Wes Bergmann reveals how The Challenge: All Stars 3 'turned into a war' for him
After competing on 14 seasons of The Challenge in which he's never been able to fly under the radar, Wes Bergmann was looking for a change of pace. He took a little break from the franchise after the emotional way he was eliminated on Double Agents in 2020 when the majority of the house, including players he considered to be good friends of his, betrayed him. Now, a year and a half later, he's decided to give the All Stars spinoff a chance. He figured it would be a much different environment since most of the cast on the Paramount+ spinoff (premiering today) hadn't played with him before, so he'd have a clean slate and could actually enjoy himself while competing on a season without being targeted early for once. That's why he had high hopes going into All Stars 3.
But while Bergmann was hoping for an easy and fun season, All Stars 3 was no picnic for him. Not only did he arrive in Panama to discover that everyone on the cast had made at least one final in their past seasons — a Challenge first! — meaning the competition was higher than ever, he also once again found himself targeted for what he considers to be unfair reasons.
Below, EW got Bergmann to preview the upcoming season of All Stars 3, why he had such a tough time with the cast, what this means for his future on The Challenge moving forward, and more.
Laura Barisonzi/Paramount+
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Last time we talked, it was after your tough elimination loss on Double Agents. You weren't feeling positive about returning to The Challenge because of how your exit went down. What inspired you to come back for this season of All Stars?
WES BERGMANN: Double Agents was debatably the most disappointing in the way that I felt that I was treated by the fellow cast members. To a certain extent they're allowed to do that, use whatever tactics they need, and they did, but I think that they crossed the line. I've gotten a slew of apology phone calls begging for forgiveness, and I have provided forgiveness, but not forgotten. I needed to take some time off because, honestly, it was a hit to my mental health and my trust in humanity. I took that time off and I felt like All Stars would be like a great rehabilitation center for me to kind of reinvigorate me into The Challenge world.
And for a little bit, it was, and then pretty much within the first couple of days of being there I realized I was in everybody's crosshairs again, just for different reasons. I'm right back in that same exact boat that I was every other time I show up to the flagship show. I've got more of an uphill battle than just about anyone that ever shows up to a season of The Challenge. That's a shame, because I've given more to The Challenge than just about all of them, and with that comes rewards and they're jealous of those rewards. It's a frustrating situation because I love The Challenge, I give a lot to it, and I want to show up and play a fair game. I'm just not really afforded that opportunity.
Who reached out to you after Double Agents to apologize? Did that affect your game on All Stars 3?
It's a different crew. The All Stars people don't need to speak for the mistakes that the Double Agents people made. I mean, it was a crew that formed the Losers Alliance. They didn't call themselves that, but they were going after "champions," so therefore the opposite of a champion is a loser, and those losers formed a loser tribe, and then they shot their arrows at the other winners. And they were successful at getting rid of some, and then ultimately the biggest winner of them all beat them all in that season and they remained losers.
When they got home, they had to mentally come to grips with some of the bad human moves that they made which resulted in some half-hearted apologies that were sent my way. All of them were half-hearted because very few, if none of them, were public. They made these very, very internationally publicized mistakes and wanted to get away with a 15-minute phone call or a 15-sentence text message. But, again, they are by default losers, so I don't expect their apologies to be like that of a winner.
I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing at how you keep calling it the "Losers Alliance."
I mean, it is what it is. Webster's dictionary would agree with me. I'm just using science to define this.
Laura Barisonzi/Paramount+
What did you learn from your time on Double Agents that affected how you played this season?
I didn't learn anything. Human nature got the best of the Losers Alliance and they put me in a spot that really sucks and I hate how Double Agents went, but the Losers Alliance is still losers, so neither them nor I learned anything. But I am excited to get amongst a new group and at least attempt to start fresh and clean.
What were your expectations going into All Stars 3, especially since this is your first time on a season of All Stars?
I just wanted to play a clean game, I wanted to stay in the back, I wanted to be funny, I wanted to enjoy myself for the first time in a while. I had no real drive to win. I obviously wanted to try, and I wanted to do well, but I mostly just wanted to be in the crew and have fun. I found out very, very quickly that that just wasn't going to be the case. It stinks because I just wasn't welcome with the type of open arms that I was hoping for. A lot of them had the vibe like, "Hey, this is our show, not your show. You're not allowed to be here."
There were lots of comments that people either got caught saying behind my back, in text messages that were sent to me, or in subtle ways that they accidentally alluded to in conversations to my face, where they felt like I didn't belong because I'm a member of the flagship show and because I'd already won a bunch. They felt like I was taking the air time from them. Not everybody was like this, but a large percentage of them were just not happy that I was there — and I understand, but it's more my show than theirs.
