The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras Interview with Paulie Calafiore
Folks, MTV gave me the opportunity to talk to Paulie after his elimination on Battle of the Eras Episode 2. I’m very grateful for the opportunity and the interview had some good moments. I will note that I only had 15–20 minutes to work with, so there was a lot of questions that I wasn’t able to get to. There is still some good gems in this interview.
In my opinion, this interview is best consumed via the YouTube video above, where you can see and hear all four of our faces and voices. Whatever you read below is an automated audio transcription, so it might be clunkier. However, I kept it available if you can’t listen to/watch a video or prefer to read. I’ll also have it available in podcast form on Spotify/Apple here:
Let’s jump into the interview:
Allan: Alright, everyone, we’re joined by the least controversial, most boring cast member in challenge history, 6-Time Reality TV Loser & former Rutgers soccer player Paulie Calafiore.
Paulie: *laughs*
Paulie: Oh, man. The 6-Time Reality TV loser. It’s getting up there. I’m becoming the Dan Marino of reality competition shows at this point.
Allan: You made it on six times, though.
Paulie: That’s fair. I’ll take the wins where I could get them.
Allan: You’re alongside other illustrious Reality TV names like Kenny Clark and such. You’ve all made it onto The Challenge.
Paula: We’ve all made it on The Challenge. Good old Kenny Clark. I’m glad that I’m in here with such a illustrious, you know, really, really, really, you know, prominent names.
Allan: What’s tough is that this is Episode 2. So the fact you’re here for the exit interview obviously means for people at home watching, you’ve lost. Again, unfortunately. What we got to talk about first, though, is your wardrobe, because that’s what everyone talks about your first time on screen, on both USA and on this season.
Paulie: *laughs*
Allan: Peopla are like, what the hell is he wearing? And the craziest part of it is you haven’t gone very far on the show, so we’re not even seeing half the wardrobe.
Paulie: Listen, the thing that I’m most upset about is how early I’ve gone on two of these seasons is because my wardrobe. I packed the wardrobe being like, alright, at this point, I’m going to start wearing this. At this point, I’m going to start wearing this. And you guys haven’t even seen a fraction of my closet.
Allan: Yeah, your post elimination-win wardrobe is crazy, and it hasn’t even been unlocked.
Paulie: Oh, my God. At this point, you know, good. I’m glad. I’m glad because, if the one thing that could keep people talking is my wardrobe and not my performance, I’ll take it.
Allan: Oh, do we got to talk about that? Do you want to jump straight to that?
Paulie: No, no, we could save it till the end.
Allan: Actually, we’re going to jump into that right now because we got some other stuff we’ll need to touch….
So at what point in the elimination did you know you were fucked?
Paulie: I would say, first impact. I got my bell rung, so I knew I was concussed. Basically right after that first impact. I knew I only really had one or two options. Well, three, but I kind of got rid of the third one pretty fast.
I was like, can I jump over him? Sometimes you get longer Hall Brawls, sometimes you get shorter Hall Brawls. This was a shorter Hall Brawl, and I did not think that I could get enough steps to be grounded and jump over him without risking him, like, clipping my knee, clipping my ankle, and risking a terrible injury.
Plus, he’s 6'6. So I was trying to do the math of: alright, if he gets down even half as low as possible, do I have a three foot plus leaping vertical jump? I’m like, on my best day, sure. Option two was, once again, if it was longer and I could kind of see where he was going to be lining up, could I sprawl back, try and make it a wrestling match in the middle of the Hall and try to tire him out and try to go round for round?
With it being how short it was, I was like, this guy’s a former Olympic sprinter. He’s going to be off the gate fast. My only chance is to try and get lower than him and hope that I’m not too low to compromise my strength.
To the kid’s credit, he got low. I didn’t expect him to get that low, especially after analyzing his first Hall Brawl he ever did. He went super high. So I was kind of banking on the fact that he was going to go with that same strategy.
After that first hit, I mean, listen, when you get hit by somebody that’s coming in 265…He wasn’t the same 200-pound Theo that I saw on War of the Worlds 1 and 2. You know, I was 170 at the time, so giving up that much weight, I felt it with that hit.
Allan: He’s so fast. Similar to Theo, when people talk about Fessy in these Hall Brawls, I’m like, you don’t understand that Fessy’s getting down the hallway faster than his opponents on top of being bigger than them. So you have to deal with the speed plus that aspect, so the margin for error is so small.
I do have a question, and it’s always been like a Hall Brawl theory I’ve had. Is there a rule that you cannot baseball slide into your opponent’s shin? Is that like, a rule? Because I’ve always wondered, why has no one just done it. I mean, obviously it’s dirty, and you would and you could hurt your opponent’s shin/leg, really bad.
Paulie: There’s not a rule against it, so it’s a good theory to have. I think the only reason why it hasn’t been done is because, you know, I think there’s a certain level of ethics that everybody goes into the Hall Brawl with. And, you know, I think everybody, when they’re at the end of the Hall Brawl, they’re like, this is a Hall Brawl
This is a Challenge staple. We got to give the people what they want in this. And what they want to see is two people running into each other full speed.
Allan: Definitely. I agree with you there. I’ve just always thought about it myself, because I’m 5'6 and slow, so I’ve wondered like, how the hell would I even win one? And that’s the only idea I’ve ever come up with. I’ve just never seen it happen. I’ve just assumed that it’s banned because it’s dirty.
Paulie: There was a thought in my mind before TJ blew the horn, because I saw how low he was lining up. I was like, should I just kind of trot in 3-feet and just stand here and wait to brace for impact? But I was like, man, you know what? There’s a lot of history here. I think. I think we should just run into each other as hard as we can and, you know, see who see who comes out on top. And clearly he did. So, I mean, I give him credit for changing up his strategy. Even afterwards, I was like, dude, I didn’t expect you to get that low. He was like, “hey man, my strategy was to take two steps and dive as low as possible and as hard as I could into you. He goes, cause you were staring down my soul like you wanted to kill me.”
And I was like, man, so if I would have just not stared you down like that, you wouldn’t have ran like that? He goes: “no, absolutely not.” I was like, alright, I’ll remember that for next time. I’ll give you butterfly eyes next time.
Allan: So what was going on between you two? Because obviously there was the beef between you guys on War of the Worlds 2. It continues on here, but if you’re on Challenge social media, during the time you guys were both not on the show, you guys were still talking on Twitter. At one point, you guys were even hyping each other up, with Theo being like: “Bring back the U.S. King of the Challenge, Paulie.”
So I just assumed that you guys had, like, buried the hatch and were friends. Yet suddenly on this season, the drama’s back.
Paulie: Yeah, I think that, you know, when it comes to people like me, when it comes to people like Theo, and Jordan has this mindset too. Even though Jordan and I were at ends War of the Worlds 2, and Theo and I were at ends War of the Worlds 2, we don’t really carry that into social media because it’s like, where is that going to get us?
And ultimately, it’s like, I do want to see people like that on the show. Right? I like those competitors. It gives me something to look forward to going into a show, and I think that they share the same sentimen when it comes to me. I mean, Theo sent me messages after World Champs, being like: “I had really nobody to argue with because you weren’t there.”
And, like I hate you as a game player. I hate Theo as a game player. Like, he’s an annoying fuck in the house, you know? But his banter on social media is funny. Like, Jordan’s a good guy. In the house, he’s a fucking prick. You know what I mean?
Where Theo and I are at is…we come in and we’re like, all right, are we going to do this now, or are we going to try and do what’s best for the team and handle this later? And then I think what ended up happening is, we were both like, “ah, fuck it, let’s just do it now.” Um, you know, like, it was.
It was. It was piking up, piking up, piking up. You know, there was a lot of conversations that happened between me, Michelle, Horacio, and you know, ultimately, when it came down to it, when I heard that Theo wanted me, I was like: “you fucking little prick.”
One of the things that I regret the most is on War of the Worlds 1 when I had the option to throw myself down against Kyle and just settle everything there. I listened to Cara, and she kind of talked me out of it, being like: “hey, you don’t want to do this, this close to a Final.”
It’s a decision that I regretted for a long time, because that’s not really me. And even though that was the smarter decision, at that time, I was sitting here being like, I’m not making that same mistake twice. I’m not going into this deliberation knowing that he’s been saying this and trying to play the Big Brother politics of like: “hey, everybody, this is why you should keep me on the team.” Let’s not think about a numbers game. I’ve got numbers, too. Josh has numbers, too. Let’s look at the team dynamic. Michele, you don’t have a number one guy on this team. I could be your number one guy on this team. Josh has Casey. Theo has Jenny. Horacio has Nurys. I was like, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this, you know, because I feel like that was being authentically true to myself.
When it comes to Theo, with me losing in the manner that I did, he may be alright with that, but at the end of the day, he just chased me down after five years or something like that. For me to go out like that, I’m not forgetting about this. But I’m also not going to be a sore sport about it on social media.
