Stetson Wright – Round 1 Winner

By Patrick Everson

Stetson Wright missed 18 rounds of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo – the final eight rounds in 2023, and all of 2024. Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, it was like he never left.

Wright came back with a bang, winning the first go-round of saddle broncs, then coming back about an hour later and taking the first round of bull riding.

That’s a quick $73,336 added to his 2025 earnings, on his first night under the T&M lights since the second go-round in 2023.

“I had butterflies. I was trying not to puke before my bronc ride,” Wright said. “After 18 rounds off in the Finals, it was pretty nervy getting back. But it was awesome.”

Far better than the last time out on the Thomas & Mack dirt. On that Friday evening during the 2023 NFR, the five-time all-around world champion left the arena in agony, unable to compete any longer due to a severe groin injury. He sat out the entire 2024 season, which is what it took to heal between surgery and recovery.

He had a solid but not spectacular 2025 regular season in saddle broncs, and an excellent season in bull riding. Then he teed off Thursday night, first spurring Renegade to 90 points to win the saddle broncs and $36,668.

Wright thought it was a good ride, but looked to brothers Rusty and Statler to get a better idea, before the judges weighed in.

“I saw Rusty jumping up and down. So I thought it might be 90,” Wright said. “It was two years of visualizing everything. That bronc ride was everything I wished for and then some.”

Wright then narrowly outpaced Wacey Schalla – his chief competition for the 2025 all-around and bull riding world championships – by riding Big Shasta to a big score of 89.75 for another $36,668. Schalla was close behind in second with an 88.5 aboard Heartbreaker.

After the first go-round, Wright is now No. 1 in the season-long bull riding world championship standings, with $396,843. That’s just a few thousand dollars ahead of Schalla ($391,576).

Wright has a bigger hill to climb in saddle broncs, now sitting ninth in the world standings at $212,004, about $103,000 behind brother Ryder, who is No. 1. In the prestigious all-around, Wright put a little cushion between himself – at $485,007 – and Schalla – at $423,342.

In all three championship races, he’s put the rest of the field on alert.

“I tell my daughter and keep telling my family: The king is back,” Wright said.

One night, two wins, and nine more money-making nights in front of him.

“I just feel good right now,” Wright said, before deferring some credit to his father Cody Wright, a two-time world saddle bronc champ in his day. “My dad said, ‘Just trust your stuff.’ Right now, I trust my stuff.”