BURKE — Rumble at the Rodeo, a rare wrestling event, will debut in Burke on July 18. 

The Burke Wrestling Club will host the inaugural Rumble at the Rodeo, kicking off the weekend’s Burke Stampede Rodeo. The event will be outdoors at 6 p.m. at the Burke Rodeo Arena, with it potentially starting later due to heat. 

The event’s tournament directors Tarell Bauld and Billie Sutton developed the idea for a summer tournament, with it being held somewhere other than the Burke gym. 

“Our gym is kind of confined for the most part,” Bauld said. “We are kind of limited to 200 kids at most when we have our normal tournament in February, and the idea got thrown around about having it at the rodeo grounds. It made all the sense in the world to have it the same weekend as the Burke Stampede when they have their PRCA rodeo out here. The rodeo grounds are in the best condition they are in all year at that time.”

Rumble at the Rodeo, a rare wrestling event, will debut in Burke on July 18.

The event coordinators will use a 25-foot by 18-foot big screen to show the action, along with the track wrestling results displayed on it. 

“We are throwing tarps down on the dirt floor and putting mats right on top of them and it’s not something you see every day,” Bauld said.  

If a wrestling tournament being held on rodeo grounds sounds out of the ordinary, that’s because it is. 

“To my knowledge, it’s the only one in the nation,” Bauld said. 

Bauld had a Texas clothing company reach out to him about selling merchandise at the event. The company sells apparel at wrestling tournaments throughout the nation and informed Bauld the Burke tournament is a rare event. 

“I said this is a tournament for 300 kids, and she said you are limiting yourself,” Bauld said. “She said you could get 1,000 kids if you advertise very much because we can’t find another one that happens in the nation with these types of scenarios.”

The inaugural event is already a success, too. The event coordinators are capping the list of competitors at 300 and Bauld said “we are all but full right now.”

In addition to South Dakota, wrestlers are coming from North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wyoming. 

“We are pulling such a wider region than we ever would for a normal wrestling tournament,” Bauld said. “I don’t know if it’s the originality of this wrestling tournament or just a summer tournament. There just aren't a whole lot of them anymore.” 

The belt buckle and medals that will be awarded at the Rumble at the Rodeo, a rare wrestling event on July 18 in Burke.

The first-place winners will receive belt buckles, while second-through-fourth place winners will receive custom medals. Bauld said the awards and their wrestling connections contributed to the interest from around the region. 

“Me and Billie have a lot of contacts all over the place and we just pushed it to get the word out as much as possible,” Bauld said. “It took off like wildfire once we got it started.”

There are six divisions: tots, bantam, midget, novice, boys and girls. It’s not associated with the South Dakota High School Activities Association and is an AAU event. 

And to add to the West River mystique of the event, the rodeo stock will be delivered to the arena as the wrestlers are competing. 

“It will be cool in that manner that all the bulls and horses will be right behind the chutes as we are wrestling on the rodeo dirt,” Bauld said. 

The Burke community has also rallied around the event and supported it. Bauld noted how people not even associated with the Burke Wrestling Club have pitched in. 

“Everyone is excited about it around town,” Bauld said. “It’s going to be a cool event for the kids with the huge big screen up there, showing relays on the cameras. It’s just not something you are going to see every day.”