The Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras Player Preview: Jodi Weatherton
The Challenge 40 female cast is ridiculously stacked and has brought back so many legendary women’s competitors, including the first-ever individual winner in Challenge history, Miss Jodi Weatherton. Jodi is a two-time Challenge Champion and one of the best athletes The Challenge has ever seen, and back in her day, she was a messy hookup queen.
Jodi is now in a new phase of her life. She’s a mom and a military wife who is always relocating. Just a couple of years ago, she was living in Germany, and now she’s living in South Korea! Even after all these years, Jodi remains in fantastic shape and is an outside threat to win it all.
Jodi’s Cheat Sheet
Introducing Jodi:
At 22 years old, Jodi debuted on Road Rules X-Treme, a season featuring multiple notable Challenge competitors, including Derrick Kosinksi, Kina Dean, Jill Zoboroski, and Ibis Nieves. Many players got voted off this season, but Jodi made it through the entire way.
Jodi would then make her Challenge debut as part of the Good Guys team on Inferno 2. She had a flirty bond with The Miz this season. In terms of competition, Jodi showed flashes of athleticism and seemed to have potential. However, she got thrown into an early elimination, and when she did, Jodi pulled a fast one on both teams by calling out Veronica as her elimination opponent instead of Tonya. In response, the Bad Asses team harassed Jodi for the “snake” move. In reality, it was a very clever move. Nonetheless, the Bad Asses did succeed in rattling Jodi, and in the elimination arena, Veronica’s mental toughness allowed her to pull off a surprisingly easy win. Looking back, Veronica’s elimination win over Jodi bolstered her legacy as a Challenge competitor, as Jodi would go on to kick ass in her next couple of seasons.
On The Gauntlet 2, Jodi was part of a stacked rookie squad, where she was one of their top physical competitors. She went to the Final without sniffing elimination and won her first Challenge Championship. Along with competing, Jodi got messy with the showmance side of things. She hooked up with Adam Larson on the first night, then had an emotional outcry one episode over feelings about Mark Long as they had a 2–3 week fling filming before the season. After that, we saw a friendship/showmance form between Jodi & Alton that went on throughout the rest of the season.
We’d later see Jodi return for The Duel 1, where she ripped off one of the most dominant seasons in Challenge history. On The Duel, Jodi won 5 out of 8 individual immunities, including sweeping the final three daily challenges to guarantee her spot in the Final. Even if players mustered up the courage to call out Jodi for elimination, they couldn’t because she was essentially safe for the entire game. Jodi was leaps and bounds better than the rest of her competition, to the point that the season felt like a battle for 2nd among the other women. Svetlana ended up being runner-up to Jodi. Jodi won 150k dollars and then dipped out from the franchise. She told MTV she wanted to move on with her life and never call her again. MTV listened because they probably didn’t want a season where Jodi blew everyone out again.
It wouldn’t be till 15 years later on All Stars 2 that we saw Jodi return. Do you want to know what she did once she got back? She won the first daily challenge. Despite being gone for over a decade and a half, Jodi immediately looked like the same athlete she was in 2006. During All-Stars 2, she won 4/8 individual immunities, two in the first half of the game and two during the partner portion of the game with Brad. Jodi did all of it with a giant target on her back as she got voted into the second elimination, meaning the moment she didn’t have safety, people were gunning for her. Jodi beat Sophia easily in elimination and knew from then on that she’d have to win to stay safe. In my opinion, Jodi is a unique top competitor in that she’s never given off the air that she believes she’s better than people, unlike certain other Challenge personalities. And yet people take her kind/mildness and use it as an angle to attack her because, in all honesty, they aren’t beating her physically, so they target her emotions. In one of the crazier displays we’ve ever seen, Ayanna ate Jodi’s salad in an attempt to rattle her.
The high-pressure environment of the house and the pressure & expectation to win definitely got to Jodi by the end of the season. She & Brad made massive brain-farts during the season’s Mini Final daily challenge, then DQ’d in the last daily challenge to send themselves into elimination. There, they faced Darrell & Janelle, who beat them by using a much more efficient strategy in the elimination. Had Jodi & Brad kept calm and used a little more brains, they would’ve gone to the Final because they outmatched their opponents physically. It was a tough loss to swallow for Jodi upon return. Still, she won half the daily challenges after a 15-year layoff!
We’d get Jodi back again for The World Championships. She was partners with Benja from The Challenge Argentina, which put her in a tough position as the Argentinian players got targeted first. Straight up, Jodi & Benja were not a great team. He had minimal experience competing prior; Jodi was always a good solo player, but communicating and leading is a bit tougher for her, and doing so with someone whose first language isn’t English amps up the difficulty. And then you add in that they were facing a bunch of stacked. Even with all that, Jodi & Benja won an elimination (they beat Nia & Rodrigo) and made it farther than expected. Jodi showed some personality as she was one of the few players to go against the Johnny Bananas crew. That may hurt her going into Season 40, unfortunately. Ultimately, Jodi & Benja lost an elimination to Troy & Kaycee, but at least they got to watch Bananas get eliminated before them.
Skills and Physical Strength:
I think Jodi is one of the Top 5 female athletes The Challenge has ever seen. She’s fast, strong, is ridiculously good in the water, is a fantastic climber, and in any of the extreme sports or heights challenges, she always seems like a natural. Now, Jodi’s problem-solving skills aren’t always the best. However, Jodi is a safe bet to win in anything that requires raw athleticism or fitness.
The only red flag for Jodi regarding the physical aspect of this game is that her two best seasons (Duel 1 & All Stars 2) came against significantly weaker female casts where she was the strong physical competitor by leaps and bounds. On S40, Jodi is facing a stacked deck with a bunch of elite athletes and people at their peak fitness-wise. Jodi has gotten a bit older, and the question is, can she keep up with them? How does she adapt to playing the game if she’s not the best athlete on the field? Which leads into our next portion.
SSMP (Social, Strategic, Mental, and Political) Game:
Jodi has typically played this game where she is looked at as the top competitor that people want to take out before the Final or, in a team aspect, they want to keep for their Final. If Jodi doesn’t have people gunning for her as the big target, then she should do well in the game socially & politically as she is a nice person. Additionally, when it comes to Era 1, she is a massive asset compared to Katie & Aneesa.
Going into this season, Derrick, Brad, and Darrell will be allies for Jodi in this game. I wonder what her relationship with Rachel will be as they are the two alpha women from their era, and the last time they were on a season together, the Mean Girls gave Jodi grief on Inferno 2. From World Championships/All-Stars, I believe Jodi is on good terms with KellyAnne and Jonna — from those, I’m also led to think she isn’t on the best terms with Bananas, Tori, and Jordan.
Jodi’s weak spot is always the mental game. She’s not great at puzzles or games of memory, and if she gets frazzled, she’s susceptible to a DQ.
Eliminations & Winning Potential:
Most of Jodi’s elimination experience has come in the last couple of years, and even then, we have yet to see Jodi compete in any of the traditional eliminations. On World Championships and with Brad on All-Stars 2, her eliminations came down to teamwork and communication. Jodi somewhat struggled with this as she thrives as an individual.
If Jodi goes into a physical or endurance-based elimination, I like her chances. I’m probably betting on her opponent if she gets a puzzle or a carnival game — simple at that.
Can Jodi win? Sure. Jodi will face a major uphill political battle this season and must improve her puzzle skills to compete with the other elite women in the Final. Nonetheless, I do believe Jodi has the cardio to kill a Final and the heart/drive to win. I don’t think Jodi is one of the Top 5 contenders this season, but I can picture her winning because she is a phenomenal athlete.
