The Zach Nichols Podcast - Battle For a New Champion EP. 14 Review w/ Ed Eason! | ZNP EP. 26

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

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It's Ed Easton from the challenge. I'm here at the Zach Nichols podcast. Let's get it going, baby. You know, I feel like this is your speed, a little soul. Old Zach Bryan. Yeah. I didn't even tell him anything. I was sorry, he was telling him.

No, you have, like, okay, so before I started listening to Zach Brian three days ago, because finally the, like, 10th person that I know was like, you got to listen to this guy. Because I'm a Stapleton, like, guy. I love Chris Stapleton. And they're like, if you, like, if you, like Chris Tableton, you're going to love Zach Ryan. So then Scott mentioned it. I'm like, motherfucker.

I'm going to listen to it. And then I'm like, wow, there's five of my new favorite songs. Yeah, that's insane. We were just talking about that on the way from the airport. He didn't say anything to me at all this. I had this discovery this week as well. That's crazy. And I was like, I bet Ed likes this guy.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So you guys are getting a little know a little bit more about them. We're going to start. Man, welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Mr. Zach Nichols in the building. Hit it. Gee is.

Oh. Oh. Oh, who, who, who, who, who. Gee, bro, get off vacation. She just got back from vacation. Yeah. She's not in the mid-season. Are you hung over?

No. She's good. But more importantly. But more importantly, who do we got in the house today? We have a very special guest. We have the man of the hour. Yeah. The star of the last episode of the Challenge 39 battle for a new champion,

Mr. Eddie's in the building. Hey, guys, it's me, Ed. Ed. Yep. We got Ed and Eddie, all three of his personalities. Right here. I know, right? Thanks for coming through to Detroit, man.

Thanks for having me. Yeah, you, thanks for coming. I mean, I wish it was better than, like, what, 10 degrees out, but you came from that. Dude, same thing in Philly. We just got hit with a big snowstorm. So I went from trudging through the snow to trudging through the snow. This is a different type of cat to come in here and not complain about the weather. Like, we get so many people like, man, the weather this and that.

And you're just like, bro, come on, man. Like, I'm used to this. Nah, a bunch of softies. Uh-uh. Well, you know what? That's what makes Ed, one of my favorite guests so far because, like, almost every single person from reality TV, these days. Like, oh, yeah, like where you live? They're like, L.A. And you're like, oh, another one bites a dust. That's what reality TV is not made out of people from L.A. Reality TV is for people

from around the country. And you represent that. And that's why we're glad to have you. And you can tell that your gameplay is different because you're not from L.A. Yeah. And we saw that last night. Oh, yeah. I play like a good old country of Hock in Pennsylvania. Yeah, you did. Yes, you did. And, but I think what's even more intriguing about you is where you went to college. Yes. That surprises most people. I went to Cornell University. Ever heard of it?

You're an Ivy Leagher? Ever heard of it? I have a degree in mechanical engineering. Wow. And yeah, most people, you know, I don't sound very educated when I talk. Oh, God. I wish I could sit in on some of your college presentations at Cornell. Oh, I was a trip in college.

You're telling me, I would have paid tickets. I felt like no matter what I said, like we'd been a big hall of, you know, three, 400 kids, you know, the intro level classes. And I would just say, like, dumb shit and ask the craziest questions. And the professors all knew who I was. Right. And I felt like every time I talked, the kids were just like, it was like a cheering section. They're like, go, Ed, we love Ed.

Like, I could say something completely just dumb. And my friends would be like, why are you saying that? I'm like, the kids are going to love it. Watch. Yeah. And we know it's Philly, not Boston, but you're essentially Goodwill hunting is what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Literally. Yeah. Hit it on the head. That's pretty awesome. How you like that, Mattles? Well, we're super excited to have you here. We're going to get into the episode that you did, you know, in my opinion, you start in, as well as some personal stuff about you.

But before we do that, we do want to remind you guys, if you haven't got your tickets to ZMP Live, first live show that we're doing here in Detroit, February 17th, make sure you go get those tickets immediately. We have Jordan, who you got to see in the arena, as well as Laurel, who you got to see in the arena coming through. Give them both a round of applause, please, G. What do you think about Jordan? What did you think about him?

That was the first time you've ever. probably met him or been seen him. Yeah, so that was my first encounter with Jordan. I didn't really get to, like, talk to him. He was, like, kind of in and out there for elimination, and that was it. So I don't really want to, you know, make my first impression that. I kind of want to talk to the guy. He'd even compete next to him first.

