‘The Challenge: USA’ Rookie Luis Colon Would ‘100% Come Back’ On One Condition (Exclusive)

Sunday night's double elimination on The Challenge: USA was a doozy. Not only did the veterans lose another of their core members, but the already-tiny number of The Amazing Race alums dwindled to just one after Luis Colon was taken out of the game as well.

Luis Colon found himself on the proverbial chopping block from the very start. Facing an army of Big Brother, The Challenge and Survivor cast members with various histories and alliances, he had just one Amazing Race-r at his flank in Dusty Harris. So the social game was so stacked against him that even his endurance and strength skills (and his career as a firefighter) couldn't save him from being voted in — and neither, apparently, could the fact that Dusty himself was on the team that voted Luis in.

Still, Luis put up quite a fight against fellow competitor Chris Underwood in the arena, and it seems like he's not done with The Challenge universe just yet — but there's one condition to his return. The Messenger chatted with Luis Colon about his time on The Challenge: USA to find out what it'd take for him to come back and whether he's still got any hard feelings toward Dusty after the events of Sunday's episode. 

On being outnumbered by other alliances from 'Big Brother,' 'The Challenge' and 'Survivor'...

Luis Colon: I knew that going in. I knew we had an uphill battle this season. I knew for me to go far in the season, I had to win multiple eliminations because I knew my name was going to be thrown around because I just don't have those connections. And especially at first, you saw that week one, they put me in right away, just because of a lack of connections, and that's it. So I wasn't surprised by that.

On how he was taken off guard by the format for Season 2…

Colon: The secret voting was something that I was just not ready for. I saw The Challenge: USA Season 1, and I'm just like, "Oh yeah, this looks— I could do this." This is just competitions. There's no secret voting. Everybody's a rookie. And you got some older guys, some guys that are way older than me, that can't swim and stuff. And I'm just like, "I can do that." And then they put me in a season where they have all this secret of voting, they've got less Amazing Race-rs — instead of three, there's only two — and oh yeah, let's add some vets in there that have done this 20 times. And I'm like "What did I get myself into?" 

In Season 1, there were a bunch of puzzles and stuff, and I'm just like, "Yeah, let me get ready with some puzzles, too. I didn't see a single puzzle this season. So it was way more difficult than I thought, but I had a great time doing it. The secret voting part was very stressful. As an Amazing Racer, I did not sign up for that. It's just a game that I have respect for and I love watching, but I would never sign up for. And unfortunately that's what I got.

On finding out the Blue Team was helping the Red Team win the daily challenge to target his Green Team…

Colon: I heard those whispers from the beginning — even before my nomination, I started hearing, "Yeah, blue squad and red squad, their goal was to, whenever they win, to put in two people from the green team." And I'm just like, "Great. Here we go." So that was from the beginning. And this episode, it was just so crazy, just how everything worked out. You know, [Johnny] Bananas and Tori [Deal] going last against a green team… If we wouldn't have gone last, let's say blue and red are last, [then] they wouldn't be able to do what they have planned. If it was somebody else other than Bananas and Tori and somebody else that we're more aligned with, then they wouldn't have blocked us as well. ... We were really unlucky. And to top it off, not only that, it was a week where it was a double elimination. So nothing worked out for us this week. It was great TV, but not great for my game.

On how he might've fared without the secret vote and the Hopper twists…

Colon: I think I would've done better, but I love that type of format. Just, "Hey, look. There's no secret voting. Raise your hand if you want to vote for this person. All right, cool." Yeah, so you'd know, there's no secrets in the game. There's no whispers. I love the challenges. I just live for that stuff. And to be honest, I wasn't scared to go into elimination. I just wanted to keep myself out of elimination because that's the best way to stay in the game. But other than that, what's the biggest part of this game is not so much winning the challenge, it's having those connections prior to coming into the house. 

You've got these people like Josh [Martinez], who know so many people, who set up games here and there. And then you have a big Big Brother part of the cast — they all know each other. They've all got each other's backs. It's mostly the connections that keep you in this game. That's why most seasons on TV, it's always the vets picking on the rookies and the rookies getting out first. It's always like that. I didn't want to be that, and I'm not going to just lay down and die. When the vets come after me, I'm going to try my best to win it and try to get some of these vets out because every year it's the same thing: All the rookies going home first. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out that way. I wanted to win multiple eliminations to stay in this game, but I lost one, and I'm one-for-one, and that's why I'm here.

On whether he'd come back on 'The Challenge' if his wife and fellow 'Amazing Race' alum Michelle Burgos Colon joined in …

Colon: Oh, I will 100% come back if my wife is with me. 100% come back. Now, if they were to tell me, "Hey, Luis, are you ready to come back?" I'm always going to say, "Yes." I would never say no to The Challenge. If they were to tell me, "Hey, by the way, it's gonna be a secret voting season…" That's something I'm just like, ughh, that's so hard for me. That's that game, that style I don't enjoy. I do not enjoy that part of the game. It's just so many secrets. So many. It's such a tough game. But they say, "Hey, look, you want to do it with your wife?" I will 100% do it. 100%. It's just … I wish for a more traditional format, rather than the secret voting format. 

On whether he still has hard feelings about Dusty not protecting him during the Red Team's deliberations and vote…

Colon: My personality, I would never, ever have a grudge. I don't hold any animosity towards people for things, so me and Dusty are fine to this day. I did approach him. I did ask him, "Bro, I wish you would have had my back better because I would have died for you in there." He was my number one guy in there. I'd tell people, "Hey, guys, keep Dusty safe because he's on our side." You know that my goal going in there was to keep me and him safe. I think maybe he didn't see the same thing. I think that maybe the vets got to him. He went on to side with the vets. He never communicated that with me. If that's something that he wanted to do them man, I maybe would have done something different. I don't know what I would have done, but we are friends. We are definitely friends to this day, but I am sad and disappointed that he didn't have my back as much as I had his back.

The Challenge: USA airs twice per week, on Thursdays at 10/9c and Sundays at 9/8c on CBS, before moving to just Thursdays at 10/9c starting Aug. 31. Episodes are available to stream on Paramount+.