I’ll give him his flowers. He beat me fair and square, man to man. You know, I could sit here and, like, I look at every aspect of it. If it was a pole wrestle, I’ve got a good chance of winning using my wrestling, using my jiu jitsu. If it’s balls in, I can use my agility. I can use my wrestling. If it’s whatever the elimination was called with the ropes and chains and all that. That’s kind of a 50-50 toss up. In a Hall Brawl, I kind of knew my chances going into it were slim.
But in the way I think about things, it’s like if I already tell myself I’m going to lose, I’ve lost. So I don’t accept defeat until the loss happens. So in my head, I’m like: “I’m beating this kid. I’m running through him. I’m thinking of the best possible scenario.”
And sometimes you just get fucking punched in the face and, you know, you lose.Sometimes you lose bad. You don’t want to. You don’t want to watch the recordings.
Allan: You know you actually answered a couple of my follow up questions, because I was going to ask about the deliberation and stuff like that. So let’s move into, I think, what a lot of people really want to hear about next and that is your significant other, Cara. I’m going to… You know what, you’re Picasso. I’m going to let you paint. I just want to give you your space and I want say whatever you want about Laurel & Bananas, and their decision to vote in Cara into this elimination. Just paint for us, brother.
Paulie: Oh, man. I mean, strategically, it made no sense. But I already knew that it wasn’t going to look good for her just because Laurel was doing the most. She was doing the most in the house. To be honest, Johnny was kind of chilling in his room.
Laurel was literally going to every single person to make a decision. If I spoke to Michele, Laurel was on Michele right immediately after I was. If I spoke to Horacio, Laurel was talking to Horacio right away. She had the decision making power on her team. I knew the outcome that she was trying to get.
Bananas is a smart game player. So is he really going to fight back that much with Laurel on a decision that she’s going to push for when, if she’s the one pushing for that, she becomes the target. He could kind of put his hands up and be like: “you know, like, I’m not going to stick my neck out on the line.”
You know what I mean? So I understand his decision making from a team standpoint. I just think it was a dumb decision. I think it was a dumb decision, because if you really look at the challenge as a whole and a team dynamic, yeah, it’s going to go down to individual at some point.But Aviv has no history on the team. She was the easy option there. Cara being who she is, it made no sense to have her hit the elimination floor unless something was trying to be done to make sure that me and Cara hit the elimination floor at the same time. To try and either get both of us out or one of us out.
I get it. The whispers around the house were basically like, Cara and Paulie are here. You’ve seen what they’re capable of the last time they were on a season together. We don’t want that happening again, do we? And, you know, even though there was a lot of people coming to me and Cara and being like: “yeah, fuck, a certain group of people.” They’re going to sit there and yes, Laurel, and they’re going to yes, us.
Unfortunately, certain people were in power positions, and they made the moves. That’s just how the game shakes out.
Allan: You did a good job summarizing the play by play of it all. I’m going to push you further. Give us your honest opinion on Laurel, and her relationship with Cara. Give it to us unfiltered. We’re trying to drive up those clicks, buddy.
Paulie: Listen, man. Laurel’s relationship with Cara, I think it’s toxic. I don’t think they should be friends. I think Laurel has a really sleazy way of pulling Cara in and then beating her down. After All-Stars 4, Laurel was really friendly to Cara. Like, texting her all the time, calling her all the time.
Cara legitimately was like: “oh, my God, I think Laurel likes me. She wants to be friends.” I think her beating Cara finally, like, released this demon that she’s held for so long. I was sitting there, like, I don’t know, Cara. Like, be weary. I don’t think that it’s over.
Even coming into this game, Laurel was very friendly, very friendly, very friendly. And Cara was like: “Oh, I think I can make some headway with her. I think it’s going to be good. Wouldn’t that be a really cool thing?” Kind of like when Johnny and Wes broke bread, she’d be like: “maybe Laurel and I get that moment of breaking bread.”
And I was like, it’s not going to happen with her, Cara. The reason why it’s not going to happen is because the second that you were trying to be a true friend to her on All-Stars, she got defensive, she got angry, she started screaming at you, she started taking low blows at you.
It’s going to be the same thing here. She already has the entire house intimidated of her. I’m like, so the only chance you have is by showing her that you’re not afraid of her and you’re not going to back down in any capacity. Laurel…I think she needs to do a lot of inner reflecting, and I think she needs to let go of a lot of the demons that she has in there.
Allan: That’s what I want. That’s what people wanted. I knew you had some thoughts in your heart and on your mind, and I’m glad we could hear it here. Before we wrap up, though, just some general things to talk about. Who was the person from this whole elimination experience that surprised you the most? In your brief tenure there watching those eliminations, who was the person that surprised you the most, both positively and negatively?
Paulie: I would say Derrick, but it doesn’t surprise me that he did what he did. You know what I mean? Derrick just has something in them that’s just built different. He’s built for these eliminations, and he finds a way to win even when the odds are stacked against him. I give him credit.
Somebody I was a little … you know … I expected more from was Leroy against Tony. I watched Leroy and Tony’s elimination, and after the first time Tony hit him, Leroy was kind of like, I don’t really want any of that. Fast forward to mine and Theo’s elimination. I get concussed after the first hit, and I’m like, well, I’m just going to go in the second time, and I’m going to run just as hard, and whatever happens, happens.
You know, it’s stupid, but there’s a certain level of competitive honor that you need doing these things. I’d rather almost die in the sand than walk away and be like, alright, I held up on that hit, second time around. So he surprised me a little bit.
Katie surprised me with just how long she scrapped with Aneesa because she was so physically outmatched in that capacity. But she’s a little fighter.
Allan: That had to be one of the most electric moments I’ve ever seen in an elimination where the crowd was literally almost running onto the field when she put her legs around Aneesa’s neck. That was just fun to watch. I hadn’t been that surprised watching an elimination since Amanda scored the point on Nia.
Paulie: Yeah, I mean, I wish I could say I’m surprised about Amanda’s performance, but I’ve always given her credit for being very sneaky, athletic. So Amanda getting a point on Nia. I wasn’t really shocked at because, you know, even though Nia had the size advantage, that really only hurts Amanda in the defense position. But in the offense position, I expected Amanda to get points.
Allan: Those new Balls In rules, I don’t know. I’m not a big fan of them. Where all you gotta do is get to the second ring, basically.
Paulie: Yeah. At least make the first ring bigger, you know?
Allan: Yeah.
Paulie: Like it’s only five yards of space between the ropes.
Allan: Well, especially if you’re, like, the bigger person. You just gotta drag yourself to that second rope, and then it’s just.
Paulie: Or just step in and fall. Like, somebody at Theo’s height can step in and fall, and he’s in the ring.
Allan: It’s disappointing. I missed the old Balls in, and I know Cara broke her hand in the old Balls In, but like the physicality was part of the excitement.
Paulie: Maybe put some padding around the rims to avoid the breaking. (laughs)
Allan: Alright. What are your last words for this season? Well, you’re gonna be on social media, so you’re gonna have more words than this. But what are the last words you want to tell people in this interview about your experience? Something they should know about Paulie Calafiore.
Paulie: Honestly, the only thing I’m upset about is you didn’t get to see things more with me, Ryan, and Derek, because we were really honed in on working together and kind of getting something going. I think if I had a little bit more time, I maybe could have mended the relationship with Johnny and Cara..
But, you know, I’m done. For me, they don’t really highlight the fact of everybody that was kind of talking to make the elimination, both me and Cara going into the sand. So I’ve got a lot of vendettas for next time around, When I’m in my not give a fuck era, it’s a scary situation for everybody else. So that’s all I really got to say. You know, it’s going to be a great season regardless. You know, I’m wishing everybody the best. Theo, it’s not over. Vacation Alliance, it’s just getting started. And that’s it. You know, I can’t. I can’t really say much. I lost, so I’m a humble, humble loser. But next time around, you know, the daggers are staying out.
Allan: Wow. You having beef with people, that’s surprising.
Paulie: Shocker. Who would have thought?
Allan: At least you also got your Onlyfans promoted by Ryan. And in a way, Derek, before you went out.
Paulie: Absolutely insane. I never would have thought that there would have been the day that my onlyfans is getting promoted on national television, but here we are.
Allan: And that tweet you posted was even crazier. That sent social medi wild.
Paulie: I mean, listen, I’m known for a good tweet or two.
Allan: Well, it’s been great having you. Hopefully, you’re back for 41, 42, or USA 87, or whatever spinoff they have next.
Paulie: Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I think I’ve done enough to solidify myself to keep coming back, but you never know. I’m grateful for every call that the Challenge God’s give me. I’m always going to be myself when I come onto these shows, so I’m just here to entertain you guys.
Allan: Alright, well, you’ve been entertaining today. Good talking to you, Paulie.
Paulie: Alright, thanks, Allan.
