Cara Maria talks The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion elimination: 'I wanted to cause chaos'

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion episode 12, "A Legend Returns."

Cara Maria Sorbello wanted to "cause chaos" in her long-awaited return to The Challenge. And that's exactly what she did in her special elimination appearance during season 39's Battle For a New Champion.

The two-time Challenge champion made her highly-anticipated return after a four-year hiatus from the franchise in Wednesday's episode, and the house thought she would compete in an elimination against either Ravyn Rochelle or Colleen Schneider. But Cara Maria ended up pulling the chaos choice in the Draw instead. She had already asked the women who weren't voted into the elimination — but specifically singled out Survivor winner Michele Fitzgerald — who she should choose as her opponent if it's not Ravyn or Colleen, and since she wasn't given an answer, she picked Michele for not having the "balls" to say someone's name. However, while Cara Maria dominated the physical leg of the elimination (moving giant, heavy puzzle pieces across the sand), she struggled with the puzzle itself, allowing self-proclaimed "puzzle queen" Michele to come in from behind and ultimately win the whole thing, saving both her spot in the game and $10,000 from the prize pot.

"I'm so sad I lost! F---!" Cara Maria tells EW. "This is my epic return and I failed. Ugh. But I still went out there and I had so much fun. I loved roasting the s--- out of everybody to welcome them to The Challenge. I had so many jokes to razz everybody and get some personality out of them. I wanted them to talk s---. I had so much fun coming in and then [what happened] just haunts my dreams."

She remembers commiserating with her boyfriend and fellow Challenge competitor Paulie Calafiore after she finished filming her elimination. "I was at the hotel and I'm like, 'Paulie, I'm a loser! I lost!'" she says with a laugh. "And he's like, 'Cara, want to talk about it? I f---ing went out on a beanbag toss, alright?' But the Challenge eliminations are always hit or miss."

Cara Maria is no stranger to eliminations, with 13 wins and six losses over her storied career, so she's seen every kind of one-on-one challenge imaginable. But she wishes she could have competed in something more physical that some of the other returning champions got earlier this season. "It wasn't just a straightforward Pole Wrestle — although of course it was for one Challenger," she adds with a laugh, referring to Kaycee Clark. "But I don't count this as a loss. This is not on my record. But I think it's important in keeping you humble. I'm back in it, and I'm just so happy to be back. There are learning lessons to everything."

As for the way in which she chose Michele — someone who has been driving all of the social politics of the entire season and has been constantly safe as a result — as her opponent, she smiles. "I wanted to cause chaos," Cara Maria says. "I'm always going to fight my ass off, always. I'm never, ever going to follow the crowd. I'm always going to do my own thing. And the most important is I'm going to have fun while I'm doing it."

After the way she lost War of the Worlds 2 and her resulting unintentional break from The Challenge, Cara Maria loved finally getting back in the game, even if it was just for one elimination. "I was just so excited to do an elimination again, and I one million percent thought I was going to win whatever it was," she says. "I was ready to just kill everybody and then I even saw what it was and I was like, 'Definitely still going to win.' And then I did it and my brain went into dummy mode. I was totally f---ing fried. Brain was dead."

But she's still looking back on this experience in a positive way and re-learning a valuable lesson for the future: "Never underestimate anybody that you go against, and never overestimate anybody you go against, because it's always going to be you against you," she says. "You have to do the best that you can do, regardless of who's on the other side. Walking into this, I'm not going head-to-head physically. If they had put me on the other side of something physical, I would destroy everybody up there for fun. If there's a mental component, could be your day, could not be your day." She pauses, then adds with another laugh, "But give me a Pole Wrestle! Don't make me think!"

Now that fans have finally seen her return to The Challenge in season 39, Cara Maria can't wait for what's to come in the future. "It's just a huge, huge weight off my shoulders, let me tell you," she says. "I really want to win again, I can't help it. But I'm not going to do the ass-kissing to get there. I just have have to do it the hard way." Spoken like a true champion.

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

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