PGF Season 5: The Managers

In sports, everyone sees the direct impact of coaches. They call the plays, yell corrections and encouragement at their players, and are generally seen as the leaders of the team. But the Managers, they are the maestros of the entire organization. They assemble the team, carefully balancing talent versus budget and looking for the right chemistry for a team to gel. The Managers have to scout the competition and the pool of talent available and form the team to win the championship. Acknowledging the role of the Manager, the Professional Grappling Federation’s four teams in Season 5 will have Managers, not coaches. These Managers include the Voice of the PGF, the First Female PGF Champion, a PGF Know-It-All, and an Epic Team including a Serial Entrepreneur and a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.

Before we get to these Managers, just a reminder, the PGF Season 5 begins October 29 at 10am Central Time brought to you LIVE on Brandon Mccaghren‘s YouTube Channel. At 10am, the 20 competitors (Roster HERE) will test themselves in a Pre-Draft Combine with multiple events. These Managers will be watching closely, weighing the field. Then, that evening at 5pm, the PGF will have a LIVE DRAFT! This draft will be an auction draft where each Manager below gets a budget of $2500 to assemble their five-man roster. The auction order will be determined by the MOCK DRAFT which will be also be LIVE on Brandon Mccaghren‘s YouTube Channel on 22 October (the mock draft will be a snake draft but the result will be the order of the auction). The Managers will have to bid for each competitor and to the victor goes the spoils. In this dynamic environment, the Managers will greatly affect their teams chances of victory.

THE VOICE OF THE PGF:

Matt Skaff‘s voice first welcomed fans to the PGF in the first episode of its inaugural season. The first black belt under the Commissioner, Brandon Mccaghren, Skaff himself competed heavily up through his purple belt. Like so many, he had his eyes set on ADCC gold. But, some injuries and the inability for competitors to make a decent wage at the time competing in jiu jitsu led him down the coaching path. All fans of the PGF and everyone who has trained at 10th Planet Decatur are thankful Matt Skaff took this path. Lately, Skaff has turned his focus onto coaching 10th Planet Decatur’s competitive athletes in both jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts. Some of his trainees include the first Female PGF Champion Nekiaya Jackson, PGF Season 5 competitor “the Mantis” Travis Thomas, and the Christian “Vanilla Gorilla” Echols who scored one of the biggest mma upsets in 2022. But what’s even more impressive than his coaching, Skaff has both a savant’s memory of jiu jitsu competitions and a very relatable way of explaining the action to listeners. Interested readers can easily check out all the previous seasons of the PGF or can visit Skaff’s outstanding jiu-jitsu podcast – The Grappling Discourse Podcast. In his podcast, he shares insights into competitions, how he looks at promoting students (listen up white and blue belts, he has two podcasts to help you know how to get promoted), and how the game is developing. As a coach of active competitors, as a true student of the game, one has to believe the Voice of the PGF will assemble a SCARY team.

THE FIRST FEMALE CHAMPION OF THE PGF:

The HOKAGE! Nekiaya Jackson was your First Female PGF Champion, winning the 135lb belt during PGF Season 4. Nekiaya is a brown belt, out of 10th Planet Decatur where she serves as a coach. Prior to the PGF, Nekiaya has earned success winning the 10th Planet Qualifier for the inaugural Medusa and ended up with a very respectable 1-1 showing in the first all-ladies event. Jackson was later invited to Medusa 2, earning second place in the competition. She recently won the ADCC Phoenix Open and is ranked 3rd in the -55kg ADCC rankings. She’s rising star in the jiu jitsu community. Part of her success in getting there is her relentless self-discipline and hard work. Okay, okay, they all say that. But truly, she has serious knowledge in strength, conditioning, nutrition, and recovery. With her competitive experience and knowledge in these areas, the Hokage might be able to not only pick a great team, but also keep them performing at a high level throughout the gauntlet that is the PGF. And all real football fans know, it’s not about who’s best, it’s about who’s healthy and performing going into the playoffs.

THE PGF KNOW-IT-ALL:

Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time to spark your passion. Jackson Spry has been training at 10th Planet Decatur for four years. When the PGF came along, hosted originally at 10th Planet Decatur, it was the first jiu jitsu competition he watched, sparking his real, enduring interest in jiu jitsu. It set a lot of things in motion for him including competing often and helping teach the kids’ class at 10th Planet Decatur. He’s a roommate of PGF Season 5 competitor Sawyer Griffin. The two roommates are your No-Neighbors when they provide analysis of jiujitsu and MMA competitions in their podcast. He’s a jiu jitsu and mma nerd, but more importantly, he’s a PGF Know-It-All. Absent the founders of the PGF, the Voice of the PGF, and the editorial board of EggheadWarrior.com, Jackson Spry knows more about the PGF than anyone according to the Commissioner. Moreover, he’s been spotted at PGF Qualifiers, clipboard in hand, taking notes on competitors. So, could this fairly new purple belt out manage three black belts and a nationally-competitive brown belt? Well, specialized knowledge like Spry’s has never really paid off, right? Well, we’ll see if Spry is the new leglocker amongst the old traditionalists; but it’s just possible that his specialized knowledge of the PGF along with his passion for this competition can help propel his team to victory.

THE EPIC TEAM: THE SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR AND THE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL STAR:

According to Epic Roll’s website, Matt Wahlstrom is a “serial entrepreneur, a Former Off-road Racer, MMA fighter, and a Jiu Jitsu Black Belt under Tom DeBlass.” That’s a lot to unpack. But maybe the more inspirational part of the story is his founding of Epic Roll. Around five years ago, Matt was looking for an additional stream of income for his family and started a drop-shipping business. He’d done all the research and had it all set up. It didn’t go anywhere. Then, after Matt had an awesome session at an open mat, he left thinking it was such an Epic Roll. The phrase struck a chord in him and led him to adjusting his business towards one of his real passions: jiu jitsu. In the five years since, he’s put his heart and soul into the business, growing it slowly, sending personally hand-written thank you notes with each order. Along this path, Matt met up with Zoltan “Zo” Bathory, founder of Five Finger Death Punch. Zo was raised in communist-controlled Hungary and started training judo around age of eight. Like so many youths, he wanted to be Bruce Lee, but the state sponsored judo as it was an Olympic sport, so attendance was free. Eventually Zo got his black belt in Judo. As a young adult, he emigrated to the United States with $200 in his pocket. Eventually, Zo became the Rock ‘n’ Roll Star he is today as a founding member of Five Finger Death Punch. Moreover, he is an active Jiu Jitsu competitor and Black Belt under Mica Cipili and Royler Gracie. Besides music and martial arts, Zo found himself handling marketing for his band, helping manage other talent, and running multiple brands himself. Zo and Matt found mutual respect and friendship and became business partners. With their synergy, Epic Roll has found new heights and seems to be constantly evolving and expanding. These gentlemen have turned a little t-shirt company into a true jiu jitsu brand, with far-reaching penetration in the market. On any given day, they could be anywhere in the country training with different highly-influential jiu jitsu individuals as they assemble their Epic Tribe, which includes “elite practitioners, celebrated champions, and dedicated athletes who have not only mastered the art but also wield considerable influence within the Jiu-Jitsu community.” It’s fair to say these gentlemen’s exposure to a wide variety of jiu jitsu talent is hard to match. With these teammates’ experience in combat sports, their experience building business teams and relationships, they seem the prototypical General Managers to build and shape a championship team. As a side note, I’m not doing these gentlemen justice. Please look up their many interviews online. I particularly like Matt’s interview here where he talks about building Epic Roll, including meeting Zo. Zo has a great interview here, talking about his background, the relationship between music and jiu jitsu and so many other things. The players drafted by these gentlemen will definitely learn a lot from them.

The PGF remains the Shark Week of Jiu Jitsu. Starting on the 29th of October with the Combine and the Draft, fans have a week full of LIVE jiu jitsu waiting for them. During this gauntlet, competitors will have three matches each a night, on Monday – Thursday, then the top eight will advance to the Post-Season Finale Tournament on Saturday. On the mats, every jiu jitsu practitioner is ultimately alone. But, which team wins and which competitors face each other, and the overall support these competitors have will be shaped by these managers. Be sure to tune in to Brandon Mccaghren‘s YouTube Channel on 29 October at 10am Central time to see it all kick off and see how these Managers lead.

The editors at EggheadWarrior.com thank the PGF Insiders, and all the competitors for providing the content of this article. The PGF Insiders will always work to provide the latest and greatest information regarding the PGF and you can see their weekly podcasts on the McDojo Life YouTube Channel or Brandon Mccaghren’s channel (if a member). Special thanks to Walo Jay for all the great photos. Those interested in Walo’s work can check out his YouTube page (link is specifically to Walo’s Handsome Kevin short) and Walo’s website.