Mired in Season-Long Slump, Wing Searching for Answers
By: Darci Miller
September 20, 2018
Stormy Wing went 1-for-4 at the Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour stop in Portland, Maine, finishing eighth. Photo: Andre Silva/BullStockMedia.com.
PUEBLO, Colo. – If life is a series of peaks and valleys, then 2018 has been the Grand Canyon for Stormy Wing.
Wing finished 2017 the No. 9-ranked bull rider in the world and was a member of the winning Team USA squad at the inaugural PBR Global Cup in Edmonton. He had two premier series event wins and one 15/15 Bucking Battle victory, and rode World Champion Bull SweetPro’s Bruiser for a huge 95.25 points at the Ty Murray Invitational in March.
It was a career season for a rider that had been a stalwart on the premier series since 2010.
And then it all went south.
Wing began the 2018 season on the 25th PBR: Unleash The Beast. But he failed to record qualified rides at eight events and, by April, he’d fallen out of the Top 35 and joined the Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour.
“In bull riding, whenever you’re up, you’re up, and when you’re down, you’re down,” Wing told Colby Yates on RidePass at the RVT stop in Portland, Maine. “I can literally say I’ve been the lowest this year, and I haven’t figured out what that one thing is. Whenever I figure it out I will come back out here and tell you, for sure.”
Wing has been stymied by his recent struggles and recognizes that his performance in 2018 has been both uncharacteristic and unacceptable.
“It’s just a matter of getting up and doing it, doing your job,” Wing said. “That’s one thing I haven’t been doing this year, and myself more than anybody knows that that’s unacceptable, for one. And it’s not me. I love bull riding more than anything and I’m good at it, but whenever I don’t do my job, it doesn’t look like it. So that’ll wear and tear on you.”
Other than the Global Cup in November, Wing hasn’t won an event since the 15/15 Bucking Battle at the Express Employment Professionals Classic on August 12, 2017, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Even qualified rides have been hard to come by this year. Wing is 11-for-63 at all levels of competition and is ranked 111th in the world standings. He is 615 world points out of the Top 35.
However, Wing hopes that his performance in Portland last weekend will be something to build on. He went 1-for-4, riding Darlin for 81 points and an eighth-place finish.
“He wasn’t the best, but it’s something to build on and I’m going to take that and I’m going to go with it,” Wing said. “I hadn’t heard that whistle in so long, I didn’t know what it was last night.
But I’m going to go ahead and take it, and try to go on and get back to where I know I belong and where I have been before.”
Making the ride even sweeter was the fact that his daughter was in the crowd. Their home was in the path of Hurricane Florence, so he used the opportunity to make bull riding a family outing.
Wing will be competing next at the Rochester Rumble.
An RVT victory would push Wing into the Top 30 of the Velocity Tour standings, making him eligible for the Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour Finals on Nov. 2-3.
Though Wing is hopeful that he can build on his rides as he gets them under his belt, he admits that he’s not quite sure just how to do that.
“I’d be lying if I told you that I knew exactly how to do it because anyone that’s been anywhere has been here (in a slump), and it sucks terribly,” Wing said. “But it’s just adversity and He’s just testing me. I’m just going to keep putting my hand in the rope and, like I said, I’m just going to keep going at it.”
Wing has drawn Blue on Black (19-8, all levels PBR) for Round 1 in Rochester as he continues his quest to right the ship.
“I’m just going to cowboy up and go on with it,” Wing said.
© 2018 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.