Veteran Cory Wharton Will Not Return to Compete on Season 38 of 'The Challenge'

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers through Episode 13 of The Challenge: Lies, Spies, and Allies.

Reality star and Challenge veteran Cory Wharton has been a regular on MTV since first appearing on Real World: Explosion back in 2014. Not too long after, he made his challenge debut on Battle of the Bloodlines. Over the years, Cory has won second place cash prizes, but despite his strong social and physical game, the popular veteran has yet to take home the big prize money at the end.

On The Challenge: Lies, Spies, and Allies, Cory has been performing decently but has not won a daily challenge. He and his partner Bettina Buchanan did come away with an elimination win down in the lair in Episode 9. Before the elimination, viewers saw an intense deliberation where Cory and Ashley "Millionaire" Mitchell argued about who should go down and compete. Ultimately, Cory had a much bigger target on his back since many castmates felt he was working with the rookies.

Throughout the season, Cory has felt that many vets don't have his back, and in Episode 13, his theory was confirmed when he was thrown back down into the lair on men's elimination day. Keep reading to find out if Cory made it out or if he was deactivated.

In Episode 13, Cory got voted down by the Agency and was very upset that he was sent into elimination because he thought, just maybe, his fellow vets would keep him in the game. Cory ended up calling down his own Emerald cell teammate Logan Sampedro. Cory was mad that Logan wasn’t the one voted in since he’s a rookie. Josh Martinez was one of the loudest voices supporting Logan staying even though he had worked with Cory in the past.

Unfortunately, Cory did not win at the elimination game rope burn and was sent home by Logan. After being deactivated, Cory and a couple of his castmates joined host Devyn Simone on The Challenge Aftermath. Cory talked about being eliminated and his future on the series. He shared that he was starting to lose his fight after the first round and checked out for a bit.

Per Heavy, the vet said, “I started to think about my daughters and things like that. I’m getting phone calls from Cheyenne telling me like, hey, I need you home. Taylor’s missing me, so like all this pressure, I’m like damn. I’m mad because I gave up on myself a little bit.” He did give a shoutout to Logan, saying that he was a total “beast.”

Cory also said stated that he would be taking a break from competing. He revealed, “I’m gonna take a break for a little while. wanna have that fight, I wanna have fun, I want to wanna be in the Challenge house. I think this season for me, my head was somewhere else, and so it showed in my gameplay.” However, the break is only for one season, so fans may see him get his revenge on Season 39 of The Challenge.

Audiences will not see Cory on the reunion stage along with his other castmates due to the rule of having to be vaccinated. In a since-deleted tweet by the vet that was captured by Page Six, Cory told fans that he wouldn’t be attending because he wasn’t vaccinated. He wrote, “No Challenge reunion for me, they said due to my vaccination status. They are really strong-arming ppl [sic] now a days. Smh."

After receiving backlash from his fans, the MTV personality removed the post. Most likely, viewers will still see Cory on the reunion show, but just via video chat, since him being voted into elimination over a rookie was pretty shady in his eyes. He's likely got a lot to say.

Tune in to The Challenge on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST on MTV.