You would love him. Yeah. You'd love Jordan. Because he's like a, he's a country boy, right? Oklahoma smoke show. Oh, yeah. There you go. He's the Oklahoma Smoke Show.

He's the Oklahoma Smoke Show. Good old Zach Ryan shout out right there. Basketball, baseball, football player. When I heard that song, I, like, screenshot. I'm, like, shocked that this song came on and it's not about you. But, no, Jordan is one of my favorite people. And that elimination round that he did, I think you'd be good at that one. Yeah, that one was interesting.

That would have been a good one for you. It was very just, you had to be strategic with it. Like, instead of, you know, sitting in the middle, he, Jordan did it very well. Yeah. Where he would run up, hit the button and stay there and then just coast down and you went up to the next one. Yeah. And we had heard, like, kind of just the rules weren't explained to us. as a viewer, as they might have been explained there.

So, like, if there's a certain interval where he could waste seconds by staying up there, there's just the strategic, the high IQ level is something I think that would be fun to see you against somebody like him. And hopefully we'll be able to see that in the future. So, yeah, so we got Jordan. And then we have Laurel as well, who, you know, there's been some critiques of that elimination that Laura was in, but at least you got to see her physical stature. Did you know her before that?

No. No, she was way taller in person. Everybody's like, oh, no, like, you don't want to go against. Laurel, like, she's good. I'm like, how scary can this chick be? And then I saw her and I was like, whoa. Yeah, she's a presence. All right, now I understand.

She's a presence. Yeah. Very, she's very strong, too. But yeah. Yeah. She intimidates the shit of me. She's like one of the challenges that I'm probably most afraid of is Laurel. Yeah.

So let me ask you this. So this will help me understand a little more about you. Were you a fan of the challenge or did you watch it or did you just kind of get like, you know, the lottery ticket that said, hey, man, we'd love for you to come on the challenge. And you were like, what is this? Yeah. So, pretty much. He'd heard of it, but you didn't know much about it.

That's exactly what happened almost. So I did my first show, The Circle on Netflix. Yeah. And a lot of people told me, friends, family, random people on the Internet, too, would message me, be like, Ed, you did great on the circle, but you'd probably be a great fit for the challenge. I kept getting it over and over and over again. And at that point, I'd never watch the challenge. Lo and behold, the challenge ends up reaching out to me. They're like, hey, Ed, we saw you on the Circle.

We would love to have you apply. Are you interested in coming out for the challenge? So I was like, uh, yeah, sure. You know, I'll do it. So I sent my application in. I didn't think I was like going to get it. And then it was literally, they're like, all right, yep, you're in your flights in three days. Oh, shit.

I'm like, whoa. So me and my girlfriend go on YouTube and I'm like, the challenge highlights. So I'm watching like, you know, CT and bananas, their eliminations. And I was just watching all like the crazy shit that goes down, like the real headbanger physical stuff. And I was like, this looks like a blast. Like, I'm in. Let's do this. Yeah, most people are like, I don't know what I'm getting myself into.

You see it. You're like, I could do that to someone for money. Yeah. Sign me up. I was like, why didn't I go after this earlier? This is right in my alley. So it worked out like perfectly where they just called me. I was like, hell yeah, let's do it.

Yeah. And you actually, you came in very energetic. I would describe it as the most shredded Chris Farley I've ever seen in my life. That's the vibe I was getting. That's been so like I'm watching it. And I'm like, okay. So he's giving me Chris, you know, that energy, right? But you're ripped.

So it's, you know, it's not the same humor, but it's very much so the same. And then I'm like, I wonder if this is like a lot of just like peacock in and false bravado. And then I saw like, almost instantly Devin took you under his wing. And I'm like, no, he's a bro. Because Devin, if you're not a bro, Devin doesn't waste his time with you. There's like one other person who won in my, that I've seen when Devin's affection over like that. And it would, it was Kyle and then Nam. And so like, I'm like, okay.

Like he's got to be legit if Devin's is, you know. Yeah, dude, no, Devon's a good guy. And we kind of like got each other's humor right away. Yeah. So going out for 37, they had to sit like 10 days or something before, you know, in quarantine. So everybody's out on the balcony's like miserable. And like, Dev was like, oh, man, like, I can't do it. This is like day three or four.

He's like, I can't do it anymore. And we were just like cracking dumb jokes keeping each other sane the whole time. And I think that's really where we just started hitting. it off yelling at each other from like four hotel rooms down. Yeah, because they don't let you talk, but everyone just goes out on their balcony. We actually, at one time, we didn't have to quarantine. We had like two nights. And Jenna and Nani and I just all like crawled along the balcony all and hung out in one

room. We're like this stupid. Yeah, that's wow. So we'll definitely talk about the relationships that you made on 37, which we saw come to fruition in this episode. But did we notice Zach has a very peculiar outfit on today? What is that? Yeah.

