“It was irresponsible for me to continue, and without adding the variable of a child,” she tells PEOPLE of her choice to retire after ‘Challenge: USA’
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday night’s episode Challenge: USA.
Wes Bergmann took one last bow Challenge.
After being eliminated in Thursday’s episode of the series Challenge: USA — thanks in part to the voice of friends and colleagues Challenge vet Josh Martinez — Bergmann, 39, lost to survived’with Chris Underwood. Before going home, Bergmann, who is expecting his first child with wife Amanda Hornick, told his colleagues and host TJ Lavin that he plans to retire from the game.
“I’m not coming back. And that was a privilege,” Bergmann said from the Arena floor. “Everybody that’s doing this, they’re playing with everybody, like, I’m going to miss it all. Good bye.”
Wes Bergmann hoped ‘The Challenge: All Stars’ season 3 would be a ‘vacation…I was wrong’
Bergmann said in a confessional interview Challenge “he’s just a really big part of my life” and that he feels proud of the legacy he left behind.
The Real World: Austin alum detailed his decision on Xu (formerly known as Twitter) last month.
“It’s increasing entrepreneurial responsibilities paired with fatherhood (in the next month) — there’s no time,” he said wrote August 27. “Combined with the fact that I’m not doing anything to anyone and still have people slandering my name behind my back in interviews – I’m above this.”
Bergmann explained to PEOPLE that at the beginning of the season he felt disrespected by his teammates on the green team.
“It’s just the whole picture of how the green team — and some of them in particular — treated me, which was, ‘We’re going to put you in a corner. We will lie to you. Then you will come back very maturely and ask: “Why? And are we going to be able to get past this?” They’ll apologize. Then they’ll lie to me again and again and again,” triple Challenge said the champion. “Then I expect him to say in his interviews, ‘Man, I feel bad about what’s going on, but we have to do this.’
“Instead, it’s more like, ‘I don’t believe anything Wes says.’ They buy into the propaganda that Wes is a master manipulator, and I’m actually a guy who likes to work with new people and make new alliances.”
Bergmann dissects NOW playing season 2, how Martinez, 29, felt about being voted out and how he would approach a possible return to Challenge.
PEOPLE: You didn’t get off to a great start in Thursday’s episode when you were the only one to miss the baton in the men’s race. What happened?
WES BERGMANN: I didn’t win the high jump competition, which is certainly embarrassing, but at the time I couldn’t tell what happened. After watching it I stopped it because I was like why am I so bad? It went right through my hands, and it was a combination of sliding/jumping a little too far. I overdid it, I went a little too far and it got out of hand. But what some other guys have been able to achieve, [Johnny] Bananas and Fessy [Shafaat] specifically, I wouldn’t be anywhere near that. But it still stinks to lose immediately on the first – very unpleasant.
But you seemed confident in the elimination.
I’ve been in a bunch of stuff like that and I know I can go in and stay focused. I know there will be very little things they can throw at me that I won’t stand for. Statistically, I’m one of the worst people you can go up against, just because of my well-roundedness. No matter what you throw at me, you’re going to have to watch me from the sidelines, and I’m aware of that and I put that confidence into the game.
Wes Bergmann on ‘Challenge: USA’ Season 2.
Jonne Roriz/ courtesy of Paramount
So why do you think anyone voted for you at this point in the game?
One thing I have to give a little bit to Josh and definitely to Chris, there are my predecessors that I kind of hate because they feel the same as Chris but they don’t admit it. Not only does Chris take his chance and put himself in great danger—there would be less scary people to go up against—but he says, “Look, I’m just going to say what everyone thinks but no one says, which is that he is the best and that we must get rid of him.” That was brilliant. There were people in the past who attacked me, but they had to do it anonymously and secretly. He tried, he went after me, and I gave him his flowers. He beat me fair and square in a fair match, in a physical match. I brought it, and he only brought it better. He took out someone who was easily the biggest threat to win the final and that was smart.
