Murtz On The Scene: Exclusive Interview With The Amazing Race 25’s Brooke Adams & Robbie E. Strauss

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Despite their obvious athleticism, the dating team of Brooke Adams and Robbie E. Strauss were unsuccessful in their attempt to win The Amazing Race. The wrestlers finished the show in fourth place after receiving bad directions to City Hall in Los Angeles. This delay resulted in the pair’s elimination prior to reaching the finish line.

I recently caught up with Brooke and Robbie to discuss what happened if they felt it was fair for Maya and Amy to continue on despite finishing in last place on the leg prior to the finale.

Murtz Jaffer: Brooke, why did it take you guys so long to find City Hall?

Brooke Adams: Unfortunately we stopped and got directions from somebody at a ship that was the closest place to us. You know, we’re not from LA and he gave us the exact opposite directions and that happened to us again right after we found City Hall on the way to the stunt place. It really just came down to bad directions.

MJ: Robbie, Brooke said to follow the Surfers to City Hall but they seemed to lose you on the freeway. Do you think they did this on purpose?

Robbie E. Strauss: I mean I think that they did realize that we were behind them but I don’t think they wanted us following them because they knew they were going the right way. That said, I don’t think they drastically went out of their way to lose us or anything.

BA: Robbie just wasn’t paying attention when he pulled up behind them and neither of us knew that the lane we were in was only allowed to go straight while the surfers were on a right turning lane.

RES: Yeah so I don’t think they went out of they way to like make the turn at the last minute so that we couldn’t follow them.

MJ: Got you. Brooke, heading into the finale… which team did you think was your biggest competition?

BA: I was thinking maybe the Dentists but I honestly didn’t know what the last competition was going to be. As you can see in race that anything can happen. When Robbie and I had made it to the finish line and we were waiting to see who would run up in first place, I really had no idea who it was going to be. Jim and Misti were definitely the biggest competitors (because they won the most legs), but in the end, it was the Scientists who ended up being the biggest competition. That final challenge ended up being a memory challenge and they just killed it.

MJ: Robbie, in past seasons of the Race… being physically stronger than the other teams was a major advantage but this season, it wasn’t as much of a factor. How important is athletic ability on the Amazing Race?

RES: Yeah, going into it everyone said we are going to do so great because they hear the word ‘Race’ and they are like ‘oh, you guys are so fit that you are going to do awesome’ but I don’t think there was any task that gave us a major advantage because of how fit we were and are. So in reality, I don’t think it helped us at all.

BA: Not at all because it’s always right after a physical challenge that you find something else that is mental and that can slow you down.

MJ: It seemed like you guys had an easier time with directions outside of the U.S. than you did in your home country. Why did things go so badly when you got to LA?

RES: Because in other countries people didn’t speak English and because we didn’t understand them, we just had to follow what they were saying. We just had to take the risk and wing it and it actually ended up working for us.

BA: Yeah, it just comes down to whether people gave us good directions or bad directions. When we were in Africa, we stopped a couple of times and we got perfect directions to the pottery shop or something. It’s crazy that we got lost in America but that we can follow signs that are in Arabic with no problems!

MJ: Robbie, in wrestling, there are heels and babyfaces and I feel like the same can be said for the Race where you guys (along with the Dentists) were portrayed as the villains of the season. How accurate was your edit on the show?

RES: You know what? I disagree with that. I don’t think that we were portrayed as the villains of the season. The Race is like wrestling and there are good guys and bad guys but just like in wrestling, the Race is always changing. I think when the Race first started, Brooke and I were actually the underdogs and the fan favorites and then as it went on and we started to show that we are wrestlers and showed our dirtier meaner sides, we sort of turned into bad guys. But then I think at the end we became good guys again, so we switched a few times. It’s exactly like watching an episode of Impact Wrestling.

BA: I think that’s the way I feel. I think we were portrayed well. I mean I lied to the scientists. You know like it was our game and we played our way. I’d say it was edited pretty accurately. But then again you only see one side like they only show certain parts of us, they are not showing Rob and I appreciating the countries that we were in and they didn’t show us appreciating the challenges that we went through and how much fun we were having doing the entire Race together. I wish they would have shown a little bit more of that.

