This week on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the queens are challenged to wrestle in front of a live studio audience. The result is one of the best episodes in the history of the show. It really drew the line between the contestants who will thrive on Drag Race and the ones who will be weeded out quickly.
But first, RuPaul challenges the girls to carve out booty pads for their drag look in thirty minutes. The top three most bodacious bodies will win. The queens attack mountains of foam and packing peanuts to cobble together pads like drag MacGyvers.
RuPaul's Drag Race Padding Challenge Victors
Phi Phi O’Hara, Willam, and Chad Michaels are the victors.
I’m sensing a trend with team challenges on this show. Every season, the queens are asked to do something ridiculous that can’t possibly end well for the honor of leading their teams. Last season, they had to pretend to be psychic in a blind prop guessing game and throw together a scandalous photo shoot in a few minutes to lead. The year before, binging on fried food was the ticket to directing a fake advertisement. It’s a silly decision that cuts the tension before teams are assigned and it works.
For the main challenge, Phi Phi, Willam, and Chad lead teams of four into battle for Wrestling’s Trashiest Fighters. The teams are split into pairs of faces–good guys–and heels–bad guys–for their ring debut. They are responsible for costuming their fighters, coming up with characters, writing the backstories to the fights, and working with professional wrestlers to choreograph their bouts.
Madame LaQueer gives great heel.
WTF! Wrestling action on RuPaul's Drag Race
Team Phi Phi O’Hara has the best story but are dragged down by the performance of Lashauwn Beyond. It’s a shame, too. The judges make it quite clear that Latrice Royale and Kenya Michaels would have won the challenge if they were on the winning team. Team Willam has a forgettable story but good in-ring banter. The crowd really responds to them. Team Chad Michaels wins the wresting challenge for combining great acting with great wrestling, even if their STI-inspired backstory is crude.
Jiggly Calienete is paranoid.
Chad Michaels and Madame LaQueer bond over family.
The Top and Bottom Queens
Chad Michaels and Madame LaQueer are named the co-champions of World’s Trashiest Fighters for their over the top and instantly hateable heels. Princess and Lashauwn Beyond are forced to lipsync for their lives for underwhelming in the ring and on the runway. Ultimately, Lashauwn goes home for not having the confidence to stand up and declare herself a worthwhile competitor.
The judges absolutely made the right choices given the rules of the challenge. The winners had to be selected from the winning team and Chad Michaels and Madame LaQueer made that fight work. Lashauwn Beyond was holding herself back so much that RuPaul didn’t even let her win last week with the judges’ favorite outfit in a runway-based challenge.
But most important of all, we learned that Sharon Needles can do traditional drag.
Sharon Needles can do pretty, too.
Now I’m convinced the only thing that can stop her from winning is herself. That or outright sabotage.
Thoughts? Love to hear them.
i just want to tell everyone the shoes and fur in the mini challenge were Versace and i pronounce it like the dumb whore Nomi Malone in order to appear relatable.
Sharron can do any look. She does however, have a definite presence about her when she does her freaky look. She demands that people respect it, love it or hate it. I choose to love it.