Battle of the Sexes 2: A Preview of the Women's Team

Posted on October 10, 2004

After losing to the guys in the first Battle of the Sexes, the women are out to settle the score. Will they send their best to beat the men, or will the ladies go 0-2?

In the original Battle of the Sexes, the women's team was fragmented with drama, and the final team (Ruthie Alcaide, Ellen Cho, and Lori Trespicio) ended up losing to the guys in the final mission. Today, the poster girls for unflattering female stereotypes are the Apex group from The Apprentice. The good news: this Challenge team is three times bigger than Apex, and only half as catty. The bad news: this Challenge team has Veronica.

Aneesa Ferreira (RW: Chicago)

Several months ago, ESPN.com focused on reality television. One writer listed the worst characters from the genre [July 2018: link defunct], and Aneesa was at the top of the list. Apparently, excessive nudity is the ultimate sin for some people. She beat out Omarosa, Jerri, Jon Dalton ... even folks like Puck, Emily, and Julie. I think that the nudity is funny, like you never know when she'll get naked next. For instance: remember when Ellen was crying about how Puck was going to kick her ass, and Aneesa just ambles in, holding her bare breasts? That was just so random, it broke up the seriousness of the situation.

In the last Battle of the Sexes, Aneesa made the first Inner Circle, then slid down the rankings. Her lone highlight was trying to convince Ruthie to throw a mission in order to get rid of Emily. It remains to be seen if Aneesa can top her first Challenge performance.

Angela (RR: X-Treme)

Quick question: why wasn't this big-time drama mama on Road Rules to begin with? We started off with three girls, all of whom looked alike. After Kina got voted off (more on that later), BMP shipped Angela in. She fought with her castmates and got cuddly with Patrick. Then Jillian came in to replace Ibis, and proceeded to steal Angela's thunder. From there, it was just a medley of yelling and tearful calls back home. Angela also came perilously close to blowing the final mission, almost costing her team their Handsome Reward.

I'd like to think that Angela might have taken the time between her season and the Challenge to assess her life and make a few changes. Then I saw her in a commercial. What was she doing? Lying in a hammock, crying on the cell phone. I might have given up hope on her, but you don't have to ... at least in terms of the Fantasy Challenge. Crying is worth ten points this season, so Angela is bound to be a gold mine.

Arissa Hill (RW: Las Vegas)

How could I tell Arissa from Irulan while watching their season? Simple: Irulan had the small nose piercing, and Arissa looked like a raccoon. Also, Arissa had the most dysfunctional family, complete with a trash-talking mother. Since then, she's gotten hitched and gone into the music business. She's a big question mark going into this Challenge.

Ayanna Mackins (RR: Semester at Sea)

Ayanna is crazy, but it's a good crazy. Looking past the time she beat up Christian for dropping a certain word that Norwegians should say during Extreme Challenge, I find her to be a nice character. For starters, she ripped Veronica's head off after the Verantula plagiarized Ayanna's paper. We also saw a softer side of Ayanna during Battle of the Sexes, when she got cuddly with David from RW: New Orleans.

Ayanna left on a bad note last time, as she got into a war of words with Anne during the Laser Tag mission, and ended up requesting to get voted out. I think that in the right environment, Ayanna can thrive . But with all the potential drama on her side of the field, can we last that long?

Cameran Eubanks (RW: San Diego)

What can I say about RW's latest ingénue? She's immature. She digs lunks like Brad. She likes punching Brad in the nuts. If the commercials are any indication, she'll be lusting after Mike since she slaps him in the nuts. Other than that? She doesn't leave much of an impression.

Coral Smith (RW: Back to New York)

There are two sides to Coral: On one hand, she hasn't achieved the glory days of Battle of the Seasons, where she teamed with Mike to wreck havoc on RR. She's been dead weight in many missions. Her friendship with Mike seems to be a millstone around his neck. She got bit by a spider in the final Gauntlet mission, which held her team back. After two losses, you'd think she would take the hint, and go to the Oxygen network to do a "Good Cop/Bad Cop" show with her roommate Melissa (current cast member of "Girls Behaving Badly" and my ideal Good Cop).

On the other hand? Coral loves to smack people around. Slappy Stephen gets in her face? Out he goes. Matt talks about how bad women are to get fake breasts? He's a goner. Trishelle steps up to her in two separate Challenges? Gone and gone. Fools jump up, Coral smacks them down, and with some of the best lines ever uttered (on Julie challenging her to wrestle: "I wear a 32DD bra. One boob alone could kick her ass!") And maybe that's why I like her: we're both player-haters, and I see a little of myself in her.

