Nashville Stampede Win First Ever PBR Team Series Championship

The Nashville Stampede celebrating their championship win. Photo: Courtesy of PBR

The Nashville Stampede pulled off the ultimate upset this weekend, winning the first ever PBR Team Series Championship after finishing the regular season in last place.

“It’s crazy,” said Nashville Stampede Head Coach Justin McBride. “I got to win two individual titles as a bull rider in this sport, and it’s nothing compared to this. The buckle is awesome, but for me, it’s about these guys who never gave up and finished on top.”

The Stampede entered the tournament in Las Vegas as the No. 8 seed and beat the No. 3 Oklahoma Freedom in the first round on Friday (Nov. 4). The team rode three bulls to stun the Freedom, defeating the powerhouse team by one ride score–264.75-176–to advance in the team tournament.

The Stampede’s performance was headlined by scores from Ryan Dirteater, who came out of retirement to seek his first championship, Cladson Rodolfo, and 2018 World Champion and Stampede No. 1 draft pick Kaique Pacheco.

In Round 2, the Stampede were with the No. 1 Austin Gamblers. Continuing their impressive run through the tournament, the Stampede bested the Gamblers by one ride score–265-175.25–to earn the first direct berth to the semifinals.

On Championship Sunday, the Stampede went head-to-head with the No. 2 Texas Rattlers in the first semifinal showdown. Due to an early score from Joao Henrique Lucas and a 90-point, fifth-frame ride from Pacheco, the Stampede punched their ticket to the title game with a 178.5-90.25 win.

In the final, qualified rides from Dirteater, Pacheco and three-time World Champion Silvano Alves, the Stampede defeated No. 5 seeded Arizona Ridge Riders 264-182.75, completing their come-from-behind surge to be crowned the inaugural PBR Team Series Champions.

After winning the championship with the Stampede, Dirteater announced he will be retiring from bull riding.

“I had my eyes on it and this was my goal,” Dirteater noted. “This is an amazing feeling. This was the goal from the beginning, to win a title with a team. Now I can walk away on top and enjoy retirement.”

With the championship win, the Stampede walk away with $1.5 million in winnings.

Nashville Stampede Finish Home Weekend With Win & Electric Atmosphere

Pictured (L-R): Kaique Pacheco, Silvano Alves, Manoelito de Souza Junior, Joao Henrique Lucas, Thiago Salgado. Photo: Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

The Stampede Days are over and the PBR Team Nashville Stampede walk away with a win and a major morale boost after performing in front of a large–and loud–home crowd at Bridgestone Arena.

The event kicked off with a string of musical performances followed by the explosive team introductions, which included a few flares and a ring of fire to add to the annual bull riding event.

Game one started off hot with the Texas Rattlers earning a crucial win with an upset victory against the No. 1 Missouri Thunder.

Kaique Pacheco. Photo: Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

The Stampede were the headliners each night and played the final game in front of fans of the new Music City pro sports team.

No. 2 bull rider Kaique Pacheco was first and had a near perfect ride with a score of 88.75 points against the Carolina Cowboys. His teammate, Thiago Salgado, earned a score of 87.5 points, giving Nashville an early lead. Sadly, the rest of the team failed to ride their bull for the regulation eight seconds, giving the Cowboys a 324-176.25 win.

Day two was a bit different as both Nashville and the Texas Rattlers struggled with their bulls as all Rattler riders failed to complete a ride and the first four riders for the Stampede failed to finish a ride. However, the newly signed, three-time PBR World Champion Silvano Alves pulled off the walk-off win with the only completed ride. After the win, the entire team, along with head coach Justin McBride, jumped into the pit to celebrate as a team in their home arena.

Silvano Alves. Photo: Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

In the final game of the weekend, the Stampede came up short against the Kansas City Outlaws with Salgado picking up the only ride of the night and nabbing a score of 85. Nashville went on to lose 162.75-85 and fell to a record of 3-7. They now sit in sixth place.

