COLLECTIBLES COLUMN 5 COUNT: Trading Cards of Wednesday Night’s Young Stars

During the month-old Wednesday Night War, several young stars have captured fans’ interest. While a lot of casual fans were probably already familiar with top stars like Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Cody and the Undisputed Era, plenty of younger wrestlers have grabbed fans’ interest on both NXT and AEW Dynamite.

Many of the wrestlers who appear on these shows have already been featured in independent trading card sets over the last few years. Here’s a look at five popular cards of new stars.

1. Sammy Guevara 2018 PWG Battle of Los Angeles. If you bought this set at that year’s BOLA event or ordered one online from highspots.com, you’ve probably never seen this card. Guevara was a last minute replacement in the tournament for Chris Brookes, who actually appears in the set. Brian Ubben, who designed the PWG BOLA trading card sets, printed some cards up Guevara and handed them out separately at the BOLA shows. “Not many people wanted them,” Ubben said in a 2018 interview with the Torch. “Sorry Sammy. He has heat with a lot of fans at PWG. I was also worried people would just rip the cards in his face, so I didn’t print too many replacements.” If you don’t have one of these Sammy Guevara cards, your best bet is to contact Ubben on Twitter (@briandabrain) to see if he has any left. Guevara also appeared in the 2017 BOLA set.
2. Walter 2017 PWG Battle of Los Angeles #3. Fans outside of the US have known Walter as a top star for several years, but his recent high profile matches on NXT have gained him an even bigger following. It’s only a matter of time before Topps starts cranking out licensed NXT and WWE cards of Walter, but he has already appeared in a few trading sets. Walter is featured on card #3 in the 2017 BOLA set, which is still available from highspots.com in signed and unsigned versions. 
3. Jungle Boy 2019 GCW Joey Janela’s Spring Break 3 Part 1 #4. Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus looked like they were on track to become wrestling’s hottest tag team until an unfortunately injury took the big man out. While Luchasaurus heals, Jungle Boy is teaming with the diminutive Marko Stunt. Both men have cards in this 2019 set of cards from Joey Janela’s Spring Break 3. There are two parts to the set, and Jungle Boy and Stunt are both found in part 1. These cards are still available for purchase from gcwmerch.com.
4. Britt Baker 2018 All In. The dentist from Pittsburgh has broken out as possibly the biggest star of AEW’s fledgling women’s division. She competed in an outstanding four-way match at 2018’s All In event, and was included in a trading card set commemorating that historic event. The sets are still available on highspots.com for $19.99 and singles occasionally pop up for sale on eBay.
5. Damien Priest (Punishment Martinez) 2016 Filsinger ROH Excellence. In Ring of Honor, Punishment Martinez came across as a solid wrestler. But in NXT, Damien Priest feels like a future superstar. Filsinger gaming cards are larger than traditional sized trading cards, but there’s never been a deeper, more compreshensive checklist of independent wrestling cards. More information about these cards is available at http://filsingergames.com/find-your-favorite-wrestler/.

NOW CHECK OUT THE PRIOR COLUMN: COLLECTIBLES COLUMN 5 COUNT: Truly Terrible Action Figures

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