First Vanderpump Rules, now The Challenge. Pasta is causing issues all over the place. During the Tuesday, October 23, episode of The Challenge: Final Reckoning, Cory Wharton body-slammed Tony Raines after Tony threw out his plate of pasta. So, what was the real story? Tony broke it down for Us Weekly.
“What people don’t realize is the night we went out was the day that a challenge got canceled. We were all hyped and were really cranking it up. On the way back, everyone took their food to go if they had leftovers,” Tony, 30, told Us. “I was sitting next to Hunter [Barfield], Cory was across the aisle and he shows us this box of pasta that he has. He’s like, ‘Someone just destroyed my pasta, someone sat on my pasta and f—ked it up.’ I look over and without hesitation, think to myself, ‘Well, f—k that pasta,’ grabbed it out of his hand and chucked it out the window.”
Tony said that while he and Hunter couldn’t stop laughing, they didn’t realize that Cory was upset. “I was oblivious to the fact that Cory took that the wrong way,” he said. “Basically, that was the most expensive pasta he’s ever had in his entire life. It’s million-dollar pasta.”
After they got back to the house, Cory came after Tony. “It was, like, a sucker punch but it was body slam, so a sucker slam over a plate of pasta,” the father of two explained. “I just didn’t understand it, especially with him just finding out Ryder was his baby girl. He was coming in late in the game, had a great chance to make it … We did start these shows together. Our first show together was Bloodlines, we’ve done every show since together, but we’re not best friends. I’m not part of the TYB clique but we’ve never had issues.”
The slam looked worse than it was though, Tony said, adding that he’s “a tank” while Cory has “popcorn muscles.” Both guys were sent to a hotel for the night, which is protocol for the show after an altercation. While Tony didn’t do anything wrong, he was actually scared that he was going to be sent home.
“I was thinking in the back of my head that everyone really wanted to see [Johnny] Bananas and Devin partnered up and this is a great way for me to leave and make that happen. I was scared that they were gonna try to twist this,” he admitted.
When they returned to the house, Tony hugged Cory and told him they’d talk about it later. However, that never happened. “I felt like after the show, he would reach out to me and we would have that conversation with me but he never did,” Tony said. “As far as him calling me or showing any sign of remorse for his actions, I got none of that and that’s really sad. I figured he’d show more signs of maturity nowadays, and it seems like, to me, he’s still lacking that.”
Since Cory was sent home, that meant his partner Devin’s game was over. However, before leaving the house, he got into it with Tony’s partner, Bananas, as well. Devin followed Bananas around the house until he snapped and brought up Devin’s father, who had passed away just a few weeks before.
Tony stated that while he doesn’t think Bananas’ comments were right – “I can guarantee, if anyone brought that up to me in that state of mind, send me home, too” – he did feel that Devin pushed too hard.
“That’s bullying to the point where, this is a problem. That’s not OK,” he told Us. “[Johnny] tried his best to get away. I know the comments he made about Devin’s father, but look, when you push someone to that point, what do you expect? He was egged on.”
The Challenge: Final Reckoning airs on MTV Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.