There is some bad news. Rumors are swirling that she is dating Abram. He is the ultimate fool, so how come she's coddling him? Either this is a sick rumor, the most elaborate practical joke ever conceived, or Coral just crossed the line. But she remains one of the most tenacious players in Challenge history. Whether she can outlast Mike may be the mark in which she'll be measured.

Cynthia Roberts (RW: Miami)

Where has this girl been? Cynthia was one of the funniest people in RW history, with her squeaky voice, long fingernails, and use of "hella" before words (e.g., "hellacool," "hellascared.") She took part in the first Challenge, Road Rules: All-Stars, back when it was just five former Real Worlders doing the RR bit. She got scared during a face-first rappel, and almost stalked off after she found out that she had eaten bugs for dinner. Think of her as an ancestor to Melissa: both funny ladies who freaked out during the more intense missions.

Cynthia is currently seeing her baby's father. I'm disappointed, only because she's off the market. We haven't seen her on the tube since the RW tenth anniversary special back in 2001. I'm not sure how far she can go, but hopefully we'll see her teach the new kids a thing or two about respect.

Genesis Moss (RW: Boston)

RW's first full-season lesbian, Genesis participated inBattle of the Sexes. She made the first Inner Circle, then faded over time. She was slated to go home twice, but she was saved by Shane giving her the Ion Lifesaver, and by Emily leaving the game with her boyfriend.

Ibis (RR: X-Treme)

I was finally able to tell Ibis apart from the other girls around the same time Kina was voted off. I have only one clear memory of Ibis: during the guard dog mission, she had grabbed a bone in front of a chained German Shepard and ran with it as Derrick occupied two other dogs. The catch? A fourth dog managed to tackle her and prevented her from reaching the finish line. That ranked up there with Amaya running from the midget wrestler in Challenge 2000.

I will say this about Ibis: she's honest. After she stumbled in a mission, forcing her team to lose yet again, she volunteered herself to go home. She was just another victim in BMP's insistence that voting makes RR more interesting.

Katie Doyle (RR: The Quest)

Let's see if I got this right. Katie goes into Inferno as the one person her team has to shed. Thanks to the format of that season, RW blocks every attempt to shove Katie into the Inferno. RR plots and schemes 24/7, shoving Katie into the line of fire. But she wins two Infernos, proceeds to bitch out Veronica (the biggest highlight of that season), and contemplates throwing the final mission before relenting and winning her share of a $230,000 reward. Here's my question: why is Katie back?

After watching the preview special, I still got a soft spot in my heart for Katie. Sure, she did kiss Veronica on the lips briefly during MTV's reality awards show. And she's still one of the biggest scrubs on either side until further notice. But Katie can go from zero to pissed off faster than most people ... and really, isn't that what matters here?

Kina Dean (RR: X_Treme)

How could I tell Kina apart from Jodi? Simple: Kina left the show, and Jodi didn't. Kina was booted in the dumbest way imaginable: unable to bring themselves to boot out one of their own by a vote, the five original cast members (with Nick exempt from the vote-off) picked names out of a hat. And Kina lost because her name was picked twice. If ever there was an example of the inanity of voting people off on RR, that was it.

Rachel Robinson (RR: Campus Crawl)

First, I hated Rachel during her season. Then came Battle of the Sexes, where she got screwed over by the Inner Circle. Ruthie wanted to keep Aneesa around, Ellen was chummy with Tonya, and Christina was Emily's henchwench. With the three lowest scorers passed over, the Circle went against Rachel, who insistence not to help out and perhaps break the rules during the Tree House mission ticked Ellen off. The announcement of the vote was a shocker, leading to Rachel's "This game is ug-lay!" rant. So what did she do during Gauntlet? Try to bully Sarah off the show the same way she had been bullied off. While Sarah ended up going to the Gauntlet five times, Rachel didn't perform much better, but her name wasn't brought up once. And there was her insinuation that Theo had been thinking with his penis after he bailed Sarah out of a date with the Gauntlet. Afterwards, she got into a threesome with Veronica and Abram. Whatever.

I don't think Rachel will last long, and it's not wishful thinking. Remember, this is the same woman who lost to Irulan in a wrestling match. Seriously ... Irulan, for crying out loud. It wouldn't even take somebody as nasty as Emily to boot out Rachel ... just somebody who looks past the muscles and sees a mighty underachiever.

Robin Hibbard (RW: San Diego)

Not much to say about Robin that hasn't been said, except that the whole "punch a Marine" thing was blown way out of proportion. She's feisty, she does a great Brad impression (as seen in the clips show), and can probably rumble with the boys. She was also a commentator on the preview special, so maybe she'll go the distance.

Ruthie Alcaide (RW: Hawaii)

Two years ago, I heard that Ruthie's was doing Battle of the Sexes. I thought to myself, "Half the people on the cast will put drinks in her hand, the other half will knock them out of her hand." She co-hosted the special with Jonny Moseley, and there were no highlights of her, so I thought she was toast. In the second mission, she hung by her legs longer than anybody else, checking her watch as she hung upside-down. As the guys traded the top position amongst themselves, Ruthie was the top points-scorer after thirteen of the fifteen missions. Sure, she let Emily run roughshod over the Inner Circle, but she had the biggest redemption of any Challenger out there.

Today, Ruthie is a favorite to go the distance. My biggest problem with her? Rumors that she hooked up with Steven. If it's true, then I gotta have a sit-down with her. Seriously ... who would find Steven attractive ... especially a lesbian such as her? Aside from that and a garish tattoo on her left shoulder, Ruthie is still the same ass-kicker we knew from two years ago.

Sophia Pasquis (RR: The Quest)

Want to know why Sophia was the last person on her season to be in a Challenge? Simple: 99 percent of her drama was that she was a lesbian and had yet to come out to her folks. Well, she did, and that's why she hasn't been around in the past three years. The funny thing is that we don't know where she rates in terms of the women on her season. There's a huge gap between scrubs like Katie & Jisela and an overachiever such as Ellen. With her mellow personality, it remains to be seen if Sophia can compete with the drama.

Tina Barta (RR: South Pacific)

I never thought I'd say this, but I like Tina. Back when she replaced Cara, she was bossy and noisy, cliquing up with Donell, bitching about every little thing and flirting with Dave to make Mary-Beth miserable. Then she showed up on Gauntlet. I laughed when she was crying during Snake Soup, but didn't feel any maliciousness when she got beat in the Gauntlet by Coral. She recently popped up during the X-Treme/South Pacific Face-Off, where she scored a first-round TKO on an overmatched Angela.

So why the change of heart? I've thought of Tina as "Discount Coral," a bossy bitch who enjoyed putting people down. With the rumors of a romance with Abram swirling around, Coral may be dead to me, so there's a vacumn that Tina can fill nicely.

Tonya Cooley (RW: Chicago)

Once upon a time, Tonya was the most hated member on her cast ... and she was alongside the likes of Cara and Kyle, so that's saying something. Tonya has done Battle of the Sexes and Gauntlet. Aside from becoming buddy-buddy with Ellen, she hasn't done anything remotely worthy of scorn. She's gotten praise from fellow cast members on their home pages. She's done charity work, and is working on getting her nursing degree. The down side? She got hurt in both Challenges, and she had to go home.

Judging from the preview special, this might be her breakout season. The weird thing is that she seems to be popular with the boys this time around. She kisses Ace, and dances with Theo and Mark. I haven't pegged Tonya into being in a relationship since the days of Walla Walla and Justin. At the very least, things should get interesting.

Veronica Portillo (RR: Semester at Sea)

In the past year, I have rained down all sorts of abuse on Veronica. Is there any bright side to her doing her sixth Challenge? First of all, she's probably so smart, it would take four people to do her job. And since she apparently doesn't have a full-time job, four people are employed when they might not have been. Veronica has done 54 missions in the Challenges going into the current edition, and that will rank as untouchable as Cy Young's 511 wins. If it wasn't for Veronica, where would we get the drama from?

Veronica stinks. She lies, she manipulates, she steals. She uses Emily's treatment of her (re: "The game played me, now I play the game") as an excuse to bully Sarah and Katie. Watching Katie go supernova on her was fun, but Veronica picked up yet another Challenge win. The good news? Since eliminations are guaranteed after every mission, the odds of the Verantula making it to the final mission are longer than before.

The full names: Angela Trimbur and Ibis Nieves. Then again, she came from Road Rules: X-Treme, one of the final nails in the casket for the series. And shit, I did not take a case like Johnny into account in regard to Veronica's mark. Basically, she set the bar pretty high, but those that would followed invented the "Fosbury Flop" equivalent, and now we got Johnny in his sixteenth Challenge. I think. I'd look it up, but then I'd get depressed all over again.