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Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio scored his seventh win on The Challenge: Whole Insanity, which aired in 2020, and after taking almost three years off, he’s able to go for quantity eight on The Challenge: Ride or Dies. Johnny is partnered together with his longtime buddy, Nany Gonzalez, and stated that she was an enormous a part of the rationale that he determined to come back again. “[Winning] has eluded her for therefore lengthy and I felt like her greatest shot at lastly profitable can be with me,” Johnny admitted HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “I couldn’t decide a greater individual to wish to compete subsequent to and help and assist cross the end line than her. She deserves it a lot. That lady has put in a lot effort and time through the years. It gave me a motive to wish to compete and win apart from my very own egocentric causes.”
When Johnny received Whole Insanity, he was in a six-season drought following his notorious choice to steal his associate’s cash on Rivals III. The Whole Insanity win “broke the curse” for him, so the potential of serving to Nany get her first W was the brand new motivation he wanted to return as soon as extra. Plus, he admitted that Whole Insanity took lots out of him “bodily, mentally and emotionally,” so the break was obligatory.
“I had ripped off 13 seasons in a row,” Johnny defined. “To not point out that after profitable my seventh one, as if the goal on my again wasn’t sufficiently big already, it was now going to be rattling close to unattainable to maneuver round the home with out being focused out of the gate. So I assumed stepping away for a little bit would profit me in plenty of methods. And I needed to understand the present once more and sit up for doing it, somewhat than simply it like a monotonous job. I needed to step away and take a while to reestablish my love for the franchise.”
Whereas filming Journey or Dies, Johnny celebrated his fortieth birthday, and stated it was a milestone that can convey out a unique aspect of him this season. “You’re going to see a little bit little bit of a unique model of me,” he dished. “I did plenty of soul-searching within the time I took away, and simply via different modifications I’ve made in my life. Look, clearly I’m by no means going to lose that mischevious nature of mine. I’m by no means going to not wish to stir the pot and never wish to ruffle some feathers. However I’m positively doing it in a little bit extra of a grown up and mature approach.”
Johnny additionally identified that this will likely be his first season on the present as a single man in “fairly some time,” and teased that there could be some “onscreen sparks flying” for him. “I simply needed to verify if that was the case and if that’s what occurred, I’d take the extra grownup strategy to it,” he defined. See extra of our interview with Johnny beneath!
You and Nany have been companions earlier than [on ‘Exes II’], did that offer you a bonus this time round? Oh yeah. We each, from a social standpoint, have the identical methodology about how we navigate the sport and the way we navigate the home and the way we play a social sport with out us even having to speak. She’s not somebody I’ve to fret about doing one thing or saying one thing silly that’s going to jeopardize us. She’s been on the sport lengthy sufficient. When you will have a associate and are working with somebody and also you confide on this individual a couple of technique, it’s at all times the largest concern that that’s going to get out — that they’re going to say one thing or open their mouth after they’re drunk and jeopardize your sport. Together with her, I didn’t have to fret about that. It was good. I had somebody I knew I might belief and depend on and I didn’t have to sit down there checking in to verify we had been on the identical web page.
On how being partnered with Nany benefited his sport: These final two years I’ve taken off, she stayed on and made the finals and has continued to ascertain friendships. She’s courting Kaycee [Clark] now, who clearly has plenty of ties in the home to the Large Brother crew. So from a social facet, coming in, it was virtually as if I used to be in a position to are available with some built-in alliances that I wouldn’t have had if I wasn’t paired up along with her.
Her having these connections and the social sport that she did, it actually helped to neutralize plenty of the potential points that I used to be going to have with folks. Any time I stroll right into a Problem home, there’s going to be a large goal on my again and I’m going to attract plenty of consideration. Coming into this season, had I not been paired up along with her, proper out of the gate, issues would have been tougher. However being partnered with Nany helped neutralize plenty of these potential points I’ll have had.
On the rookie vs. veteran dynamic this season: You’re clearly going to gravitate in the direction of individuals who you’ve labored with up to now and who you already know. It’s a unique world we’re dwelling in as of late, although. The vets used to outnumber the rookies and the sport form of at all times went the identical each season — we’d outnumber and torture them till they had been gone after which we’d run the present. The panorama is totally totally different now. All these newcomers and rookies are right here and we’re those who’re outnumbered! It’s virtually like we form of have to affix forces, as veterans, to guard the home. It’s cool as a result of it provides us one thing to combat for. You be a part of these alliances and band collectively and work collectively, not out of need or want, however out of want. It’s going to make a extremely cool storyline and energy dynamic for this season.
Did you are feeling rusty coming again on this season? Once you’re within the routine of going yearly, or generally twice a yr, that’s form of a part of your rhythm and also you keep in that rhythm. Getting out of that and all the things shutting down due to COVID and the world altering, I questioned plenty of issues about my potential to come back again. Was I going to have the ability to carry out on the identical psychological and bodily stage I had up to now, or was it going to get the most effective of me? There was plenty of query marks there. I used to be actually curious to see how I used to be going to carry out, not simply socially, but additionally bodily.
Did coming again gentle a fireplace in you to wish to compete once more or do you see an finish in sight? I didn’t notice how a lot the present and the franchise meant to me till I got here again. I’d say this season, simply based mostly on the way in which it went down and the way in which I carried out, actually did reignite the aggressive flame that burns inside me. If anyone on the market hoped they’d seen the final of me or that this is able to be my swan track, they higher maintain hoping.
The Problem: Journey or Dies premieres on Wednesday, October 12 at 8:00 p.m. on MTV