A fresh three-quarter zip. Dude, does that belong to? This belongs to my favorite, my second favorite Brit. Yeah, Kyle. Kyle. I just thought if I had decided to get a lot of control and flex on me a little bit, this might kind of be like a bear spray. Like maybe I think I'm Kyle.

That was a crazy, crazy call on your part. Well, yeah, okay. So they made me look a little stupid in that episode when I, you know, versus Kyle in the ball wrestling champion, undefeated in Bull Russell. Yeah, so that was, that was an accidental call out. we got down in the arena, empty arena. Usually, TJ's like, ah, you know, this is the event. Pick somebody.

But it was just empty sandpit. Oh, they didn't bring the poll out. So they didn't bring the poll out yet. They're like, you got to pick somebody. I'm like, T, usually, you know, we kind of know what it is first. Yeah, let me sign up. Yeah. He's like, nope, you got to pick somebody.

So I'm like, all right. Funny how those rules changed. And then he's like, that's a bad choice because it happens to be a pole. Oh, my gosh. But it's crazy because you almost beat a, up for the first half and then that's what he does i've seen him do that now three or four times where i'm like what he puts he Kyle can endure more pain than anyone i've ever seen tell me who has he taken out in a pole wrestle well he had a three-way pull wrestle against a guy named jp from brazil who was

like a Brazilian model and then ct yeah oh so he beat them both he beat ed which is i mean i mean i'm looking at your forearms and that was not easy yeah um and i think there's one more when he has i don't know who i can't off the top of my i mean c t and ad i mean those that's enough for me to Yeah, he's good at that. Yeah. No, I wish I would have known before. I also wish I would have watched the show because I didn't know what a pole wrestle was.

You had three days. Dude, I went in there guns blazing that pole wrestle. I tired out real quick. But I was smashing him against the ground and come to find out after he's like, oh, dude, Ed, they had to send me to the hospital. I thought I broke a rib. Turns out they were just bruised. But dude, like, I was in rough shape after that.

I'm like, all right, I'll take that. Yeah. He still ended up beating me in the end, but I was like, you know, I'll give it to him. He went through a best experience, though. I've wrestled Kyle, and I'm like, I remember thinking I'm like, I'm going to eat his ass. And I'm like, no, he's, he's long and he's actually very strong. Yeah, he's got the strength to him. Yeah, zero butt.

Man, no butt. Hamstring. And they've never seen a butt later in my life. It goes back, back, back hamstrings. Yeah. His butt cheeks are this big each. It's like a quarter slot. You just put the quarter.

Not even, dude. That's funny. He's got no butt. It disappeared. That's a sticker. We'd love to see him on 40. We'd love to see him on 40. Who knows?

we never know. Let's get into the episode. Yeah, this is a great one. Now, like, before we get into the episode, like when watching it, our, who is your like, so if you, at this point, right, who is your number one?

They don't really talk about your alliances. I think you're loosely aligned. I didn't even know the manual part, but you're loosely aligned with Jay Michelle. But it looks like you understand where you lay on their list and they're kind of your three, four, too. So because up until now, I feel like you're part of, you're the, like if this whole,

if you're that alliance is a nucleus, you're the mitochondria, you're the energy. Like you're winning things for them. They're not winning. So how are you aligned with them at this point in the episode? Because they don't really talk about your political ties. Yeah. So that's the thing.

Up until now, I don't think they show like one political talk. Big T is your only political talk and you were like, this is a joke. You're going home. Dude, it's nuts. Like I was talking to people in there. They don't show it. I think the thing is too. I'm very efficient when I talk.

I'll go up to somebody. I'll be like, this is our plan. Boom. good. All right, done. I don't sit there for like an hour and gossip and drama. Like, we get right to the point. I'm in and out of the conversation. You don't want it to change before you leave because sometimes they get to talking and then all of a sudden you're like, wait, what are we doing? So I like that. I think and I act like a guy. I'm just like, all right, this is our plan. Cool. Let's do it. Done. Like, simple as that. Well, yeah,

my, uh, my whole alliance there. I'm kind of kicking myself now. I mean, mainly my alliance was with the big alliance. Michelle, Jay, Emmanuel. Use the blanket. Yeah. And I kind of wish I didn't do that so much and more so would have done like a lone wolf thing where I think that alliance did keep me pretty well protected. I don't think you needed it. You know, I don't think I needed it. Yeah. I think it was insurance and I think it was a comforting blanket, but you definitely didn't need it because I don't think you were on anyone's radar at all. No. I don't think anyone wanted the smoke. Yeah. I don't think they did.

