May 21, 2026 Nolan Hughes

The PBA World Series of Bowling has crowned 16 major champions. Next month, a 17th will be crowned in the AMF PBA World Championship finals. 

Jason Belmonte headlines the fifth through ninth seeds competing in the play-in stepladder on June 13 at 11 a.m. ET on CBS Sports Network.

The winner will continue on to the championship round, airing at 1 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+.

EJ Tackett, the three-time reigning PBA World Champion, awaits at the top of the stepladder.

Tackett looks to become the first player to win a PBA Tour event in four consecutive years, which would all-but secure a record-setting fourth straight PBA Player of the Year award. 

There is only one venue equipped to host such a monumental moment in PBA history: Strobl Arena inside Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich.

The late Tom Strobl was instrumental in bringing the inaugural WSOB to life in 2009. The WSOB returned to Thunderbowl in 2019 for WSOB X and in 2024, one year after his passing, for WSOB XV.

Qualifying and the animal pattern championships were held in Minneapolis.

Four champions were crowned and two of them — Darren Tang and Zach Wilkins — will head to Thunderbowl in pursuit of another title.

So, yeah, about those rankings.

These rankings are based on historical ramifications, the intensity of dramatic and emotional moments, and the crowd’s reaction during each PBA World Championship.

These are intended to celebrate some of the greatest victories and most intense matches in the history of the sport.

Keep in mind rankings are subjective. You are free to disagree with which wins were selected and the order in which they were selected.

Fair warning: You’re going to see the names Belmonte and Tackett quite a few more times.

If that’s going to be a problem for you, here’s a match between Earl Anthony and Mark Roth to watch instead.
 

No. 10 — 2022 — Prather Prevails in Roll-Off

Heading into his final two frames of the 2022 World Championship, Kris Prather held a nine-pin advantage over Jason Sterner. He could strike out for 268 and shut out Sterner.

After Prather left a pair of back-breaking 10-pins, he slumped into his seat, set his glasses on the table, and buried his face within his hands.

Prather, who had led two major championships in a row, was about to lose his second straight major championship title match.

Dom Barrett beat him in the Tournament of Champions a few weeks prior, and now Jason Sterner stood on the precipice of beating him in the World Championship.

Sterner, the No. 4 seed, had defeated Jakob Butturff, Jason Belmonte, and Tommy Jones to reach the title match.

The three-time PBA Tour champion placed himself one frame away from his first major title and a career-redefining victory.

But the Rochester transplant apparently watched too much footage of Scott Norwood, missing wide right on his first shot in the 10th frame.

The 1-2-8 stood before the world’s unsexy-yet-critical messenger took out the 8-pin to keep his title hopes alive. Sterner converted the spare, then struck on his fill shot to force a roll-off.

Like Clark Kent in a phone booth, Prather rose out of his seat with newfound energy.

Prather elected to start the roll-off. His picture-perfect swing delivered the ball through his target, then into the pocket. The head-pin bounced off the wall, redirecting the timbering 4-pin directly into the standing 10-pin.

Prather forced Sterner into another strike-or-lose scenario. Sterner missed left in his rebuttal, leaving the 3-6-9-10, and Prather emerged with his second career major title.

A player, who for years struggled to consistently make cuts on the PBA Tour, suddenly had justifiable aspirations of making the Hall of Fame. 

The back-and-forth intensity of this match, combined with Sterner’s heroic climb of a stepladder littered with future Hall of Famers, made for an unforgettable afternoon in Milwaukee.

Should Prather go on to win the U.S. Open and complete the Triple Crown, this moment will only rise in its legendary status.

No. 9 — 2015 — Gary Joins George

The 2015 World Championship may be the only title of Memphis native Gary Faulkner Jr.’s career thus far, but it was a momentous victory.

Faulkner made history by becoming the second Black player to win a PBA Tour title and the first since George Branham III’s last title in 1996.

In his PBA television debut, Faulkner was calm, cool and collected strikes at will. 

Mookie Betts, a fellow Tennessean and Major League Baseball superstar, joined the commentary booth for Faulkner’s first match against Scott Norton. Faulkner flirted with perfection, advancing with a 262-218 win over Norton.

Faulkner continued his climb with a win over prime Ryan Ciminelli. He took out the Player of the Year candidate by a 247-237 margin.

Finally, Faulkner met the finals’ lone right-hander: 23-year-old EJ Tackett. The signs were there of Tackett’s future other worldly dominance — he was, after all, the top seed in a stepladder full of lefties — but Tackett was still in his fledgling state.

Faulkner’s win, in many ways, served as the catalyst for Tackett’s breakthrough to superstardom.

But few would have been able to defeat Faulkner on that day. His final score of 216 undersells his performance as the southpaw shut out Tackett by the ninth frame.

No. 8 — 2013 — Dom Doesn’t Know The Score

If a bowler were to need two pins on their fill shot to win a tournament, they would likely celebrate after the preceding spare or double. Needing a third strike, however, they’d have to keep their emotions in check for the fill ball.

So where do you draw the line? How many pins before merely “needing to keep the ball on the lane” morphs into “needing good count”? At what point does a bowler think about making a quality shot versus think about not replicating the mistake of Del Ballard Jr.?

The line likely varies for each player. But we know this:

EJ Tackett is celebrating after the double if he only needs two pins; François Lavoie isn’t celebrating, in the traditional sense, at all; and Dom Barrett is celebrating even if he still needs eight pins.

