Devin Walker’s time on The Challenge: Battle of the Eras came to an end during the Wednesday, October 16, episode. After his team, Era 3, lost the daily challenge, he and this week’s female target, Tori Deal, were automatically sent into elimination.
The decision of who they would go against was left in the hands of Rachel Robinson, who won the challenge as the sole remaining Era 1 competitor. She had to choose between Era 2 (Ryan Kehoe and Laurel Stucky) and Era 4 (Kyland Young and Kaycee Clark). Since Devin, 35, and Tori, 31, were in the “vacation alliance” with Kaycee, 36, they wanted to avoid going in against Era 4 at all costs. However, Rachel, 41, ultimately chose Kaycee and Kyland, 33, as Tori and Devin’s opponents.
“There was absolutely zero chance [she wasn’t throwing Era 4 in],” Devin exclusively tells In Touch. “Rachel was salty at me from my chamber appearance where Tina [Barta] and CT [Tamburello] had gone directly in and it was either me and Tori or Nehemiah [Clark] and Emily [Schromm] [going against them]. Emily tried to call us out for making deals and I explained to them that Nehemiah had offered me a deal that I didn’t take. … Tina brought that back to Era 1 and Era 2 and essentially poisoned the well. So, at that point, Rachel’s mind was made up on putting the strongest pair possible against me and Tori. Honestly, it made sense for her game. … I don’t blame her for it.”
Still, the “vacation alliance” tried for a Hail Mary by having Josh Martinez try to sway Rachel’s vote since they’re friends outside the game. When he wasn’t successful, he took some blame from his alliance members. This followed his decision to go against their wishes earlier in the season by working with Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, leading to questions about whether or not Josh, 30, was an asset or liability to the alliance.
“I think that Josh did spread himself a little thin in this particular season,” Devin admits. “I think he knows that. … There was a lot of carryover from [The Challenge] USA [season] 2, which I wasn’t on, so I didn’t understand the ins and outs of it. … And I guess there was a situation with Bananas and Josh where he really did feel like he owed him one. My only issue is you gotta say that if we really are your alliance. You gotta tell us certain people are off the table so we can act accordingly.”
Devin adds that he was “fine burying the hatchet” with Bananas, 42, if he knew it was going to help his alliance in the long run, “but that’s just never a conversation [he] and Josh had.”
Bananas and Devin have a long history on The Challenge and their on-off feud was reignited this season when Bananas warned Michele Fitzgerald to be wary of Devin amid their budding relationship. However, Devin says that the drama actually began before that happened.
“He tried one of the oldest tricks in the book – and it didn’t work – which is to tell multiple people that you have obligations outside of the game that you have to get home to,” Devin explains. “[That way] they don’t bother you because they’re under the assumption that eventually you’ll just kind of fizzle out [and go home]. He tried that on me very early in the game and I said, ‘I don’t believe you.’ You’re not going to leave after three weeks. I know you.’”
Devin says he warned Bananas, “If you’re [lying and] still here after three weeks, then I’m gonna help you leave after six,” and that he told his frenemy, “You can take this back right now. I do not believe you. But if you’re gonna die on this hill, then if you’re still here at the midway point, I’m gonna help you leave.”
After that conversation, which Devin says was the “catalyst” for their reignited feud, Bananas “knew I didn’t take the bait, so he had to figure out a way to maneuver around that. So he tried to get in the ear of the people [Michele] that I was closest to.”
He also accuses Bananas of only trying to work with Josh because he “thought that he could beat” him in a final. “That’s a really hard thing to tell somebody like Josh,” Devin shares. “To be like, ‘Josh, listen, he’s just playing with you because he thinks you’re bad.’ It’s a tough pill to swallow, but that’s what’s happening. We just play two different styles.”
The episode ended with Kyland beating Devin and Tori beating Kaycee in the elimination, but Devin’s not closing the book on a return in the future.
“I don’t want to leave this franchise on an L, that’s for sure. I might have one or two more in the pipeline,” he says. “The first thing is you gotta get asked to go, so that’s step number one. There’s a lot of wrongs I feel like I need to right. I kind of knew coming into this season it was going to be a wash in terms of, like … not my dedication … but you gotta want it bad to win this thing. And coming off the win [on Ride or Dies], in retrospect, I wanted to win, of course, but I didn’t want to win enough to not get in a relationship. I didn’t want to win enough to get out of bed when people were spreading rumors [to] confront them about it. I didn’t want it bad enough. So if I come back, I gotta make sure I want it bad.”