I feel like I kind of fell in there because it was like right. off the rip. Right. You send in all of these people, you know, everybody's pretty new. But this whole gang here, like the Michelle, Norese, Olivia, Mariah, Jay, like, they're all great friends in real life. Right. So it's like you get six or seven people that are good friends, no duh, they're going to band together, you know, start an alliance. Yep. So it's like, rather than me try to start my own alliance against them, it's like, why not just kind of fall in with them? 100%. There's more numbers there. You never want to be the leader. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Something he's always said on the show is like you're never going to tell the one automatically no like no like

like i don't want to work with you know just take it see for what yeah always take it so but that's my thing too is i'm like like like even those conversations you see j when he was all cheesed off and you know after the the voting or whatever and it's like they're even michel she's like he's all of our number ones and i'm sitting there thinking like that sounds so stupid you can't be everyone's number one everyone knows that you're literally trying to get they've gaslight the gaslit these people for so long that now they're just it's like what they're saying is like like, dude, he can't be everyone's number one. He can protect Norese and not say her name,

but if he's taking away all of her protection, he's still, you know what I'm saying? That's why with me and any alliance ever made, it was always like, I won't say your name, you don't say mine, but I'm not going to tell you what you do when you win because then it's like, then it becomes everyone looks at you,

now you're a target. If I know you're not going to say my name, but you say like someone who I am closely aligned with, it's like, well, too bad. If I didn't want that to happen, I should have won. But I'm not, like, if I say, oh, don't throw him in, now you're like,

okay well bitch you're next dude it's wild how much people kind of expect where it's like okay this person's my number one my number two so for you this person has to be your number one number two it's like no everybody they can only in their own yeah they can only protect you for so long yeah so lastly that was my big thing was i just didn't know like so i i get what you're doing though because you have your thing with a manual so we know that and then because of the blanket cori's not going to directly come out after you right until now so it just is is like now it's kind of like, this is the challenge where, depending on who won and which way it went, it was going to open it up for one group or the other.

And so you went to work, obviously. But I think you were a little bit more shocked. Like, wait a second, it's actually me. Yeah. Like, I've been, I've literally protected you guys, haven't done anything outside of what I've said, and Corey's not an option. Yeah. That's what kept blowing my mind is like, nothing against Corey.

Nothing. Love him. Love with the dude. Yeah. Like, a friend of mine. As do we. But like gameplay strategy wise, didn't have the cleanest game. Was very messy at times.

So like when it came to this vote where it was like either me or Emanuel, I'm like, I mean, there's also Jay, there's a soft, there's Corey. I'm like, we have five options. Why are we picking out of the two? And also out of the two like, why me and Emmanuel? I'm like, has anybody seen what's going on like the whole entire way through with Corey where he's flip-flopping back and forth and then the whole big T and malicious? a thing where he had that blow up.

I'm just like, this guy's kind of a loose cannon. Right. We got to like watch you out for him. Right. And you've made zero waves in that department. So at this point, you're not causing any trouble. Who's better at running a final, Corey or Ed? I think that was. And so they used a lot of the, like, a lot of the same reason why they would say that they're throwing in Horacio

is probably why they end went for you. But they had to soften that blow because you technically were in a lot of their alliances. So they had to play it off. And I just, I was as a shot. I did not expect that at all. I thought it was going to be, when I saw who won, I was thinking Corey for sure. I was 100% thinking Corey. And so obviously, like we just discussed earlier, this was the one where I think everyone was probably sweating.

Because if you think about it, 10, it was the 10th one. So you hadn't seen. So you guys basically thought it was either going to be CT, bananas, or West is probably. Yeah, we knew something big was coming. You knew they weren't bringing around a middle level guy like me or, you know, like a mid guy. They were bringing in a guy. Some heavy art they were bringing in a Mount Rushmore guy. Oh, yeah.

They brought in the Mount Rushmore guy. So there was probably a little bit more if you were going on in that aspect too. So maybe they saw it as an opportunity to get rid of them. For sure. Okay, well, we'll go back to the beginning. We see they come back and then Kalin and James are kind of talking. And we kind of realize like, hey, some people haven't gone into eliminations, yourself included, Emmanuel included, Jay included, right?

