Tyler Wade heads into the 2025 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo as one of the most seasoned, steady and mentally tested headers in ProRodeo—and he enters the Finals eighth in the world with $143,366 won on the year.

The reigning and two-time world champion from Terrell, Texas, has built a career on speed and instinct, but 2025 proved he can hang on through the stretches when nothing seems to go right.

“This was probably the biggest up and down year I’ve ever had,” Wade said. “I’ve never lost that long and never won that much in certain times. We had a forty-thousand-dollar week and then nothing. That’s how it went.”

The rough start to the summer hit harder than most. Wade left home prepared, mounted, and confident. Then everything buckled.

“I missed the first eleven steers when I left home,” he said. “When you leave for the summer, you’ve bought the horses, you’ve done the work, and to just fail time and time again right off the bat is pretty deflating.”

He didn’t get much relief from his own body. He started the Fourth of July run sick, and the combination of losing sleep, missing steers and trying to push through it only made things worse.

Still, he and partner Wesley Thorp held steady.

“I never doubted myself,” Wade said. “You just get down about the circumstances and want to do good. But we’ve been in the game long enough to know how fast it can turn around. The biggest thing is just to keep going.”

The turnaround came, fittingly, in St. Paul. Most fans will remember the arena record. Wade remembers the steer before it.

“I had been missing and everything felt uncomfortable,” Wade said. “After I missed the first one at St. Paul, I told Wesley, ‘Hey, this new horse feels good. I got a good throw. I’m not going to miss again.’ And that was it. I never really got into a slump after that.”

The next steer set the tone, then the next run lit the fuse. He and Thorp blasted a 3.8 to break the arena record and kick off the streak that carried them through the rest of July.

Wade’s 2025 season stacked up wins across Texas and the Northwest. He and Thorp grabbed wins at Spanish Fork, Sikeston, Omak and Oakley City, building momentum after that rough start and pushing him firmly inside the Top 15 heading into the fall.

His horsepower stayed sharp, too. Espuela Bro—his 2024 AQHA Head Horse of the Year—continued to be a difference-maker. Wade worked in two other backup horses to give “Spur” more of a break than usual, winning the Spicer Gripp with Thorp on his young horse, Shimmy.

When the conversation shifts to Vegas, Wade doesn’t pretend it’s magic. He sees the Thomas and Mack for what it is: fast, unforgiving and honest.

“I don’t know that I’m that clutch,” he said. “I’ve had good years and bad years. But it’s a long ten days. You can’t get too up or down. If we make the run we prepare for, it’s fast enough. We don’t have to try anything different once we get there.”

That run is simple.

“The setup’s fast, so I just try to catch,” Wade said. “Everybody can throw fast in that building. We’re not all going to start that far apart. The team that finishes the best is the team that kills them.”

Off the road, Wade stays grounded with his wife Jessi and their two kids, Wynnlee and Weston. Experience has sharpened him, but humility still drives him.

“I think you find out who the best guys are when they can go through both the highs and the lows. It’s sunshine and rainbows when it’s good. Who are you when it’s going bad? The best guys can always stay hooked.” — Tyler Wade

With two world titles already behind him and another NFR ahead, Wade enters Las Vegas with the same plan he’s always relied on: prepare, stay steady, and finish the best.