The PBR Team Series next stop is Austin, Texas for the home series of the Austin Gamblers from Aug. 26-28.

Nashville Stampede Brings The World’s Most Dangerous Sport To Music City [Interview]

Stampede during day one of the Cheyenne PBR Teams event. Photo: Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media

Bull riding is one of the oldest and most dangerous sports in America. Now, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) is reintroducing the sport in a different way.

The new PBR Team Series offers a unique experience for bull riding and rodeo fans as they can follow their favorite bull riders competing on teams to earn points and win games. There are currently eight teams competing, one of which being the Nashville Stampede, the newest pro sports team in Music City.

“It’s been a long time in the making,” Nashville Stampede CEO & General Manager Tina Battock shares in an interview with The Sports Credential. “PBR has been talking about this for several years–decades even. It’s been an idea in the background. The fact that we’ve been working so hard on it for the last year and it’s finally happening, we’re really excited to be here and get it launched.”

The team was acquired by the Texas-based media company Morris Communications of which Battock has been the President of since 2016. Originally, Morris wanted to acquire a Texas-based team, but as things changed and a Dallas/Fort-Worth team was already picked up, Nashville became the clear choice.

“The questions became where’s a great place to go? Where’s the good market? Where is the right audience? Where has a great venue? What aligns with the kind of team that we want to have from sort of an ethos standpoint, and where could we pull off a really good event?” Battock explains. “Nashville emerged as the front runner for us right away.

Kaique Pacheco. Photo: Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

“I would love to say there was a lot of analysis and data that went into it, but it was one of those super intuitive, gut decisions where it happened that the Nashville event was coming up about six weeks after we had flagged it as our market. We came here and as soon as we saw how engaged the fan base was, how welcoming the city was and how accommodating Bridgestone was to work with, we thought this is our place. It just instantly felt like home and it fell into place for us.”

The Nashville Stampede joins the Carolina Cowboys, Oklahoma Freedom, Austin Gamblers, Kansas City Outlaws, Texas Rattlers, Arizona Ridge Riders, and Missouri Thunder as first teams in the inaugural team series. These teams are set with multiple world-class bull riders who compete head-to-head against each other.

Throughout the year, these teams will face off in games and the riders with the best accumulative scores will be awarded a win. This new format offers the sport a more competitive and group aspect for average sports fans who may not be familiar with PBR.

The team is led by two-time PBR champion and coach Justin McBride. McBride is one of the most successful bull riders in the sport’s history and was inducted into the Bull Riding Hall of Fame in 2020. After retiring from the sport in 2008, he remained around as a TV broadcaster until he saw the opportunity to coach.

Nashville Stampede head coach Justin McBride with bull rider Joao Henrique Lucas during day two of the Cheyenne PBR Teams event. Photo: Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media.

“For me, I had a pretty good job in TV,” McBride notes. “I was still around the sport I loved and I got to break it down every week. I really enjoyed what I was doing, so it had to be a good fit. It had to be the right team. When I spoke with Tina and learned a little more about their company and about what they stood for, that was the team that was the best fit for me.”

McBride is very familiar with Nashville as he recorded two records in Music City and performed at the Grand Ole Opry in 2009. He also worked on a weekly live TV show for RFD-TV for two years, so Nashville is not a new city or market for McBride.

“Between cutting the records and doing the little show on RFD, I’ve been in Nashville a lot over the years,” McBride says with a chuckle. “The PBR has been having a great event in Nashville for two plus decades. It’s one of the standout events every year on the regular season tour, so I’m really excited to give Nashville something of their own when it comes to the sport. I hope in the years to come that we can have more than one home event. I hope it turns into where we have several home events throughout the course of the year.”

So far, there have been seven games played over three weekends. Each team gets the opportunity to host a weekend in their respective city.

Next up is Music City on Aug. 19-21 and the team could not be more excited.

2018 PBR World Champion and current Stampede rider Kaique Pacheco. Photo: Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media.

