Five Much-Anticipated Rodeo Storylines for the 2025 Season

With the new PRCA and WPRA campaigns already underway, there are some interesting matchups, scenarios that will play out over the coming year.

The 2024 NFR just wrapped up, but the journey to Las Vegas in 2025 is already underway. / Roseanna Sales/For PRCA

New year. New season. New opportunities. 

While the victors from the 2024 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo are still basking in gold buckle glory, there’s little time to savor the success, as the 2025 PRCA and WPRA schedule has already begun. 

Before the calendar flips to January, here are some of the looming storylines and key players to keep an eye on as the race towards the next NFR gets underway. 

Wacey Schalla, left, was a force in the all-around race in 2024, shining in bull and bareback riding. But with Stetson Wright, right, set to return in 2025, the roughstock battle could get interesting. / Schalla by Roseanna Sales, Wright by Fernando Sam-Sin

Roughstock Battle: Wright vs. Schalla

The return of Stetson Wright to competition is significant by itself. After reeling off five-straight All-Around World Titles from 2019-23, the Milford, Utah phenom was forced to sit out the entire 2024 PRCA season to recover from a hamstring injury. 

Getting him back in the bucking chute is big. And now, he has an unofficial roughstock rival. 

With Wright out, rookie Wacey Schalla established himself as a two-event specialist, finishing seventh in bull riding to earn his spot in Las Vegas earlier this month. Along with a top 30 finish in bareback riding, Schalla ended up fourth in the all-around race, and was the only roughstock athlete in the top 10. 

While their horse riding event won’t overlap (Wright is a saddle bronc rider), the two men will be competing for the same money in bull riding. Schalla certainly was the benefactor of Wright’s absence last year, as he won or co-championed 13 bull riding events, a number that could have been different if Wright was competing. If both cowboys stay healthy, the back-and-forth between them could be very interesting. 

After a runner-up finish at CNFR and placing one spot away from making NFR, look for big things from barrel racer Tayla Moeykens in 2025. / Fernando Sam-Sin/@fsamsin

Emerging New Faces 

Every year, a fresh batch of up-and-coming competitors grab their place in the spotlight. For 2024, it was Schalla, steer wrestler Cash Robb, bareback rider Weston Timberman and saddle bronc rider Zachary Dallas, just to name a few. 

The 2025 group should be no different. 

After earning more than $41,000 on his permit and finishing runner-up to Timberman at the 2024 College National Finals Rodeo, Cooper Filipek appears to be ready to take a leap forward into the Resistol Rookie race. The man in the yellow hat is certainly one to keep track of as the season unfolds.

After placing 29th in the World Standings for 2024, saddle bronc rider Ira Dickerson has already made some noise going into the new year, with a win at the Mountain States Circuit Finals back in October and more than $13,000 already in his ledger.  

The last year featured a lot of near misses for barrel racer Tayla Moeykens. She finished runner-up at CNFR and was 16th in the final WPRA World Standings, putting her one spot (and about $7,000) shy of making NFR. Expect her to be a driven force in the coming season. 

Rocker Steiner will be back in 2025, chasing his first bareback World Title. And the runner-up finish in 2024 will likely be a big motivator coming into the season. / Click Thompson/For PRCA

Breakthrough Coming

For some, the end of the 2024 season was the realization of lifelong dreams. For others, it was a frustrating finish that will likely motivate them in the coming year. 

Bareback rider Rocker Steiner, who entered NFR ranked No. 1 in the world standings, now has back-to-back years of close but not close enough. After ending up fifth in 2023, he had to settle for runner-up this season. The first World Title has proven elusive thus far, which will likely light a fire under one of rodeo’s biggest personalities. 

Steer wrestler Will Lummus had aspirations of leaving Las Vegas with his first gold buckle in-hand. Instead, Lummus finished second in the World Standings, about $1,500 back of J.D. Struxness. It marked his third runner-up finish in the last four years. He also had to settle for second in the NFR Average race as well, just one-tenth of a second behind Robb. 

No one was riding better heading into NFR than saddle bronc competitor Brody Cress, as he had won more than $100,000 over the final eight weeks of the regular season. While he amassed a career-high in earnings with nearly $346,000, he ended up with his sixth top 10 finish in a row without capturing the big buckle. 

These are just three of the athletes looking to reach new heights over the coming year. And recent history shows it can be done. After three straight runner-up finishes in bull riding, Josh Frost broke through with his first World Title in 2024, something Steiner, Lummus and Cress will be looking to do this year. 

Tyler Waguespack made it back to NFR after a mid-season injury but was a longshot to earn another steer wrestling World Title. Expect him to get back in contention in 2025. / Click Thompson/For PRCA

Return of the Champs

There are two names who will be looking for big bounce backs in 2025, both of which didn’t get a fair shot at defending their 2023 World Titles. 

Steer wrestler Tyler Waguespack had a truly inspiring story in 2024, going from contender to injured reserve to back at NFR in a crazy sequence of events. His late season surge to sneak into Las Vegas was a testament to his hard work, but there was little chance he would make enough noise at the Thomas & Mack Center to earn a fourth-straight world title (although he did end up climbing all the way from 14th to ninth in the final World Standings). Now that he’s healed, expect the veteran to get back in the World Title conversation.  

While Waguespack did rebound after the injury to reach NFR in 2024, barrel racer Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi finished the year on the wrong side of the cutline. A year after resetting the single-season earnings record, Pozzi Tonozzi was dealt several significant setbacks, including a career-ending injury to her main mount, SR Industry Titan, in July. The unfortunate sequence of events led to her placing 21st in the WPRA World Standings, ending her run of consecutive NFR appearances at seven. 

But, the return to form appears to be in full swing. She won the Mountain States Circuit Average and has more than $10,000 in earnings already on her ledger, putting Pozzi Tonozzi on the fast track back to Las Vegas next December. 

Circuit success to get to the NFR Open has become a significant deal, with many NFR qualifiers competing in July at this event. / Courtesy NFR Open

The Importance of the NFR Open

Big events like Cheyenne, Calgary, Houston, San Antonio, Pendleton and many others can make a major impact on a rodeo competitor’s season, turning an outsider into NFR qualifier overnight. 

But, one area that has certainly changed the sport is the importance of success at the circuit level and qualifying for the NFR Open. 

Since it’s rebranding, the event has become a major draw for some of rodeo’s biggest competitors, with the likes of newly crowned All-Around World Champion Shad Mayfield and 2024 NFR qualifiers Taylor Broussard, Derrick Begay, Ryder Wright, Keenan Hayes, Riley Webb and others already locking up spots for July 2025 thanks to success at the circuit level. 

Make no mistake, this midseason event is a big deal and will only continue to grow as PRCA and WPRA competitors stake a balance between a country-wide schedule and focusing on circuit events. 

Of the eight 2024 NFR Open event champions, half parlayed that success into a trip to Las Vegas for the big show. The winter building rodeos are big, as is the Fourth of July marathon, but a visit to Pikes Peak in mid-July is becoming just as important and this will be a showcase event to keep an eye on.