In the 10th frame, Barrett doubled, celebrated, then struck on his fill shot to win the 2013 PBA World Championship. The win marked his first career major title and, ultimately, the first leg of the Triple Crown.

No. 7 — 2010 — Chris Barnes Completes the Triple Crown

The commentary throughout much of the 2010 World Championship broadcast centered around Chris Barnes’ shortcomings on television.

He was introduced as a 12-time champion… who lost 22 title matches. Maybe the best player in the world… if he could win on television. One of the game’s top shot-makers… except in the clutch.

Every sentence of praise is couched with some form of the phrase “but he struggles on television.” But it was Barnes who got the last word on that afternoon.

Barnes won a play-in match over Michael Haugen Jr. (243-172), then climbed the stepladder with wins over Osku Palermaa (246-176), Sean Rash (237-161) and Bill O’Neill (267-237). He averaged nearly 250 and won each match by at least 30 pins.

His reward for a bulletproof performance? The Triple Crown.

No. 6 — 2025 — Tackett’s Three-Peat

The heavyweight bout between Tackett, the two-time defending World Champion, and top-seeded Belmonte lived up to its billing.

The rematch of the 2023 World Championship title match played out in similarly dramatic fashion.

Needing a double to shut out Belmonte, Tackett threw, in his own words, “the best shots of my whole career.” 

Tackett’s performance in the 2025 WSOB XVI ranks among the best in bowling history. He made all five championship rounds, defended his Shark Championship title and then earned his third straight World Championship victory.

Ten years earlier, on the very same lanes in Reno, Tackett took an opportunity to win the World Championship for granted. He learned from his mistake and capitalized in historic fashion.

No. 5 — 2017 — Belmo’s Third Major of Season

Of the many historic moments throughout Belmonte’s rise to all-time status during the mid-2010s, the 2017 World Championship holds a special place among them.

Belmonte won the Players Championship and a third consecutive USBC Masters in the first four weeks of the tour, then earned the No. 2 seed in the season’s final major.

No player had ever won three majors in a single season. To quote play-by-play commentator Dave LaMont’s opening monologue: “Not Earl Anthony. Not Walter Ray. Not Don Carter. Not Dick Weber or Pete Weber or Mark Roth or Marshall Holman.”

Belmonte clinched the title with a signature, ferocious messenger against Jesper Svensson.

The win secured Belmonte’s ninth major title in six calendar years. Pete Weber’s ninth major title — the iconic “Who do you think you are? I am!” U.S. Open victory — came in Weber’s 32nd season.

Belmonte’s performance in this tournament and the season as a whole, in which he set the single-season average record and won his fourth Player of the Year award in five seasons, sent a clear message to the bowling world:

You have never seen anyone like me before.

No. 4 — 2016 — Tackett’s First Major

The 2016 World Championship represented more than the first major title of EJ Tackett’s career.

Tackett led the World Championship in 2015, but squandered an opportunity to win the title with a poor gameplan and effort. He vowed never to make that mistake again.

After winning his first televised title earlier in the season, and then twice more, the major title solidified what would become Tackett’s first Player of the Year honor.

More than anything, the win served as validation for Tackett and his father, the only coach he’s ever worked with. Their process and their philosophy, which drew ire at various points in Tackett’s development, had taken them from smalltown Indiana to the literal top of the bowling world.

No. 3 — 2023 — Tackett Takes the Throne

“It’s my f****** time!”

Tackett’s celebratory quote says it all.

The 2023 World Championship title match, a back-and-forth striking barrage between Tackett and Belmonte, has been dubbed the greatest match of all time. 

Tackett’s second strike in the 10th frame is the singular moment in which he became the best bowler in the world, marking the first time in a decade someone other than Belmonte held that distinction.

He’s held that title — and the World Championship title — ever since.

No. 2 — 2009 — Smallwood’s Hollywood Moment

One game can change your life.

For Tom Smallwood, a solid regional bowler with a scattered, underwhelming showings on the national tour, that game came in the 2009 World Championship title match.

The fact that Smallwood even made the title match, advancing through dozens of games against the world’s best, proved he belonged on the PBA Tour.

But one great performance in a tournament won’t allow you to compete on the tour for a decade… unless you win it.

And that is exactly what Smallwood did, defeating prime Wes Malott to secure the first World Championship title of the WSOB era.

The greatest testament to Smallwood’s fairytale rise is that today, 17 years later, he remains a weekly title contender on the PBA Tour.

No. 1 — 2019 — Belmo Breaks the Record

The only evidence needed to rank Belmonte’s 2019 World Championship title in this spot is the crowd pop during his 10th frame.

Those hundreds of fervent Michiganers sounded like thousands as Belmonte stepped up, needing a strike and a spare to win the title over Jakob Butturff. 

He aced the first strike, processed the new information he gathered on that shot, and refocused for his second shot.

His habitual precision and focus in the most intense moments of competition is what brought Belmonte to the precipice of history: a strike away from becoming the PBA’s all-time major title king.

Belmonte delivered the strike. He won the title. He broke the record.

Strobl Arena’s euphoric burst could have been heard from Belmonte’s hometown nearly 10,000 miles away.

Thunderbowl Lanes met the moment.

They’ll meet it again on Saturday.