Jordan Wiseley got his THIRD Challenge win during the Dec. 11 finale of The Challenge War of the Worlds 2! After switching teams in the middle of the season, Jordan took home the W on team U.K., alongside Rogan O’Connor, Dee Nguyen, and CT Tamburello. His fiancee, Tori Deal, also ran the final with team U.K. during the first leg, but was eliminated before leg two. It was a bit of a random assortment of players, and Jordan was admittedly worried about how they’d perform. “I’m pretty good at finals. Finals are my thing,” Jordan told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “Going really long distances and doing it quickly is my jam. And I knew Tori was ready to do that. But the whole question was…what’s going to happen with CT? Can Rogan even make it? We’ve already seen Dee fall out [while running] at the house. So, we were like…if we try to push the pace…how are they going to respond? But come final time, everyone delivered. I was so proud at the end.”
This was Jordan’s fourth time competing in a final, and he admitted that it was one of the easier one’s he’s taken part in. “Physically, it wasn’t the toughest one that I’ve had to do, just because it’s a team,” Jordan explained. “So, we’re at the pace of the team.” Jordan’s other finals were won individually or just with one partner, so this one definitely had a different vibe. However, at the end of the day, it was his favorite win yet. “As far as stature, winning with the group that we won with, and getting to do the entire game, virtually, with Tori…it was the best finals win, by far,” he said. “All of the cards were stacked against us, but the team performed amazing. Whenever we had to pull together, we did that. Throughout the entire thing, we were picking each other up and staying positive.”
This positive attitude helped team U.K. take the lead during the grueling first leg of the challenge, despite a 10-minute time penalty. “Based on our calculation, I bet we had a good hour, hour and a half on the Americans,” Jordan admitted. What the team didn’t see, though, was how much the U.S. team — particularly Paulie Calafiore — was struggling. In fact, Jordan said that he didn’t know just how bad things were for Paulie, who wound up fighting through the pain, until he watched the show back with the rest of us!
“I was so surprised,” Jordan revealed. “That was the biggest shock to me, of everything. We didn’t realize what was happening until we got to the [overnight] snake pit, which was when we could sort of feel out what our lead was. They got there maybe an hour after us. The first person who walked up was Zach [Nichols] ,and we came there from a swim, so that was understandable. Then slowly, you see the rest of the team, and no Paulie. So when he comes walking up all stiff-legged, zombie-like and pale, that’s when I knew…he’s not in good shape. I was so surprised.”
What was going through your head when Tori was the last to finish the puzzle and you knew she wouldn’t advance to the second leg? I felt like I lost when Tori lost. I guess I missed when Dee [finished her puzzle]. So when I finished mine and started walking away, I thought Tori and Dee were both still down there. I kind of shouted, like…take your time, babe! But I turned the corner and saw Dee standing there [finished], and my heart hit the floor. I asked Tori, straight up, do you want to take my spot? If one of us wins, we both win. But she was like…you have the best chance of winning. So I stayed.”
Despite your huge lead in the first leg, you only got a five minute head-start for the second leg, and team U.S. caught up to you guys at the last puzzle. Were you ever genuinely worried that you would lose? I’ve had this exact thing happen on other finals, where you put in all this work for the first 24 hours [and then it doesn’t matter]. We had put this pace on them that just defeated them. They were so demoralized when they came walking up to the snake pit. Had we gotten to keep that…it was over, not even close. I can’t even tell you the amount of anxiety that when through my heart when we were on that last puzzle of stage two. CT and I had both seen puzzles similar to this, but we did NOT have it. I was just waiting to hear the other team start screaming. So that was the most stressful part of the entire game.
Would you and Tori ever want to televise your wedding? It’s definitely an option. It’s something Tori and I have talked about. I think everyone’s really excited about Tori and I’s future, especially us. The number one thing is…Tori has to get the wedding that Tori wants. We’re doing this for real and this is for us. This isn’t for anyone else. So, as long as Tori gets the wedding she wants…maybe! We definitely wouldn’t say never.
Now that you have a third win, are you done with Challenges? Tori and I sat down and talked about it and we feel like our bodies feel really good. We feel mentally there. We feel very strong in our relationship, too. I think that’s one of the hardest things about doing a Challenge — the strain it puts on a relationship. But we feel really good. I imagine we go after a couple more checks. We’ll definitely be planning the wedding in between, too. I just won my third consecutive challenge, so I feel like I can talk some trash for a while now and be covered as a triple champ. Now, goal number one is to get [Tori] a championship!
