By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

In Brief: Some of wrestling's stars and up-and-comers can be found in rare independent trading card sets.

Over the last decade, Topps has had the most prominent presence in the wrestling trading card market. The sports card giant has been producing WWE sets every year since 2005 (and other wrestling sets in the 1980s and ‘90s) and has included wrestlers in other baseball and multi-sport products. TRISTAR cranked out a plethora of TNA sets from 2008 to 2013, and Leaf has been offering up wrestling cards since 2012.

But, independent promotions sometimes put together their own trading card sets, or hire a smaller outfit to do it for them. Missouri Wrestling Revival (MWR) cards have been the most noteworthy independent cards of the last five years, producing the first licensed trading cards of future superstars like Tyler Black (Seth Rollins) and El Generico (Sami Zayn). And as mentioned in last week’s collectibles column, the 2012 CTWE trading card set included an the first trading card of Mercedes KV, the future Sasha Banks.

As online businesses and new printing technologies make custom trading cards more affordable, more and more independent promotions have gotten in on the act. In some cases, these independent sets feature rare gems of wrestlers before they were stars. Keep in mind these sets were not mass produced, so they can be very tough to find. Some are still available by mail; check out WrestlingTradingCards.com for more information.

- Michael Elgin’s stock began to rise in 2012, and in 2014 he captured the ROH World Title. But, way back in 2006, a much younger looking Elgin (with a full head of hair) appeared on card number 11 in a Pro Wrestling Extreme (PWX) trading card set. According to WrestlingTradingCards.com, these cards were distributed at PWT wrestling events in Canada. This set also includes cards of wrestlers familiar to fans of independent wrestling, such as Cherry Bomb and Cody Deaner.

Elgin also appears in the 2007 PWX set, as does AAA star “Girl Dynamite” Jennifer Blake. The 2008 Brand X wrestling set also includes a card of Blake. Only 30 total Brand X sets were produced by XK Media.

Chikara distributed at least 30 individual cards at its shows from 2006 to 2010. This set contains some very prominent names, primarily Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro) and Brodie Lee (Luke Harper). Other notable names in the set include Delirious, Larry Sweeney, Chris Hero, Chuck Taylor, and Eddie Kingston.

The 2009 Steeltown Pro Wrestling (SPW) sets from Canada include early cards of some popular wrestlers like Austin Aries (card #28 in Series 1), Castagnoli (#90 in Series 2), and CMLL’s La Sombra (#14 in Series 1).

Former WWE and TNA developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) released a set of cards in 2012. Many of the names in that set may be unfamiliar to a lot of fans, but the set does include cards of “Nightmare” Danny Davis and former TNA Gut Check winner Taeler Hendrix. Only 100 total sets were produced and sold at OVW events.

PWTorch Collectibles specialist Michael Moore can be reached at michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MMooreWriter.

[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt