PUEBLO, Colo. – The Missouri Thunder and Carolina Cowboys, two of the founding teams in the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Camping World Team Series, announced a trade today sending 2020 PBR Rookie of the Year Boudreaux Campbell to the Missouri Thunder in exchange for the Thunder’s first-round pick in the 2024 New Rider Draft, a position to be determined in the upcoming draft lottery.

“We are thrilled to acquire a superstar talent like Boudreaux Campbell,” said Missouri Thunder Co-Head Coach and General Manager Luke Snyder. “We look forward to the upcoming season and adding Campbell’s proven talent, upbeat personality, and cowboy try to an already young and hungry locker room. His stats and accomplishments speak for themselves. As a past world finals event winner and Rookie of the Year, he was just the addition [Co-head Coach] Ross [Coleman] and I were looking for to come out swinging in 2024.”

Campbell, who went 5-for-18 with Carolina in the 2023 season, joins a young Thunder core that includes Paulo Eduardo Rosseto and Felipe Furlan, who are both ranked alongside the Crockett, Texas, native inside the Top 25 in the elite Unleash The Beast now underway. The ebullient cowboy burst onto the premier series in 2020, posting five Top-10 finishes in his first seven events to punch his ticket to the 2020 World Finals in Arlington, Texas. Going a near-perfect 4-for-5, including two 90-point rides, he won the prestigious event, catapulting from No. 33 to No. 3 in the world to capture the coveted Rookie of the Year and become just the sixth rookie to win the event. Now a staple on the top tour, Campbell was selected by the Cowboys in the third round of the inaugural PBR Teams draft in 2022.

“The Carolina Cowboys want to thank Boudreaux Campbell for being a big part of the Cowboys’ first two seasons in PBR Teams,” said Carolina Cowboys General Manager Austin Dillon. “We wish him well with the Missouri Thunder and he will always be a part of the Carolina Cowboys family.”

In the 2023 season, the Missouri Thunder finished with an 8-20 record but made waves at the PBR Teams Championship in Las Vegas. Fueled by monstrous performances from Furlan and Kade Madsen, Missouri became the first team in league history to win both Last Chance Games to advance to the Semifinals, the first trip to that round in Thunder history, where they were finally ousted by the regular season champion Austin Gamblers.

The 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft will likely be headlined by superstar rookies John Crimber and Clay Guiton, who have taken the tour by storm to start the year.

Crimber, who finished second in the 2023 Challenger standings despite not making his debut until mid-August, currently ranks inside the Top 20 in the early race for a gold buckle. He posted a second-place finish in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in late January, nearly winning the event after closing his weekend with a career-high 91.5-point ride on Chateau Montelena's Montana Jacket. The son of former PBR-great and current Florida Freedom Head Coach Paulo Crimber, the young gun is 6-for-15 on the top tour this season.

A friend who grew up competing alongside Crimber, Guiton recently made his UTB debut in mid-January. After being shut out in his first event, the North Carolinian caught fire, covering four of his last six and netting two Top-5 finishes in Tulsa and Houston to catapult into the Top 30 of the UTB standings.

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media