And now, even though I’m retired, if I ever come out of retirement – which I haven’t – my strategy would be to come in completely out of shape. This is my only chance these days to reach the finals, because they see what I can do and know very well what I’m talking about. I have to come with 50 lbs. overweight. I’m going to start working on putting on weight right away and that’s the only chance I’ll ever make it to the end.
CT Tamburello returned with the “dad bod” and performed very well.
It helped him so much. I’m not comparing myself to CT — CT is a better Challenger than me. He is a freak of nature and a large man who can carry his body weight well. He’s smart and wins the game. He’s on another level. But do you know when he was super bubbly and young? He was enemy number 1! We would all gather in tucked away corners of the houses and discuss anything and everything needed to get rid of him. Then he got a little chubby and we stopped those meetings and he still beat everyone. Although he is on a different level than me, some of us will have to do just that.
Bananas do this very well. He walks up and is slow, grabs his back and gets out of bed. Whenever there are no cameras, he just makes fun of himself. It’s brilliant because it makes people less worried about him. Meanwhile, I’m just plugged in and running miles in front of their faces. And then obviously, I’m the smartest. I wish there was a way to temporarily injure my brain so they could stop worrying about my brain and my cardiovascular fitness.
I don’t think those fans would want that.
That’s why I said temporarily. If it was an ankle injury, but for the brain, that would be perfect for me if I ever did it again, like some kind of temporary amnesia or something. That’s my only chance at the moment.
Did you go into this season thinking it would be your last?
I came knowing that this would be my last. As for the schedule, I can no longer make it happen with my company. We are talking about several months [away]. It was almost impossible and irresponsible for me to continue without adding the child variable. The kid is definitely the last straw, but it’s not the biggest part of the cake. Ultimately, I might hire help while I’m away. People have traveling jobs like fathers. It’s just that CEOs don’t go away for two months to report to a Czech prison, which is kind of what we’re doing. I’m on the other side of the world with no phone, no internet, no e-mail. So it’s mostly work, a little bit of my baby, and then a little bit of – let’s be honest – what could I possibly accomplish with the rest? I won a bunch. I’ve been the face of this franchise for a long time. I have legendary status. I enjoy it, so that would be the main and only reason to come back.
Would you like to go further in the last season?
Of course. A sunset ride would have been fantastic, but when I saw how things were, I knew that wasn’t the case. Me [the Challenge vets] were basically set. We were brought in as actors, that’s what it came down to, because they didn’t really think we’d stand a chance. The fact that we managed to survive this long is actually even remarkable.
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Wes Bergmann on the 2010 film ‘The Challenge: Fresh Meat II’.
MTV
How did it feel when you found out that Josh was one of the people who voted for you?
It stank and made no sense. He is right. I would end up beating him with my hands tied behind my back, but so would all the other guys there, so I don’t understand what they would do by attacking me. A lot of Josh and I’s friendships have been thrown out because it’s boring. We play chess and hang out. We do jive, or we are. And this is evident from why a man cries while voting for me? My message to Josh, or really any Challenger: If you’re crying about voting for someone, you either should have been more honest with that person or you’re a bad person. If Josh ever gets to play again, which would surprise me, if anyone ever gets better than him, they have to think now, “That’s the way Josh plays,” which means they’re going to cut anyone they think is better than him, which is a long list.
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What will you miss most while working? Challenge?
There are many things that I will miss Challenge. Being in a game that lasts a few months, that goes on 24/7, it’s like brushing your teeth, you’re kind of working. While you’re walking down the hall, while you’re eating, while you’re on the bus, while you’re doing crazy, fun things that you’ll remember for the rest of your life, while you’re doing all those things, it’s a constant game. And that’s a box I’ll never be able to check by just joining my intramural rec soccer league down the street. Challenge is the only place to get that fix. The answer to that question is a book, so we’ll start with it.
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Challenge: USA airs Thursdays at 10pm ET on CBS.
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