Playing her way! Tina Barta had “no strategy” whatsoever when returning to The Challenge universe for the first time in 15 years.
“I’m like a bull in a China shop trying to go in. I have no strategy and I think that trying to go in with a strategy will frustrate you more because the game is always changing,” the Road Rules alum, 40, told Us Weekly exclusively on the latest episode of the “Watch With Us” podcast. “They always keep us on the edge of our seat. That’s part of the fun, that you have to constantly reassess how you’re doing it. That’s for the people who are coming with a strategy. I just don’t.”
That said, no one wants to go against Tina in a physical competition. During her last time on the show — which was in 2006’s The Duel — she was disqualified for punching Beth Stolarczyk.
“I will say I do have a tendency to get very aggressive. … I’m not very proud of that side. I get a little too aggressive and I get a little too rough and I know this about myself. So, I’ve been trying figure out how to participate and not go overboard, where I’m like getting kicked off because you know, I punched a b–ch,” she said. “I mean, that’s not good for me. It’s not a cute look but it happens. It was real. … I don’t think I’m the only one who was happy that I did that.”
Beth, 52, competed on season 1 of All Stars, but didn’t return for season 2. Tina, however, wouldn’t have had a problem if she did see her former nemesis on a future Challenge.
“I don’t let [people] get to me like that for so long. I don’t have any problems with being on [with] any of them, but I think it’s more, they would have a problem going on with me than me going on with Beth because I just let things go and I’ll forget,” she explained. “I’ll forget that, ‘Oh, you still have resentment toward me 17 years later,’ and I’m like, ‘OK, no. Tell me why I would be resentful or why I would have negative feelings toward you.’ … If you remind me, then I’ll be like, ‘Ooh yeah, that is why I didn’t like you. Now you’re reminding me. You’re right. I don’t like that about you.’ No one gets to me like that. I don’t let them.”
The Nebraska native, who is still competing on All Stars 2 despite coming in without any alliances, “took a little convincing” before entering the reality TV world after so many years off.
“I talked to my husband and my husband said, because we’re in a good spot, he’s like, ‘Why not do it? I mean, we’re in a good spot. We don’t have any kids, go! People aren’t offered this kind of opportunity every day. So what are you doing? Just take advantage of it,’” she shared. “So I was like, ‘You know what? You’re right. I’m being, like, insecure. I’m going to and at least try. That’s the best I can do: Try and see how I do. And then if I go down in a blaze of glory, everybody could see it.”
For more from Tina, listen to the full podcast above.
New episodes of The Challenge: All Stars drop on Paramount+ every Thursday.