Missouri Thunder Keeps Bucking: Fifth Straight Win Shakes Up PBR Teams Action in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas — Hang onto your hats, folks — the Missouri Thunder is officially on a tear.

Missouri rode four of its five bulls Saturday night at the Moody Center, piling up 353.45 points to knock off the league-leading Nashville Stampede 353.45-263.7 during the second night of PBR Teams’ Gambler Days presented by Tecovas.

That makes five straight victories for the Thunder, who improved to 8-5 and are suddenly charging hard toward the top of the standings as the PBR Teams season heats up.

Missouri Thunder Comes Out of the Chutes Flying

Nashville struck first when Alan de Souza put 88.90 points on the board aboard XIT Socks In A Box.

Missouri answered immediately.

Paulo Eduardo Rossetto climbed aboard Hard Candy and delivered an 89.45-point ride, putting the Thunder in front and extending his personal riding streak to six consecutive bulls.

Rossetto is now 10-for-13 this season.

That is the kind of consistency that makes a bull rider mighty valuable when the games get tight.

Thunder Keeps the Scores Coming

Missouri wasn’t finished.

Julio Cesar Marques covered XIT Knock Out for 88.2 points in the third frame.

Felipe Furlan then made good on a re-ride opportunity, putting up 87.7 points aboard Bowser.

And with the outcome already decided, Maverick Smith climbed into the chute in the fifth and tacked on another 88.1 points on Hoka Hey.

Four qualified rides.

353.45 points.

And another win in the books.

Nashville still had plenty of fight.

Rogério Venâncio rode Sucker Pop for 87.9 points, while Riquelmi Silva added 86.9 aboard Cowboy Playboy.

The Stampede remains atop the PBR Teams standings at 10-3, but Missouri has served notice that the race is getting tighter.

Texas Rattlers Silence the Austin Crowd

The home fans came ready for an Austin Gamblers celebration.

The Texas Rattlers had other ideas.

Texas defeated Austin 176.85-91.45, taking the second edition of the 2026 Land.com Texas Cup and spoiling the Gamblers’ shot at a perfect homestand.

Brady Fielder got things rolling with an 87.2-point ride on Snappy.

Then came one of the night’s standout performances.

Daniel Keeping climbed aboard Cherry Chew — a bull who had thrown off every rider in his previous 23 outs — and stayed aboard for 89.65 points.

That broke a streak stretching across 23 attempts and gave Texas the ride it needed to put the home team under serious pressure.

Leme Delivers Another 90-Point Ride

If there is one cowboy you do not want to count out, it is three-time PBR World Champion Jose Vitor Leme.

Leme gave Austin its only qualified ride of the matchup, scoring 91.45 points aboard Up The Ante.

The ride extended Leme’s streak to eight straight games.

He also continues to lead the PBR Teams MVP race with 10 qualified rides this season.

And here’s the number worth circling.

That was Leme’s 92nd career 90-point ride.

He now sits just two behind two-time PBR World Champion Chris Shivers, whose 94 career 90-point rides stand as the all-time mark.

Two rides away from history.

That will be one storyline worth watching every time Leme nods his head in the chute.

Kansas City Blanks Defending Champion Carolina

Talk about a shutout.

The Kansas City Outlaws steamrolled the defending PBR Teams champion Carolina Cowboys 268.55-0.

Sandro Batista opened the scoring by covering Purple Rain for 88.35 points.

Then came a big moment for the young gun.

Hayden Welsh, the No. 1 pick in the 2026 PBR Teams Draft, recorded the first 90-point ride of his professional PBR career, scoring 90.7 aboard Cramer.

Former PBR World Champion Cassio Dias finished the job in the fifth, delivering an 89.5-point ride on Lieutenant Dan.

Carolina went 0-for-5.

Kansas City has now beaten the Cowboys twice this season — and remarkably, Carolina has failed to record a score in either matchup.

New York Mavericks Finally Break Through

The New York Mavericks have had a long ride through the early portion of the season, but Saturday night they finally got another one in the win column.

New York defeated the Oklahoma Wildcatters 176.5-87.9, snapping a six-game losing streak and earning only its second victory of the season.

Leonardo Castro started the Mavericks’ scoring with 86.3 points on Dirty South.

Then Marco Rizzo provided the fireworks.

The 2026 PBR Rookie of the Year covered Freedom Fighter for 90.2 points, delivering New York’s first 90-point ride of the season.

Oklahoma’s Eduardo Matos closed the matchup with an 87.9-point ride aboard Bullistic, but it was too little, too late.

Florida Freedom Edges Arizona

Sometimes one ride is all it takes.

Florida Freedom ended a five-game losing streak by edging the Arizona Ridge Riders 89.8-87.5.

Florida’s João Lucas Campos rode Peso for 89.8 points.

Arizona answered with Elizmar Jeremias scoring 87.5 on Good Riddance.

Two qualified rides.

A difference of just 2.3 points.

That is about as tight as a PBR Teams matchup gets.

PBR Teams Standings After Saturday in Austin

Missouri is now level with Arizona and Carolina at 8-5, while Nashville still holds the best record in the league.

But five straight wins can change the feel of a season in a hurry.

One More Day in Austin

The final day of Gambler Days gets underway Sunday, Aug. 23, at 1:45 p.m. CT at Moody Center.

The five-game Sunday card is scheduled to air live on the CW beginning at 3 p.m. ET, with a CBS “Game of the Week” tripleheader airing earlier in the day at noon ET.

For rodeo and bull-riding fans across Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario, Sunday offers another afternoon of eight-second showdowns, championship-level riders and some of the rankest bulls in professional sport.

And right now, everybody in the PBR Teams league has one eye on Missouri.

Because when a team has won five straight, you don’t ask whether the Thunder is coming.

You hear it.