If you were, had your pick of one player in the house, that you would have wanted to see go into that elimination, who would have been Corey for that last one against CT? Hmm. Actually, maybe. Nothing against Corey, like I said,

but I think I probably would have wanted to see him go down there more so because this is where I'm a little, you know, twisted too, because my whole gameplay, I played with the same alliance the whole time where I'm kicking myself. It's like, man, I wish I kind of

would have worked with other people more because I would have rather seen like a crazy final where it's like Ed versus Arasio versus Emmanuel versus even Kieran. You remember Kieran? But why would you rather run

a final against the best finalists in the house? Because I feel like that's badass. That makes it interesting to watch. Like that's a battle right there. So you would take a bat. You would choose being a battle rather than go in there

against people you can beat, take the money. I would rather it like be a show. I want to see a battle. Like, I want to see the big guns duke it out and, like, made the best man win. Because at the end of the day, like, it's a competition series. I know there's a lot of drama, a lot of politics that go into it.

And sometimes it's the people that just kind of either fly under the radar, they just get to the final. They're really strong, political, you know, connections and ties. That's the challenge, though, man. That's the challenge, though. That's something I've learned since covering this thing, is the social aspect you have to put it where it belongs in this game, which is very high up there, just as much was competitiveness.

I do want to see warriors, though. You got to let the dogs dog get out. You know what I'm saying? I agree. I agree at some point. But if personally, if I'm watching, I agree. If I'm in it, I'm trying to run against Corey. I'm trying to run against James.

Now I'm trying to run against Colleen. I want nobody with any endurance in that final with me. I want insurance that my family is getting whatever's left with that money. Now, as a fan watching it, hell yeah. Let's watch you run against Horacio and Emmanuel. well and, you know, Zara, because don't count her out. Oh, no. If she gets to a final and there's a ton of equalizers and she gets lucky on a couple

puzzles, that girl can run. She might be one of like the single fastest people to be on the challenge after what I've seen from USA or whatever it was, championships. Yeah, I get a little bit torn because I love what you're saying, which is like you want to see the best people compete. But like, that's why as much as I don't appreciate Jay Arasov's character at all, I do respect that they're going for the guns. I actually do respect that.

They're taking the shots at the people that are the best players. Because if it's a game where I see Johnny not getting voted or Wes not getting any votes, I'm just like, in my head, I'm like, bro, go for the people that could beat you. So I do respect them in that regard. However, the format of the show has made it kind of tough for, you know, you guys can to fire back. Because normally at the beginning, you get voted in, no problem. You pick, let me get who I want. And I think every, I think every vet or, yeah, I think every champion that came and should have just had the fucking chaos.

Yeah, just been able to pick over there. Yeah, just automatic chaos. But then it would have made, there'd have been no reason to throw anyone in. So then there's no reason to have a challenge. So you have to have that so you can have the format. But I agree. I agree. And like I we've said before, I think that they should have had the elimination rounds that

completely cater to the champ's strength. Yeah. So that it's an actual punishment that you have to go in against them. And because if you're going to beat a champ, like I said, like Laurel to me, she looked disinterested. Kara was like, oh, Michelle understands the puzzle. I don't get it. car could have moved those things way faster than her but because of the puzzle she lost i kind of saw

the same thing with her again i always said i said great wins but it would be like me playing basketball my whole life you never playing and me us playing basketball like you lose you wouldn't be upset you but you i've never bounced the ball he's been doing it his whole life so like it was one of those things where it's like if you're going to beat a champ put him into something that like let's just see him earn it let's see him go in there and do something where it's like you're last man standing you're going to do this until you're so tired you pass out whoever doesn't pass out that's what i want to to see in these elimination rounds. And that's the thing that excites me about this.

Like, yes. To just, like, I'd rather see us bash each other in the sand, like, beat the shit out of each other, than, like, you know, have CT do a math problem as, like, an elimination. It's like, come on. Like, these guys are legends. Like, let them do their thing. Right. And, like, let us have our chance to kind of, like, shine.

It's like, you can't really shine as a new competitor if you're just kind of playing corner games the whole time. It's like, watching Assoff losing a math contest is, it just is a, It's a letdown for the viewer. It's great to see CT, but it's like, ugh. Yeah. Like, who wants to watch people do math? There's a reason why they don't do math in the Olympics.

Coming across the Ivy League, educated engineer over here. Don't get me wrong. I love math. But you don't want to watch it. That concludes the free preview of the Zach Nichols podcast. So go to Patreon and subscribe to see the rest of the shit that we talk. Go do it. Now.