a lot of fun to watch from my vantage point. I’m excited to see who wins because it’s going to be a big W for what I’m assuming will be two individual winners.

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House of Villains is streaming now on Peacock.

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