By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

In Brief: More wrestling trading card products will be released in 2015 than in any time in recent history.

Topps and Panini, arguably the top two trading card brands in the industry, both released new products that will appeal to wrestling collectors over the last week. Topps unleashed its second of a record four WWE products, while Panini included autographs and memorabilia from top wrestling stars in its latest pop culture offering.

2015 Topps WWE Chrome

Topps WWE Chrome is back after a successful reintroduction to the hobby in 2014. This year’s release offers arguably a better selection of autographs than the 2014 product, more relics and a wider variety of colored Refractors.

Hobby boxes cost about $60-70 and include 24 packs. Each box delivers two hits: a relic and an autograph, or two relics. Press plates may also take the place of relics. Each 24-pack box also includes 24 refractors (one per pack) of different colors and serial numbering. There are also retail packs and $10 and $20 retail blaster boxes.

There are ten autographs in the set: Adam Rose, Brie Bella, Bruno Sammartino, Eva Marie, Hulk Hogan, Lana, Lita, Nikki Bella, Renee Young, and Roman Reigns. There are Pulsar Refractors serial numbered to 75 and Gold Refractors serial numbered to 10. Chrome uses on-card autographs instead of the sticker autographs found in basic Topps WWE products, so they tend to sell for more and hold their value better.

Also included in 2015 Topps WWE Chrome are the first certified NXT autographed trading cards, although the selection is a bit of a head-scratcher. Charlotte’s autograph (with a “Woooo!” inscription) is unquestionably the best in the set, which also includes Aiden English, Alexa Bliss, Colin Cassady, and Sawyer Fulton. Divas Kiss and Divas Kiss Autographs each feature ten cards of most WWE Divas, excluding Paige and A.J. Lee.




There are also four dual autographs serial numbered to just five copies each; these cards use stickers in place of on-card signatures. Included in the set are dual autographs of John Cena and Bray Wyatt, Emma and Eden, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins, and A.J. Lee and Paige. The A.J./Paige dual signature could end up being one of the hottest wrestling cards of the last 20 years, given the popularity of both women.

Swatch relics feature pieces of wrestler-worn t-shirts from 18 of the usual subjects: Cena, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Sheamus, and Paige. King of the Ring sign relics carry over from the basic 2015 Topps WWE set, and are essentially just Chrome versions of the originals, with a piece of sign from the 1993 King of the Ring pay-per-view. There are also 15 Night of Champions mat relics and the first turnbuckle relics.

The popular Commemorative Championship Plates belt cards return, this time with a focus on NXT. Four cards feature the NXT Championship (Adrian Neville, Big E., Bo Dallas, and Seth Rollins), two feature the NXT Women’s Championship (Paige and Charlotte) and eight feature the NXT Tag Team Championship (Neville, Corey Graves, Erick Rowan, Kalisto, Konnor, Luke Harper, Sin Cara, and Viktor). There’s also a cool Ultimate Warrior Medallion that is similar to the belt cards, with a metal plate designed like Warrior’s face paint.




2015 Panini Americana
This product is made of trading cards of actors, singers and other celebrities, including a few wrestling personalities. Hobby boxes run $75-95 and include 50 total cards spread out over 10 packs: 32 base cards, two autographs, two additional autographs or memorabilia cards, eight inserts, and six parallel cards.

The biggest names featured in this product are Kevin Hart, Bradley Cooper, Al Pacino and Sylvester Stallone. Actors and actresses include Alexis Knapp (“Pitch Perfect”), Tiffani Thiessen (“Saved by the Bell”), Laura Prepon (“That 70s Show” and “Orange is the New Black”), Jaleel White (Urkel from “Family Matters”), Lea Michele (“Glee”), and Molly Ringwald (“Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club”).

Musicians in the set include Run DMC, Vanilla Ice, MC Lyte, Kelly Rowland, Vince Neil (Motley Crue), and Coolio.

The cards that will probably be most appealing to wrestling fans are those of Hulk Hogan, Chris Jericho, Eva Marie, and maybe Brooke Hogan. All four are featured on base, autograph, and memorabilia cards, including a dual memorabilia card of Hulk and Brooke.




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

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