Bullfighting tandem works 13th straight NFR

There are more than 18,000 seats inside the Thomas & Mack Center when the facility is configured for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

But there is one place in the stands Dusty Tuckness is guaranteed to look every evening without fail.

He doesn’t know the spectators who are occupying the seats in Section 109, Row R. But his gaze will always briefly drift there. It’s a moment he uses to remind himself of where he’s been and where he is now.

In 2007, Tuckness got the invite from now-retired bull rider Kanin Asay to come to Las Vegas. For 10 nights, the up-and-coming bullfighter sat in Section 109, Row R, watching the action unfold. He dreamed of the day when he would get to work the floor, fighting bulls and protecting riders.

A year later, the dream became reality, as Tuckness was selected as an alternate, getting to work late in the schedule. The following December, he was standing in the dirt as one of the bullfighters working NFR.

“There hasn’t been a performance that goes by, when I step in the arena, that I don’t look up at Section 109, Row R. I just remember where I come from. You can’t take this for granted, so go make the best of it,” Tuckness said.

Since 2009, Tuckness has been chosen by PRCA competitors as a full NFR participant, giving him 17 straight trips to work rodeo’s biggest stage.

And since 2013, he’s worked alongside a very familiar face.

Tuckness and Cody Webster first crossed paths at a practice pen in Oklahoma, back in 2006. Webster was a high schooler, eager to learn about the profession. Tuckness, still a relative newcomer to the arena himself, offered insights on what he had learned so far. Over the next few years, the duo ended up at numerous events or training opportunities together.

Their shared interests eventually spawned a friendship. There was even a period of time when the duo, along with several other fresh faced bull riders, had a compound on land Webster’s aunt owned in Wayne, Okla., where they hung out in between performances, hitting the gym and practicing against bulls.

At some point, the pair started aligning their schedules and working the same rodeos. The result: arguably the best bullfighting tandem in the sport’s history.

“I’d say our chemistry in the arena is probably something that can never be matched,” Webster said. “We’re so in tune with each other. We know what the other one is doing before the wreck even breaks out. We have that eerie sense of knowing where each other is going.”

That level of understanding keeps bringing the pair back to Las Vegas every December. The 2025 NFR marks the 13th straight year Webster and Tuckness were chosen to work the event together.

This installment, however, might be the most unlikely. Webster suffered a shoulder injury back in May that resulted in 12 separate dislocations over the course of the season. He had surgery on Aug. 6 and has spent the weeks since rehabbing. Even with the hiatus at the end of the regular season, the cowboys in the PRCA still requested he be at the NFR, if he was able.

“It’s realistic to think at some point there’s going to be a change, your run is going to come to an end,” Webster said. “Like I have for 12 years, they pick you, and it gives you a sense of you can’t control the outcome. It’s up to the (bull riders) and who they trust to keep them safe for 10 days. It’s something I don’t want to miss.”

This NFR, Tuckness and Webster will be joined by a new face inside Thomas & Mack, as Austin Ashley, a rising star in the profession, received his first selection to work the event.

Tuckness remembers that first time call way back in 2008 to let him know he had been picked to be in Las Vegas. It’s a feeling of nervous energy he still gets when his phone buzzes in October and a Colorado Springs number pops up.

Seeing Ashley go through the same experience this year was a reminder of what it means to be in this position. Tuckness is grateful for more than a decade of doing what he loves at the profession’s pinnacle.

Sharing that experience with a friend like Webster has only made it better.

“To see the joy and excitement that (Austin’s) got really draws me back to my first time and even Web‘s first time. I was still living in Wyoming at the time and when I got the first phone call. We’ve kind of got to experience all those moments together,” Tuckness said. “Each year you can learn how to go about it a little different, but it still means just as much as it ever did with the first one. I look back now and I think 13 years together at the Super Bowl of rodeo, it’s pretty humbling. It’s hard to really put into words. To be able to, I feel, consistently work at a higher level, year in and year out, through the hardships, the highs and lows, blood sweat and tears, it’s just neat to look back on and see where we’ve come from.”