“It will be great,” adds former PBR World Champion and current No. 2 bull rider in the world Kaique Pacheco. “It’s making me more excited. We had a good start in Cheyenne.”

The Stampede started off the season with a win in Cheyenne, Wyoming against the Carolina Cowboys when veteran rider Ryan Dirteater clinched the game winning ride. Since then, the team has won one more game while dropping five.

They sit in sixth place with a record of 2-5-0, but with the upcoming home series in Nashville, that could all change.

Along with veteran riders such as Pacheco, Dirteater and newly signed three-time world champion Silvano Alves, 18-year-old Jaxton Mortensen joins the Stampede’s practice team.

Mortensen has been riding his whole life and has already seen some success, winning the the Yavapai Bottle Gas Mile High PBR Presented by Navajo Nation And Coors Light in Arizona, his home state. When the opportunity comes, he could become one of the sport’s next big riders.

“My grandpa is a world champion bareback rider and my dad actually rode with McBride back in the day in the PBR,” Mortensen shares. “When McBride needed another guy on the team, he called my dad and those were the first talks. He called me and asked me to send them some videos, and he asked if I really wanted to do it and if I was serious. I was like, ‘Heck, yeah! I got Justin McBride, one of the heroes of the sport, calling me to ask me to be on his team!'”

These athletes have rode all their lives, relying on no one but themselves to perform. The team series changes all of that.

Now these bull riders are working on a team, practicing and learning from each other with a common goal: win together.

Nashville Stampede head coach Justin McBride talking with riders Ryan Dirteater and Kaique Pacheco during day one of the Cheyenne PBR Teams event. Photo: Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media.

“That’s really important to us,” Pacheco explains. “We don’t ride for ourselves right now. We’re always working together to build a team and everybody’s doing better and working hard like a team. We’re not by ourselves anymore.”

McBride is also excited about how this season will allow him to coach and develop these veteran and young riders throughout the season and for years to come.

“So far, it’s been awesome. I can’t wait to see the growth of these guys,” McBride notes. “When you’re talking about your star five, you’re talking about really good bull riders. They are professionals and very good at what they do already. So, for me, it’s just trying to get them a little bit better every day. We’re getting guys that want to grind and get a little bit better, and I can’t wait to see just how good they get.”

With a new team coming to a hot city like Nashville, it would seem that its growth would be easy when looking at the growth of clubs like Nashville SC. However, because bull riding is a rather niche sport and they only have one home event, it will take some hard work and time to grow both the organization and the fandom.

But the Stampede is up to the task.

Ryan Dirteater. Photo: Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

“We do have a challenge because, at this point, we don’t necessarily have a home base here,” Battock says. “The way that that series is structured, we’re only here once a year. Going forward, our plan is to really find ways for us to organically integrate into the city. We have great relationships with our sports team partners. We’re really just getting acquainted with our counterparts here and focusing on who good partners would be.

“As we have more time going into next year, we want to find ways to be more involved in the community, and demonstrate the kind of team we want to be and the kind of company that we are. We’re a family owned business and always have been. It’s really important to the family ownership that we find avenues to be involved in and give back to the community.”

Bull riding is an extremely exciting sport that wants to continue to grow, and the team series offers a platform for the sport to grow into the mainstream, McBride explains.

“This team concept is going to let people be able to digest it the way they’re used to viewing other sports,” he sums. “They might not know all the ins and outs of how you stay on a bull or the technical side of it, but they can understand, ‘If this last guy gets bucked off, my team does not win. He’s got to make the eight seconds for my team to win.’ It makes it really easy to follow and not only just follow a guy, but you’re following that team.

“You are visually recognizing the Nashville Stampede, their colors, and their riders. It’s a way for fans to really sink their teeth into bull riding and become fans, not only of the sport, but of these individual teams.”

Nashville Stampede Sign Three-Time PBR World Champion Silvano Alves

Silvano Alves. Photo: Courtesy of PBR

The Nashville Stampede, has made another big move signing three-time PBR World Champion Silvano Alves via free agency.