It is kind of weird that they'd feel that way about you when others from your original Real World: Austin season have been there on every season of All Stars so far. You absolutely count as an All Star on every level.
I know. But especially for the people that were on season 1, they kind of all fell under this illusion that it was meant for people that hadn't been on in a while and were there just to be really nice to each other all the time and play it fair to the game as possible and just run it out at the end, and that I was going to come in and I wasn't going to be able to play that type of ball. But I was. I was willing to play any type of ball necessary to allow me just to enjoy myself for a couple of weeks.
But they really had bad attitudes about the whole thing, and because of those attitudes it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy where when you are worried about someone stealing all the air time so everyone points their guns at you, then all of a sudden you just gave me all the air time. Everything they were fearful of ... if they had just ignored me, I would have not done anything. Swear to God. I would have sat in the back, I would have slept to the end, and everything would have been just fine. But instead it turned into a war. It wasn't the vacation that I was hoping it was going to be.
What do you think is going to surprise fans about the way you approached this season?
I think the best thing is that the Wes that everybody will not be surprised to see is going to show up. I'm going to do everything. I came in hoping to play the most chill, clean, nice, fair, straightforward game that could have ever been played, but then I was crossed so early and so hard by so many insecure and jealous people that I then said, "F--- it," and every last thing that people know me for, I brought out in full force. It made the trailer, and I'd forgotten saying it, but it was true: once I had been crossed as badly as I had been, I basically said, "Screw it, I'm going to play the nastiest game of all time."
Incredible, I cannot wait to see that. Looking at the cast of All Stars 3, who were you most worried about reuniting with or competing against?
It's impossible not to note that Jordan is there. Him and I have butted heads politically and physically in just about every game that we've ever played against each other. I could sit here and rifle off Jordan's bad qualities for the next hour, so I'm going to skip that, I think everyone understands those. But then he's as close to a professional triathlete as it gets. And a triathlon is about as close to a final there is. So while I go back to my home and I get back to business, he essentially goes home and he trains for finals — even though that's not what he calls it when he's out training, but that's what's happening.
The man always was good at finals, and then he spent the last three or four years essentially training for finals, unbeknownst to him. If this guy gets in a situation where your cardio and running are tested, which is, in fact, tested quite a bit on The Challenge, he's going to have a giant upper hand, especially in the most important test of them all, which is at the end. That fact definitely didn't go over my head.
And then you've got the Bash Brothers of Derrick and Darrell, who kind of play in unison with each other. Even though I think that we're at a nice little truce, you can't really play with those guys. No one can. They just keep their cards so close to the vest, they don't make any risky moves, therefore if you're the move that is least risky to them, you're going to meet your demise. And then that crew has a handful of pawns that surround and orbit them, so it's not like it's just those two guys that I'm going up against — it's those two guys and their four or five cronies.
Laura Barisonzi/Paramount+
Did you train any differently for this season than you have in the past?
I lifted a bunch of weights. I was in incredible shape going into it. But I was in incredible shape and very ripped going into Double Agents and that didn't matter. So all I can do is I lift weights because it helps me sleep better, I like the way that I look naked, my wife gives me more perks of marriage the more ripped I am, which is embarrassing but true. And then there's this fun little side benefit of I get stronger and therefore I have better advantages in some of the games. So I went in pretty darn ripped. All the girls were saying that I had the best body there by far, especially when they were comparing me to Jordan. So I thought that was quite the compliment.
Well, congratulations on that.
Thank you.
Who on the cast were you most excited to work with?
I was very excited to work with Nehemiah and Melinda. That's a brother and sister for life, and I'm also throwing Brad into that as well. I consider them family. They're as close to blood as can be. Getting the honor of playing with them again, I was very much looking forward to that.
Who on the cast surprised you this season with how they performed?
In a good way or a bad way?
In either way.
Sylvia and Kailah are going to come out really, really good. I don't think anyone's going to be surprised that they performed well, but I think that they perform at a letter grade even beyond expectations — Sylvia in particular. Those two did a really good job.
Now that you've competed on All Stars, what are the chances we'll see you back on the main show?
I mean, the odds are really good.
That sounds promising!
Yeah. Listen, I want everyone to pay attention to how I have every tool in the book required to be a Challenger, and I mean that both on the TV side and the performance side. The likelihood is high I'm going to be the funniest guy on the show. The likelihood is high that I'm going to be the most important political figure of the show. The likelihood is high that I'm going to be a threat in a lot of the daily challenges. Basically everything that a viewer could ever want to watch on their TV, I'm going to bring. I hope that quite a few players that are aiming for the level of success that I've had in the game sit down and watch this show multiple times in a classroom setting and learn from one of the best to ever do it.
The Challenge: All Stars 3 premieres Wednesday on Paramount+.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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