Challenge Vendettas Player Preview: Rogan O’Connor
Meet Rogan.
The three things he needs in his life are good sex, Nando’s, and his mom. Food, family, and women, how could you find a person with better priorities in their life?
Rogan is coming to the the Challenge from MTV UK’s Ex on the Beach. He was one of the first “true” stars of the Ex on the Beach franchise. Rogan entered the show from the get-go of season two and had the girls buzzing. In the first episode he had multiple different girls in his lap. What makes Rogan special is his charm. In these small moments of realness, he could sell you almost anything. And at other times if a guy gets in his face, he can stand tall and flex his muscles. Which he has a ton of:
According to his modelling profile from many years ago, Rogan is 6'0, and the site had him at 180 lbs, though he looked much tinier. If I had to guess, he is in 220–235 area currently. Rogan is easily going to be one of the biggest men to ever debut on a Challenge in a long time. Even though Hunter was a mini-Hulk he is still only 5'7 compared to Rogan who has almost half a foot on him. Could his size actually be a detriment to him? Or will he be able to bulldoze his competition?
Skills & Physical Strength: Rogan is a personal trainer and takes the label seriously, unlike some former personal trainers on the show (looks at Cory, Vince, and Dario). He outlines his daily routine when not doing shows is three workouts a day. His workout consists of morning cardio workouts, middle of the day lifting, and night cardio workouts. Rogan is not only focused on being massive, but on being functionally fit. He truly loves competition and does body building competitions to feed his competitive spirit (and to look good).
Rogan chose not to do another Ex on the Beach season after his first two as he wanted to focus on his fitness career and do physical competitions. When he got the call for the Challenge, it seemed like the perfect mix of reality television, sport, and fitness. He could seriously move his fitness career forward by being a good athlete on the Challenge.
It is Rogan’s job to be able to compete with the other heavyweights (LeRoy and Zach). He needs to his role and then be able to show he has endurance, speed, and strategy. His body might get in the way of his game, or it could elevate him.
Social, Political, & Mental Game: His charm, his looks, and his muscles give Rogan a natural social game. The Challenge MTV universe is one big orgy where guys and girls pass each other as frequently as they cut their hair. Because of this the longer tenured players stop hooking up due to the lack of new quality meat in the system. Girls will be into the accent, the muscles, and his game. Guys will be friends with Rogan as he will be spending most of his time in the gym. He is also on the show with Joss Mooney, one of his best mates.
The political and mental game is the big unknown for us. Based on interviews, Rogan has matured a bit from his Ex on the Beach seasons. Then you look at the Twitter spat he got in with Kyle Christie that got him cast as his “Vendetta” will make the game interesting. Rogan is cocky, hopefully not too much so.
Eliminations & Winning Potential: The format this season either kills or helps rookies massively. When MTV put out the teaser for EW before the season, they described the game format as people winning eliminations puts others money inside the giant pot of money for the final. It’s like the Ruins with a twist. Because of this, you want to send the same people to elimination, and more than ever you want to keep the best players in the game for the final.
The amount of rookies (10 total, 5 guys and 5 girls), allows Rogan to either form an alliance, or individually try and stay under the radar. It will be hard for someone like Rogan to stay under the radar with his muscles.
Nothing would be funnier than to watch Rogan make the final and have a CT/Zach scenario where he dies in high altitude weather. Regardless, his strength will carry him as far as it can. Rogan needs the unknown intangibles in order to succeed on the show. We can talk about winning once we see him compete.
Overall Rating: 77/100
