'The Challenge': Cara Maria Talks Elimination 'Chaos' and Teases Future Return to the Franchise

Champion Cara Maria returned to 'The Challenge,' but it won't be the last you've seen of her.

By Stephanie Downs

After a lengthy hiatus, one of the most celebrated champions in The Challenge history has made her return. On Wednesday night's episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, aptly subtitled "A Legend Returns," Cara Maria Sorbello entered the arena. To no one's surprise, she brought the chaos with her to the elimination round against Survivor winner Michele Fitzgerald. What did fans not get to see during that elimination? And where do things stand with Cara Maria and her longtime rival Laurel Stucky? PopCulture.com got the scoop while getting to catch up with the champion herself. 

As viewers saw, Cara Maria had some strong words for the contenders when she did enter the arena. According to her, there was much more that she had to say. She explained that she had a full "roast" for the group, even joking that the show was "saving up money for Season 40" with this cast. But, she said that the roasting was all in good fun, as she shared, "I have no beef with anybody. I don't know any of these people. I just wanted to have fun, and I think at this point, if I'm going to come back, I'm not just going back be like, 'Hi, I just love everybody. Let's play.' I'm going to come out and I'm going to razz them, I'm going to get a few laughs. I just like to cause chaos."

Cara Maria surely did cause chaos. Ultimately, she quite literally brought it when she pulled the "chaos" option and was able to choose who she wanted to face off against in the elimination. She ended up choosing Michele, saying at one point that her partner, Paulie Calafiore, who competed with the Survivor player on The Challenge USA, said that she was a "snake." Although, in Cara's own words, she was "just throwing stuff out there" and that she wasn't familiar with any of the women. She added that she "wanted so badly to stir up some drama for fun, for the fans to make them c— their pants a little bit, put them on the spot, and I wanted to make them call out another name." The champion added that if Michele actually said a name, she would have considered it and potentially chosen another person. 

Interestingly enough, Cara Maria calling out Michele — with a playful "orange shirt" comment — came one week after her rival Laurel did the same by referring to the contender as "purple jacket." Clearly, there's still a connection between the two rivals. What is their dynamic like in Cara's own words? She explained, "We are going to be rivals till the day we die, but there's definitely some kind of a connection between me and Laurel, so what's meant to come of it? Hopefully future Challenges, we'll find out."

Fans may be able to find out sooner than they think, potentially on a future All Stars season. Cara remarked how she was "half disappointed" that this episode was her "big return" and not on another Challenge season that's in the mix. The Vendettas champion had high praise for All Stars, so much so that she would "hesitate to ever do a full season again" of the flagship. She explained, "I loved how we were treated on All Stars, I loved the challenges we got to do. I love All Stars. It was the greatest step back onto the field that I got to have."

"With this All Stars that's going to come up, the whole point of it was just to give everybody who is extremely nostalgic and misses the Road Rules and misses that old school fun vibe, it's back," she added. "And even though I had a very difficult road, as one would expect, I have a lot of things that I'm proud of and I can't wait for everybody to see it." 

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on MTV. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for Challenge coverage all throughout Season 39. 

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