2025 World Champion Statler Wright

By Patrick Everson

The first family of saddle bronc riding proved to be a band of brothers on Saturday night, for the 10^th and final go-round of the 2025 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

And when the dust settled, it was the youngest, Statler Wright, who walked away with the NFR average title, which boosted him to his first world championship.

“I started riding broncs in 2020. I’m up here in five short years,” Wright said from the stage on the Thomas & Mack Center dirt. “All I have to say is that I didn’t see this coming.”

Going into the last ride, there was a very good chance that a Wright would claim the season-long world championship.

But you couldn’t have imagined how close it was. In an exhilarating round, Stetson Wright and Ryder Wright both scored 89.75 points to split first place and claim $32,824 apiece.

Statler got a respectable 87.5 to tie for sixth, good for a modest $2,957. But that ride clinched first place in the 10-day average, dumping another $94,036 into his checking account.

Statler needed almost every dollar of that to edge Ryder for the prestigious world championship gold buckle. Statler finished the year with $455,940, a mere $346 more than Ryder’s $455,594.

And it was a 1-2-3 Wright finish in the world standings, as Stetson took third at $394,457.

In just his second NFR, Statler nabbed his first saddle bronc gold buckle, getting him into the club with his brothers, as Stetson also has one and Ryder three. Oh, and dad Cody is a two-time world saddle bronc world champ, while uncles Jesse and Spencer Wright have a gold buckle apiece.

“This week, you can’t imagine something like this,” Statler said. “It’s everything. It’s what you dream of. To be able to do it alongside my brothers is pretty special.”