Arkansan wipes away tears, wrestles competitor to advance on ABC's 'The Bachelor'

Tia Booth
Tia Booth

The Arkansan hoping for the heart of Arie Luyendyk Jr. earned a rose and made it to another week of competition on ABC's The Bachelor on Monday night.

Tia Booth, a physical therapist from Weiner, was initially nervous to participate in that week's group date: wrestling one of the other remaining 17 contestants in costume.

"I'm willing to fight for Arie's heart but not in the way that these women want me to," the 26-year-old said through tears.

Still, she showed up in the ring in a debutante-inspired dress, forcing her competitor to climb out over the ropes.

"It was actually a lot of fun," she said to Luyendyk later, before the two shared their first kiss.

Later, Luyendyk set up a surprise for the Poinsett County native — a candlelit conversation sitting on hay bales and drinking moonshine from a mason jar.

"Tia makes me laugh, and I'm becoming more and more attracted to her," he said.

But Raven Gates, a friend of Booth's from Lawrence County and a runner-up on The Bachelor in 2017, lamented the episode's exploitation of Southern stereotypes on Twitter.

"There's more to country girls than moonshine and hay bales," the Hoxie fashion boutique owner wrote in a post accompanied by an eye-roll emoji.

Luyendyk was a runner-up on The Bachelorette in 2012. The show airs Mondays at 7 p.m. on ABC.

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