"Pride got the best of me"— Tony Raines opens up about The Challenge 40 exit

The Challenge 40 released its latest episode on August 28, 2024, at 8 pm ET/PT on MTV and Paramount+, which saw Tony Raines and Jodi Weatherton being eliminated from the competition. Tony nominated himself to go up in the elimination round, which made his Era 3 teammates lose trust in his willingness to compete.

In an August 28th interview with Variety, Tony addressed the whole situation which led to his his teammates not trusting him. He expressed his happiness in going home early and seeing his family again, but was disappointed as he couldn't go any further in the competition.

"Look, pride comes before the fall. And it’s a shame that in this situation, it may appear that pride got the best of me. It seems like it probably did," stated Tony.

Season 40 of The Challenge features contestants from past seasons divided into four eras, who would compete in the Era Invitational. The weakest contestants will be eliminated after each round, and the winning contestant will move on to the Challenge Era. The contestant who wins the coveted season will earn the prize money of $1 million.

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What happened in The Challenge 40 that led to Tony Raines' elimination?

In the third episode, the four eras were put up against each other for their second challenge in Vietnam.

The name of the challenge was 'Gladieater', in which two selected challengers from each era needed to race to dragon boats and then row around the entire island and proceed to eat a plate of Vietnamese delicacies like snakes, rats, pig brains, coconut worms, duck embryo, and boiled cow eyes.

After completing the above tasks, the teams then needed to place 40 shields in perfect order, which represents the 40 seasons of The Challenge. The first team to finish would be safe, while the two representatives of the team to finish last would go straight into elimination. Tony and Averey, chosen from Era 3, won the competition, while Era 1 lost and was sent straight into elimination.

This would mean that Era 2 and Era 4 would have to plead their case for safety to Tony and Averey. Josh from Era 4 had a conversation with Tony and claimed to return the favor if Tony doesn't nominate Era 4 contestants. Kaycee, a former Big Brother champion conversed with Averey in hopes of nominating Era 2 instead of their team.

Tony and Averey officially sat down with the losers of the competition and argued over who to nominate. Averey revealed that she doesn't intend to send Era 2 to the elimination competition as she had connections in that era, but Tony argued that Era 2 would not have any power in the game regardless.

Since Tony and Averey couldn't agree on a decision, the likely outcome would be that the host TJ Lavin would ask Tony and Averey to step up in the elimination round. Cory, from his own era, and Bananas and Laurel from Era 2 confronted Tony on why he would risk himself for strangers.

During the elimination, TJ eventually asked the Era 3 winners which team they wanted to send against Era 1. Tony and Averey admitted they couldn't come to a decision and were sent in the sand to compete by TJ. Averey revealed that she was angered by Tony's actions and believed that the latter didn't want to be there.

Averey won her bout against Jodi, but Tony wasn't able to do the same against Darrell and was eliminated from the competition, as all contestants on the sidelines helped Darrell by giving him directions.

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New episodes of The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras air every Wednesday on MTV and Paramount+.