| Pixels: | 200px |
| Sport: | Bull riding |
| Founded: | 2002 |
| Champion: |  Cody Jesus |
| Website: | CBRbull.com |
Championship Bull Riding, Inc. (CBR) was a professional bull riding organization that was based in Weatherford, Texas, United States.[1]
Stock contractor Terry Williams and Texas businessman Joel Logan founded Championship Bull Riding (CBR) in Carthage, Texas, in 2002. ProRodeo Hall of Fame cowboy[2] and four-time world champion bull rider Tuff Hedeman was an integral part of the live event production and an ambassador for the organization from 2011 to 2018 after serving as president from 2005 to 2011. In early 2018, Hedeman left CBR to start his own organization: the Tuff Hedeman Bull Riding Tour.[3]
Many of the bull riders who competed in CBR were also regulars on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) circuit.
From 2002 through 2007, CBR was televised on the Outdoor Channel; in 2008 on RFD-TV; from 2009 through 2011 on Great American Country; and from 2012 through 2017 was broadcast on Fox Sports Networks.
The CBR World Finals event was held in different locations of the United States throughout the years. From 2002 through 2005, it was held in Jackson, Mississippi; from 2006 through 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada; in 2009 and 2010 in Kansas City, Missouri; in 2011 in Loveland, Colorado; and from 2012 through 2018 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at Cheyenne Frontier Days, held in conjunction with the annual PRCA rodeo there.
From 2009 through 2018, CBR awarded its annual World Champion a $100,000 bonus, and from 2013 through 2017, the winning rider of the World Finals event average was awarded $50,000.
In 2009, CBR introduced the Horizon Series, a division of lower-level events that allowed riders to work their up to the elite, televised tour.
In 2010, Cinch Jeans became the title sponsor of the televised CBR tour, thus becoming the Cinch CBR Tour. That same year, the CBR Bull Team Challenge was launched. In these events, teams of stock contractors competed against each other at CBR events with a certain number of bulls per team by showcasing them with riders for large payout purses and accumulated points towards the year-end Bull Team Challenge championship. The Million Dollar Bull Team Challenge, as it was originally called, was first held by the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) at certain Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) events in 2008. However, it was discontinued by said organization after that one year, before being picked up by CBR in 2010.
In 2013, the Cinch CBR Tour was renamed the Road to Cheyenne Tour.
For its 2016–2017 season, CBR's Road to Cheyenne Tour and its subsidiary Horizon Series visited over 70 venues across the United States.[4]
From 2013 to 2018, CBR's televised Road to Cheyenne Tour was conducted in the proprietary "8 Second Challenge" format. 24 riders would compete in the first round, and those who made a successful eight-second ride got paid $500. The top 12 riders based on scores returned to the second round, and those who made a successful eight-second ride got paid $750. The top four riders in the second round would move on to the third and final round and each rider, regardless if they made a successful eight-second ride or not, got paid $1,000. If the event leader rode his bull in the championship round and ended up scoring the most points, he received up to a $20,000 bonus. However, in the middle of the 2018 season, due to many requests from contestants, CBR's Road to Cheyenne Tour returned to a previous competition format where 35 riders would compete in a regular season event for a purse of $30,000. All 35 riders would compete in the long round and the top 15 based on scores would compete in the championship round. The winner of the event would get paid a minimum of $10,000. When the regular season ended, the top 35 riders in the world standings (combining Road to Cheyenne Tour and Horizon Series points) would qualify for the CBR World Finals. The rider who won the most points throughout the regular season and World Finals was crowned the CBR World Champion.
The 2018 Road to Cheyenne Tour regular-season events were not televised and CBR went out of business after its 2018 World Finals.[5] The World Finals itself was produced by the PBR and live-streamed on their paywall-subscription-based video-on-demand service, RidePass (which became a free, ad-supported channel on Pluto TV in July 2021).[6]
After CBR's collapse, the CBR Bull Team Challenge was renamed back to its original title of the Million Dollar Bull Team Challenge and became re-affiliated with the PBR. Its events now take place within PBR Velocity Tour stops.[7]
Mike White Ross Johnson Austin Meier Matt Austin Matt Austin Bonner Bolton Clayton Baethge
Hugo Pedrero Luke Kelley Clayton Foltyn Josh Barentine Cole Echols Sage Kimzey 2015 Cody Teel Sage Kimzey Sage Kimzey Cody Jesus Luke Kelley Cody White Josh Barentine Tyler Adrian Kritter Lamb Cody Rostockyj Koby Radley John Pitts Braden RichardsonSource:[8]