Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race' wrestlers Brooke Adams and Robbie E. Strauss talk (Part 2)

The Amazing Race "Dating Pro Wrestlers" team of Brooke Adams and Robbie E. Strauss finished the CBS reality competition's 25th season in fourth place during the finale episode.


Brooke and Robbie were eliminated halfway through the twelfth and final leg following a twist which allowed "Food Scientists" Amy DeJong and Maya Warren to compete in the first-ever Final 4. Amy and Maya ended up winning the twelfth leg and the $1 million grand prize.

"Married Dentists" Misti Raman and Jim Raman finished the Race in second place, while "Married Surfers" team of Bethany Hamilton and Adam Dirks claimed third place. 

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World, Brooke and Robbie talked about their The Amazing Race experience. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: You guys made a pretty controversial move in a previous leg to lie to Amy and Maya about the location of a clue when you had to search among the handful of monuments. Some viewers gave you credit for it while others kind of criticized you for getting rid of any allies you might've had heading into the end. So what's your perspective on that?


Robbie E. Strauss: At this point, they weren't our allies anymore. At this point, they were giving us attitude, they were rude, they weren't helping us so much. So, we just kind of returned the favor to them, and at that point, I think they would've done the same thing to us.

Brooke Adams: Yeah.

Robbie E. Strauss: They weren't our allies. Right, Brooke?

Brooke Adams: No. A lot of people aren't realizing that they gave us a big attitude when we were in that big square trying to find that clue with a big sign on it that couldn't have been any more obvious. You know, we're asking and...

Robbie E. Strauss: That was so funny. (Laughs)


Brooke Adams: (Laughs) I know! We were like, "I bet we're being stupid and we're walking right by it." And it was, like, right by my head. (Laughs) It was so ridiculous. They could've been like, "Hey guys, it's the guy with the big red and yellow sign!" But they were like, "Yeah, it's not there!"

And then towards the end when we're looking for the lion or whatever it was, then they gave us another big attitude. And at that point, Rob and I were just like, "Screw this! We're just over it," you know? We were like, "This is fine if they want to play that way."

We were going into Final 4 mode at this point. We wanted to just make sure we were getting to the mat. We didn't care at that point at all and we still played it off in the next leg that I had no idea what they were talking about, and they didn't know that I was lying to them.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised Amy and Maya believed you when you were playing dumb?

Brooke Adams: No, I'm pretty sure they knew I was lying. (Laughs) But I didn't care. I mean, come on. I mean, I think I got pretty good at it, but I'm pretty sure they knew deep down that Rob and I had lied to them.


Robbie E. Strauss: I'm surprised though that -- like I even think me and Brooke, if someone would've said it wasn't there, I think we would've taken 20 seconds to run up there...

Brooke Adams: Exactly!

Robbie E. Strauss: I would've said, "Let me just check to make sure," and probably would've run up there.

Brooke Adams: We were already there. You're already there, driving around. Those clueboxes were there but they were pretty far apart -- really far apart. Once we had talked to them later on, they didn't check in until at least an hour or an hour-and-a-half after us.

So because we told them that, which we also didn't think that this could've happened, the cyclists could've caught up in that amount of time and it would've been the scientists getting eliminated. We didn't think we were so far ahead.


We were just thinking, "Hey let's get to the mat and we'll throw them a loop and have to make them search for their clue." But in the end, I mean, that could've worked against us because we could've kept the cyclists in. But all in all, we were just trying to play our own game. Like Rob said, we returned the favor. They were rude to us, so we were [back].

Reality TV World: There's always the debate about whether brains or brawn is more important in the Race. What's your opinion? Because you guys obviously prided yourselves on getting to the end mainly thanks to your physical ability. Amy and Maya, on the other hand, thought they brought intelligence to the table. Do you think it's 50/50?

Robbie E. Strauss: Yeah, it's just a little bit of everything. And that's thrown in with the luck of getting in the right cab and getting the right directions, and all that kind of stuff comes into play also.

Brooke Adams: Brains and Brawn also come in when deciding which Detour to do. Some of them are more physically challenging and some of them are, you know, mental and it takes patience and following directions.

But you don't always know which is which, and Rob and I tried to -- after the stupid torch thing, we really wanted to make sure that we chose anything that had to do with strength, because that's obviously plays to our favor. But then luck gets involved and yeah, like Rob said.


Reality TV World: Next season will feature the brand new dating couples format, which is a huge departure from seasons past. Do you like the idea? And since you two raced as a dating couple, do you think the pairs who know each other prior to the start of the first leg will have a big advantage over those just meeting?

Brooke Adams: I think it's going to be awesome. I think this is really cool, the way that they're doing it. But I can't even imagine though how alone half the couples who don't know each other [will be].

Because you're there and you're with your partner for so much and there's so much alone time -- like no phones, no computers. For the majority of the Race, you're with just your partner alone. So, I think that could play a toll. And they don't know each other; They're going to be stuck in a hotel room together.

Reality TV World: That would probably be awkward. (Laughs)

Brooke Adams: Yeah! You're alone and you really confide in the person you're with whether it's your significant other, your best friend, whatever it may be -- coworker. But you two know each other. Now, having two strangers that are going to really be alone trying to figure out who this person is. So I think it could really, like, mentally start to break them down.

But, you know, Rob and I, there were also moments when we fought. I don't think it slowed us down really because we just bickered and said things as we were going along, but you'll have teams where that could really take a toll on them.


And then you have these teams who might really start hating each other because they just don't know each other. Rob and I know how to work through it and just say what we're going to say but keep going. Strangers might, I mean, it could blow up, you know?

Reality TV World: How were you cast on The Amazing Race? How did you end up on the show?

Brooke Adams: We got spotted by somebody -- a casting agent -- who thought that I had a really cool character being a wrestler, and they asked me who I would bring and they were interested in another wrestler.

So I said, "How about my boyfriend? He's really cool and awesome, loud and outspoken." It's something that he wanted to do prior to being with me already, and we sent in our casting video and they fell in love with us!

Click here to read the first half of Brooke and Robbie's exclusive interview with Reality TV World.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski