The Challenge’s Cory on Why He’s the ‘Best Who’s Never Won’: ‘My Numbers Speak for Themselves’

Cory Wharton has sparked debate by declaring that he’s the “best who’s never won” a season of The Challenge. In an exclusive interview with In Touch, he defended his stance.

“I think that’s what makes a debate great – you have people that are on one side and others on another,” Cory, 33, says. “I think my numbers can speak for themselves. I think a lot of the competitors know that too. I’ve been to – what is it … five finals in 10 or 11 seasons? I’ve come so close to getting that win, but I’m just off. And when I look at the people who haven’t won, the only other person I would put up there with me is probably, like, Leroy [Garrett]. No disrespect to Leroy, but I just think that I’m a better competitor than he is and he’s gonna say the same about me, probably.”

To confirm – including The Challenge: USA spinoff, Cory has been in five finals over the course of 11 seasons and has finished in second place three times. Meanwhile, Leroy has competed on 14 seasons – including The Challenge: All Stars spinoff – and ran six finals, with one second place finish.

Plus, Cory adds, “One of my third places should’ve been a second place. On Total Madness, I started walking because I saw Johnny [Devenanzio] get handed the check. Kyle [Christie] catches up to me and goes, ‘Is that done?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, you know, that’s over. Johnny won.’ There was no prize money for second. So Kyle looks at me, smiles, and goes, ‘Well, I’m getting second.’”

On season 40 of the flagship show, Cory fell just short once again after being sent home by Derek Chavez in what’s expected to be the last male elimination before the final. It all came down to a puzzle, with Cory failing to complete the cinderblock puzzle before his opponent.

“Derek’s good at puzzles – great at puzzles, I’m gonna say,” Cory admits. “He just seemed to have a better strategy going about it than I did. And, you know, I think the universe wanted him to win more than me, especially with everything that happened with his sister and things like that. But I’m just proud of him and happy that he got to show off his skills.”

Do you think puzzles will always be your downfall? I do. There’s only so much practicing you can do when you see a puzzle you’ve never seen before. You can try different strategies here and there, but it’s, like, one of those hit or miss things with me. … But I just think the more reps you do and the more practicing you do, you do get better. But I don’t know how to get that skill to where I need it to be.I just need a puzzle queen to help me get that win.

You recently had surgery on your leg – what’s going on there? During my elimination with Josh [Martinez] – the running from behind one – I tweaked my knee. Running in the sand is tough. It’s unstable ground. I already had a slight tear in the ACL, but after that challenge, I completely tore the ACL and did some damage to my meniscus. So now we’re in the process of taking care of all of that. It was just one of those things where I finally needed to take care of something that got worse on The Challenge. Running full speed in the sand, I just tweaked it and it was swollen and wasn’t great.

Did that injury affect your performance during the rest of your time on the show? 100 percent. I think we had the challenge where we were just going through tunnels, so it wasn’t a lot of running, so that wasn’t that bad. But even during the swim [challenge], I could feel my knee kind of, like, popping out and popping back in. But I don’t want to make the injury an excuse for this and that. Derek beat me fair and square. He had a better strategy, executed his strategy better. I’m really happy for him.

On playing the middle and not having a core set of allies: It was so tricky because a lot of the relationships were deep – like, people who have lived together or people who have done multiple seasons together. A lot of these people hang out outside of The Challenge together. If you don’t fit in that, you’re kind of out of luck. I knew that headed into this season I was going to see some eliminations. I didn’t expect to see four. But I just try to be as real and as genuine as I can be. A relationship I didn’t see happening was with Nehemiah [Clark]. Now me and him are like boys. And me and Cara Maria [Sorbello] – we’ve never worked together, but we looked around the room and said, ‘Well, now we’re number ones,’ you know?

Was there anyone you felt particularly betrayed by? I kind of wipe it clean. I think I had the best poetic justice when me and Josh got to go down there. He was the one person that said he had my back and I just never felt like he did. So let’s just go down in the sand and may the best man win. It was a sweet poetic justice moment. … It definitely fractured our relationship. It’s not like we were best friends before, but it just, like, kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth. In my normal life, I don’t need to be fake to people to be their friends. I have my family and I’m cool with that. I don’t have a problem with him – I like Josh outside of the show. But in the show, I’ve just learned that I can’t mess with him.

On returning to the show in the future: Every time I’m at the grocery store, out to the movies, whatever, fans come up and they say something to me and it’s always, ‘When are you going to win?’ That’s all I’ve been hearing. So I can’t wait to silence that noise and get my first win. We’re going to keep plugging away.

Will you try to do some politicking in the offseason? No. I mean, probably not the smartest thing, but I like to distance myself from the show once I’m off the show. I have three little girls. I have to be in their lives and it’s a little chaotic. … Maybe that’s my downfall, but I’ll be ready when it’s time to come back. I’ll be ready.