The Pilar do Sul, Brazil native is one of the sport’s legends, etching his name in the PBR record books as the first rider to win consecutive PBR World Championships in 2011 and 2012.

Moreover, he is one of only two three-time PBR World Champions, winning a third title in 2014 to match Adriano Moraes (1994, 2001 and 2006). During that third gold buckle campaign, Alves also set the record for logging 24 consecutive rides on the elite tour.

Adding to his long list of accomplishments, Alves is also one of only two riders to be named Rookie of the Year (2010) and World Champion (2011) in consecutive years.

During the 2022 individual season, Alves qualified for his 13th consecutive PBR World Finals, concluding the campaign ranked No. 39 in the world. Since the PBR World Finals in May, Alves has been a consistent force on the Challenger Series, registering seven top 10 finishes across 11 entered events.

Alves joins fellow PBR World Champion and first round Draft pick Kaique Pachecoalong with 12-time PBR World Finals qualifier Ryan Dirteater, who came out of retirement to compete in PBR Teams, on the talent-packed Stampede roster, coached by two-time PBR World Champion Justin McBride.

The Nashville lineup also includes Dener BarbosaManoelito de Souza JuniorJoao Henrique LucasDustin OrtizFernando Henrique NovaisJaxton MortensenLucas Fideles SouzaMason Moody and Thiago Salgado.

The Nashville Stampede will make their hometown debut Aug. 19-21 when they host the league’s seven other teams for Stampede Days at Bridgestone Arena. The bull riding action for the 2022 PBR Team Series’ Stampede Days  begins at 7:45 p.m. CDT on Friday, Aug. 19, at 6:45 p.m. CDT; on Saturday, Aug. 20, and 12:15 p.m. CDT; and on Sunday, Aug. 21

PBR World Champion Kaique Pacheco Signs Multi-Year Deal with Nashville Stampede

Kaique Pacheco. Photo: Courtesy of the PBR

The Nashville Stampede, Music City’s first-ever professional bull riding team competing in the landmark PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Team Series, has signed No. 2 overall draft pick and 2018 PBR World Champion Kaique Pacheco to a multi-year endorsement agreement.

Pacheco has been one of the most consistent riders in the PBR since debuting on American soil in 2014. The 2015 season marked the Brazilian native’s first in the PBR’s premier Unleash The Beast series, when he concluded the year No. 2 in the world, winning three elite tour events and being crowned Rookie of the Year.

“It’s very important for me to officially be a part of the Stampede team and this family. It makes me really happy,” says Pacheco. “I watched Justin McBride before I came to the United States. He’s one of the greatest bull riders we’ve ever seen, and it’s awesome having him behind me and supporting me.”

In the seasons that followed, Pacheco finished No. 2 in the world in 2016 and No. 5 in 2017 before being crowned the 2018 PBR World Champion. After an incredible second-half surge during the regular season, Pacheco battled through torn ligaments in his left knee sustained days prior to the PBR World Finals to capture the coveted gold buckle. He concluded the year having gone 42-for-80 (52.5%).

While Pacheco spent the majority of 2019 sidelined as he recovered from injury, the “Ice Man” returned with a vengeance in 2020 when he concluded the season No. 6. In the two years since, Pacheco has finished runner-up to the world title in both 2021 and 2022.

“Securing Kaique as a rider and our team captain is an important pillar in the foundation of the Stampede team along with the support of our coaching staff and ownership,” says Stampede General Manager Tina Battock. “Our primary focus is to not only prepare for this season but to set us up for long term success.”

During the most recent season, a resilient Pacheco, who was riding through a broken foot, contended for the gold buckle until the final out of the season. Throughout the 2022 PBR Unleash The Beast campaign, Pacheco logged two event wins and five 90-point rides. He also went a torrid 28-for-51, covering 54.90% of his bovine athlete opponents.

