War of the Worlds 2Cara Maria and Tori fight about
Published on January 15, 2026 EDT Plus, find out why Laurel actually defended Michele's honor during Part 1 of the messy reunion special.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for part 1 of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion reunion.

Old wounds still haven't healed for some The Challenge champions.

While most of the season 39 cast gathered for part 1 of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion reunion, the five returning champs in attendance — Cara Maria Sorbello, Laurel Stucky, Tori Deal, Darrell Taylor, and Devin Walker — totally stole the show (is anyone surprised?). They roasted and supported the new champ Emanuel Neagu, runner-up Nurys Mateo, and the rest of the contenders, as well as fought about past seasons.

MTV

In fact, Cara Maria and Tori proved that time has not healed anything when it comes to their notorious War of the Worlds 2 rivalry. Fans remember that in 2019, the women began that season on the same team before Tori and her then-fiancé Jordan Wiseley defected to Team U.K. after Cara Maria and her boyfriend Paulie Calafiore rallied the numbers on Team U.S. to work against them. So when Cara Maria gave advice to the season 39 contenders who were salty about how real-life friendships impacted this game, telling them that nothing in the game is real and they should only protect themselves moving forward, Tori immediately called her out based on their storied history.

Tori pointed out that in War of the Worlds 2, Cara got to the final without ever going into a single elimination because she made a massive alliance with all her real-life friends. Cara shot back by accusing Tori and Jordan of working against her from the beginning because they didn't want another "power couple" at the end. Tori denied that, and both fierce champs left their feud simmering as the reunion moved on. This is one intimidating potential Rivals 4 pair.

Here are the 16 other most shocking moments from part 1 of the season 39 reunion.

MTV

How will that fight end? What other tea will be spilled? Find out when part 2 of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion reunion airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

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