MJ: Another similarity that I saw between wrestling and the Race was the number of twists. In wrestling there are always swerves, and this season featured so many twists including the save, the express pass and having a four-team finale. What did you think about all of the twists?

RES: I think the worst twist was the one on Leg 11 when Brooke and I came in first place. Finally the wrestlers won and were ready to get handed the biggest prize of the season and instead our prize was ‘hey you guys are sweaty go to the airport and continue racing!’ That was the biggest surprise.

BA: I think it is pretty pointless to eliminate someone during… if it was any other season, Rob and I would have been in the final three so it kinds of stings a little bit. They could have done without that. It was just pointless to do it during a leg of the Race. It did nothing. There was no excitement with it. It just showed that the Candy Girls should have been eliminated on that leg of the Race with the rest of us still fighting for the million. As far as the save if you don’t have to use it in a non-elimination round, it’s pointless. It did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

MJ: Brooke what did you think about that whole thing, I think you seemed to take it like really personally that Emmy and Maya got saved to make it to the finale. Was there something about it in particular that bothered you? Like your issue wasn’t with them. It was with the twist in general.

BA: No, not at all. It’s just the idea that there are still four teams that have been racing for two legs prior to that. I’m like ‘are you kidding me?’ Robbie and I fought so hard to prove that we deserved to be there at the end and then you see these girls walking in again despite the fact that they had struggled in their last challenge. Yes, they fought through but they came in last and to me they should have been gone. I would have felt that way that with any other team that would have arrived to the mat in last place. It wasn’t them. They are really sweet girls. I mean it wasn’t a vindictive thing, I just wanted to see another team go.

MJ: Robbie, one of the aspects of the season that fascinated me the most was why the teams seemed to gang up on the Cyclists, Kim and Alli. Can you tell me about why that happened?

RES: Honestly I think you might want to ask that one to Brooke…

MJ: Sounds good yeah, Brooke you want to take it?

BA: Yeah, it’s just that Rob is a really carefree person. He doesn’t care about anything. Nothing bothers him. They were just very odd and a lot of people look at it like I just wanted to get rid of them because they were so good. Yes, I did want to get rid of them because they were good. That is the name of the game. You want to eliminate the strongest competition.

But it was just that there was a lot of down time that you guys don’t see and they were very socially awkward and they kept to themselves. The thing is that the teams were kind of stuck in close quarters pretty often and that was a good time for us all to kind of talk and chat and things like that. They were just always in their own little corner and doing their own thing like going out to get wasted in another country and to each their own. No worries. I got to know Kym and Alli on a different level at the finale and I think they are both great girls and we didn’t just get to know each other on a personal level during the Race. And that’s really where it started. I wanted to get rid of good team and they were the weirdos that wanted to be alone so I’m like ‘okay you guys can be alone…’ Let’s get rid of them.

MJ: Robbie, are you and Brooke still an item?

RES: We are not but we are still BFFs, you what that stands for?

MJ: Yes, yes best friends forever.

RES: Of course.

BA: We are not best friends forever we don’t even talk.

RES: No she’s over exaggerating, we text all the time.

MJ: Well Robbie, speaking of BFF’s, you are best friends with another friend of mine in Mr. Pectacular, Jessie Godderz from Big Brother. Can you give us an update on what is happening with Impact?

RES: Well Jessie and I aren’t BFFs. We are Bromance and we talk regularly and January 7th me and him will return to Impact Wrestling together as the Bromance live on our new network, Destination America and it’s going to be huge! The Bromance are ready to get the tag titles again!

MJ: Brooke, what’s next for you?

BA: Same thing I return to Impact Wrestling in January. It’s pretty exciting. I have been out for a year so I have been slowly getting back into ring shape and I can’t wait to be back on TV.

MJ: Amazing! Well, Brooke it was great to meet you at the finale and Robbie, so good to talk to you as well. Thank you both so much for you time.

BA: Thank you.

RES: Thank you bro.

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.