Pacheco is joined on the Nashville Stampede by fellow protected riders Dener Barbosa, Ryan Dirteater, Manoelito de Souza Junior, Joao Henrique Lucas, Fernando Henrique Novais, Lucas Fideles and Thiago Salgado. The team’s practice squad includes Jaxton Mortensen, Mason Moody and Dustin Ortiz.

With one regular series 2022 PBR Team Series event complete, the Nashville Stampede are currently fifth in the battle to bring Music City its next national title. At the season-launch event in Cheyenne, Wyoming in late July, the Stampede went 1-1, including a 337.75-257.25 victory against the Carolina Cowboys in a dramatic shootout. In the team’s march to victory, Pacheco delivered a crucial 86.5-point ride on Mr. Winston.

“I feel very lucky that as a coach of a brand-new franchise, Pacheco is the guy that lays the foundation for what the Stampede will be for years to come,” says Nashville Stampede Head Coach and two-time PBR Champion Justin McBride. “His past accolades speak for themselves, but his commitment to excellence and his calm demeanor are exactly what you want when tasking someone to lead a franchise.”

During the 2022 season for the groundbreaking PBR Team Series, each of the eight founding teams will compete in 28 game, held at 10 regular-season events, leading into a championship in Las Vegas (Nov. 4-6). In addition to competing at two neutral site events, each of the eight teams will host a three-day homestand.

The Nashville Stampede will play in Music City for the first time from Aug. 19-21 when the team hosts Stampede Days at Bridgestone Arena.

Brice Long Releases ‘Stampede’ Ahead Of Nashville Stampede’s August Event

Pictured (L-R): Kaique Pacheco, songwriter Wynn Varble, Stampede coach Justin McBride, and country artist Brice Long. Photo: Courtesy of Josh Vaughn Photography

As the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Team Series season kicks off, the Music City-based team–the Nashville Stampede–prepare for its home event at Bridgestone Arena on Aug. 19-21. Gearing up for the upcoming festivities, the Nashville Stampede now has its own theme song. “Stampede,” written and performed by country artist Brice Long, debuted on all streaming platforms on Friday, July 22.

Long’s songwriting hits include the No. 1 singles “Heartache On The Dance Floor” (Jon Pardi) and “Nothing On But The Radio” (Gary Allan), along with Randy Houser’s “Like a Cowboy,” which garnered a nomination for CMA Song of the Year.

Stampede Head Coach and former two-time PBR World Champion Justin McBride met Long in 2006 when traveling to Nashville to work with songwriters Tim DuBois and Wynn Varble. The pair had mutual friends as Long had grown up roping and in the western lifestyle. As their friendship grew, Long went on to write a few songs that McBride cut and was tapped to tour with him, playing guitar and doing a few songs on his own.

When McBride found out he was coaching the Stampede, he reached out to Long and explained what the Stampede meant and what he wanted it to convey. Long is the sole writer on the track.

Throughout a 10-event regular-season, each PBR team will compete in 28 five-on-five bull riding games. The winner of each game will be the team with the top aggregate score. During the regular-season, each team will host a three-day homestand, with the Nashville Stampede scheduled to host their first home event Aug. 19-21.

In the first shootout of the new PBR Team Series, the Nashville Stampede outrode the Carolina Cowboys by one qualified ride to register the team’s first win in the new league, 337.75-257.25. In a dramatic ride-for-ride showdown, the riders of the Stampede and Cowboys covered 70% of the game’s bulls. The Stampede (4-for-5) boasted an 80% riding average, while the Cowboys (3-for-5) concluded the game with a 60% conversion rate.

The PBR Teams Series’ Cheyenne event continues tonight (July 26) at 8:45 p.m. CT. CBS Sports Network will televise all the action from the second day of action with coverage beginning at 9 p.m. CT. CBS Sports will also air a one-hour highlight show from the season-launch PBR Team Series event on Sunday, July 31 at 12 p.m. CT.