2025 Year-End Edition

things that I wasn’t supposed to do,” Wright said. “Then all through the year, it was just knockout, punctured lung, broken ribs, just a bunch of beatings I was taking. “But standing here today, it was worth every second of it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” After months of hype in the all-around race between Wright and Schalla, the two traded blows in the early rounds. But Wright

When Wright received his two buckles on the stage af ter the NFR, it was a far cry from January, when he sat in the parking lot at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, hoping somebody would turn out to give him a chance to enter as a replacement. “I’ve always got pretty unrealistic goals in my mind,” Wright said. “I always think I can do more than every

body thinks I can. I sat in Denver in the coldest part of the year, freezing to death every day, and just kept walk ing up trying to get a spot. I just knew I needed a chance. “I did get dis couraged because you go from the top of the world and then you get dropped to the bottom,” Wright continued. “You’re trying to walk up when you’ve got eight world titles. It was a little draining on my mind, but at the end of the day, I knew what I wanted to get back to. So I just kept fighting.” Wright won seven total rounds at the NFR between sad dle bronc and bull riding. He now has 23 career NFR round wins. This year, he had four in saddle bronc riding and three in bull rid

began to take con trol as the competi tion progressed. Entering Round 10, all Wright had to do was wait for the bareback riding to come to an end. The 26-year old Beaver, Utah, cowboy had built a big enough lead over Schalla for the all-around title that all he had to do was wait to see where the 20-year old phenom placed in the round. Schalla’s 89.75-point ride on Pete Carr Pro Rodeo’s Resistol’s Secrets Out was good enough for a trip to the pay win dow. But it brought an end to the all-around world championship race before Wright had to get on the back of another saddle bronc horse. The champion ship marked the sixth in all-around for Wright. But he wasn’t done. Wright went on

From left: Ryder and Stetson Wright during Round 10 of the 2025 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo on Dec. 13 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. (PRCA photo by Kathryn Coleman)

ing. His seven wins eclipsed his personal record of six round wins at the 2020 NFR at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. ProRodeo Hall of Famer Trevor Brazile, the King of Cowboys, was the last cowboy to capture seven round wins at Finals rodeos. In 2015, Brazile won five rounds at the NFR and two rounds at the National Finals Steer Roping. “It feels really good,” Wright said of being in that company. “And to only be 26, I feel like I’m not that far down (that list). We will see where this takes me.” Zach Alvira and Tracy Renck contributed to this story

to place third in the average for bull riding and secured his 10th world championship – (six in all-around 2019 2023, 2025; three in bull riding 2020, 2022, 2025; and saddle bronc riding 2021) in the process. Those 10 world championships put him in the same conversation as PRORODEO legends. Only Trevor Bra zile (26); Guy Allen (18); Jim Shoulders (16); Dean Ol iver (11); and Everett Bowman (10) have accomplished that feat. Wright’s six all-around world titles tied him with Larry Mahan (1966-70, 1973) and Tom Ferguson (1974-1979).

6

PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS