by Gina Scarpa

Thanks to an alliance of several young or first time players, teams like St. Thomas were able to make it far this season on The Challenge. Trey and Laura made an early exit, but Robb and Marie pushed hard and almost made it to the finals. Arguments and fights with other teams put them on the outs and they were thrown into the arena for elimination, losing against Las Vegas. We talked to Robb today to find out the status of his relationship with Marie, what happened with his alliance, and who he wouldn't mind taking a swing at.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: The St. Thomas team headed to Turkey for The Challenge not long after filming The Real World. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
A. Robb: Terrible thing! That doesn't even come close to being a good thing. Because it was such a short layover, we only had a couple weeks to train. I've never seen so much weight be thrown onto my lower abdominal region just from the carbs and beer I was drinking. I had the shakes for like week, because I stopped drinking, but no. We didn't get to train super hard. Me and Trey weren't that close coming out of St. Thomas. We didn't resolve a lot of the issues that me and Marie had either.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You guys were part of the superalliance with San Diego and Cancun but started to drift apart from them as the season went on. What happened?
A. Robb: You know what? It started off... I don't even know who was pulling the strings. You look at the first two challenges and San Diego won one, and Cancun won one. Me and Marie drifted towards them. Marie was in the bedroom upstairs and was always with Ashley and Jonna, but I slept downstairs in the poorhouse where Dustin, Alton were and then I got close with them and Chet. We just started drifting and drifting. I don't know why everything got so kerfluffed that night when Marie pushed Sam.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You and Marie seemed to work really well together during The Challenge. What was the status of your relationship?
A. Robb: Truth be told, we left St. Thomas... it was so long ago! It honestly feels like it was three years ago. We left St. Thomas somewhat together and then, when I started getting in shape, her aunt and uncle... really great people... we stayed with them for a few weeks. We went into Turkey together, the entire time we were there, we were together. We worked well together because we kinda knew how to talk to each other, sans the Abandon Ship challenge. We were in a relationship, I guess you'd say.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Marie and Frank were close for most of the time out there, but he really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. What was your take on him?
A. Robb: You know, I think it's tough because I think Frank does get a bad rap. He was made to look a certain way in the San Diego season and The Challenge. He's passionate and intense, and if he thinks something, he's going to let you know about it. Living with him, you get used to it. It was like, "Hurricane Frank comin' back around to piss some people off."

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Well, you and Marie came pretty close to getting kicked off The Challenge by getting into some fights with people. If you could hit someone once, and not be kicked off for it, who would you take a swing at?
A. Robb: Looking back on it, in this current state I'm in now, I didn't leave with any enemies. I said goodbye to just about everyone, minus Sam. Bitch. No, we're cool. If I could've hit someone, maybe just throw one Zach's way.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: That water elimination challenge seems so difficult but both you and Dustin did very well with it. Was it tough to leave so close to the final?
A. Robb: You know what? I've been playing sports my entire life. The Challenges weren't super difficult. Truth be told, I was a little shy going in there. It's a little overwhelming. I didn't even really know anybody. Other people that were there, they knew who was going and did some research. I didn't really have time to do all that stuff. It was like meeting 28 new friends. My big thing was the political side of the game. That's one thing that I'm glad Marie was there for. I could carry us physically but she was good at that side of it.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: So would you go back and do another Challenge?
A. Robb: Yeah, I was talking about it a couple days ago. When I got thrusted into this Challenge, I wasn't ready. Now, I've been working out and eating actual food for a while. I've gained 20 pounds, all good weight. I don't smoke anymore and I think I'd do a lot better, physically. It's nervewracking and there's turmoil, but it's so much fun! The challenges are cool. When you drive up and see that crane hanging over the water, that's just rad. For that aspect alone, to see how I'd fare... I'm a little upset. I wanna win some money!

The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on MTV.

(Image courtesy of MTV)

Follow Gina @ginascarpa