AEW vs WWE Cards... Boyoyoing! Ya Wanna Wrestle?

Pro-Wrasslin has long been my go-to for "shut your brain off and stare at it" entertainment. Traditionally, there's usually a few good things mixed in with a whole bunch of bad. Which could range from poorly executed ideas, to just plain poor ideas. Yes, I'm well aware that it's pre-determined, just like all of "reality" television is. I know the fights aren't real, and a lot of the time, it's all just stupid. 

But I still follow along to varying degrees, depending if there's anything that holds my interest. The last few years, that interest has been at an all time low. So I figured it may be a good time to look at some of the current crop of pro-wrasslin cards? After all, that market seems to really taking off over the last couple of years.

That tagline comes courtesy of my friend, Scott, some 35 or so years ago. I don't even remember the story behind it, or the context in which the in-joke was born. Only that he wrote it down on his 10th grade health book cover.

Which I still have...

Health... Socks... Sheet...

Never collected much for pro-wrasslin cards, over my 35+ years of collecting. What I did have, was picked up for the same reason that I started collecting baseball cards. Photos and a record of events I want to remember later. Something to flip through that captures the people and events that make up a certain place and time. Usually, I watched it, so a card record makes sense to have.

Just like baseball.

Only in spandex.

2021 WWE Finest Blaster

A few weeks ago, I picked this up during the weekly Targets run. Surprised there were any sort of cards there at all. A total of two of these boxes, that afternoon, sitting on a shelf surrounded by Pokemon and Magic. I picked the one on the left and left the one on the right for whomever else needed to open some packs without caring what they were. Didn't debate long since they were Topps Finest. Those look good regardless of what sport they are.

We'll get to those later...

Last weekend, I went to the LCS to see what was new in the shop for singles. Wasn't planning on buying any baseball packs, since I've gotten my fill of the 2022 Topps releases to this point. Still buying the singles I want as I find them, but Wandermania has underwhelmed me, and I've already picked up the Lars Nootbaar of my dreams!

So I'm waiting for new 2022 baseball product before buying any more unopened packs or boxes.

Needing something to rip in addition to the $40 in random Twins and other stuff, I Wandered over to their wrasslin card section and picked up...

Thinking that one pack from the Topps WWE line and one pack from Upper Deck's AEW release, would make for an interesting comparison story. I could even add that Topps Finest blaster to make a three-way dance. Also meant I didn't have to buy any more of that.

I also turned down the new Panini Prizm WWE packs, at $105 a piece. 

Because... Yeah...

Although I did see that someone pulled a rare Hulk Hogan autograph from a pack, then put it up on the internets for sale for only $20,000. Don't know if they'll actually see that price, but I'm sure it'll bring home a nice pile of cash regardless. Was a beautiful card too...

Seeing it brought me back to the 1980's and Hulkamania and all that jazz.

I was not a Hulkamaniac.

Even though I took my vitamins and drank my milk!

Wooooooooo!

1987 Topps WWF King Kong Bundy

I always wanted Hogan to lose to whatever heel of the month, he was putting the title up against.

Saturday Night's Main Event was always disappointing.

I really thought Sika had a chance this time...

Did my part to help pad Hogan's bank account, catching the WWF at the old Met Center in Bloomington, MN, on February 13, 1988. I was 12.

Other than Brutus "The Fucking Barber" Beefcake, I wanted to see Andre the Giant!

So I could take this terrible picture!

Oh, who won? 

Hogan MUST pose!

Speaking of Andre the Giant...

Two weeks ago, while Laura and I were attending a misanthrope convention, in Rochester, MN, I found Nerdin' Out. A collectible toy store, located just off the freeway, not too far from our hotel. They had a Fezzik action figure from The Princess Bride! (Yes, Cody, I've seen The Princess Bride...) Another great job from McFarlane Toys, who always catch the minor details.  If you look very close, you can see Fezzik comes with a peanut!

I didn't buy it though...

As far as pro-wrasslin went, my fandom lapsed as I moved into my teenage years. Other stuff became a priority, baseball, crappy part time jobs, public access television, writing, etc... I'd catch it here and there, but wasn't watching every week anymore. 

Oddly enough, once I moved to Colorado in 1996, my interest picked up during the Monday Night War era. I didn't even have cable TV at the time I moved, but followed everything going on by reading rec.sports.pro-wrestling on usenet, via AOL dial up internet! I had to read that Hulk Hogan turned heel (whaaaaat!?!?!) and Stone Cold Steve Austin was near single-handedly changing everything that the WWF had been about. 

It's not like you could stream video very well from a 1996 dial-up connection, where even loading images from shows took forever. All I could do was visualize it in my head. Which made me want cable TV pretty bad... Getting to watch the upcoming season of Rockies baseball was an equal factor in making the call. Finally decided to take that plunge in March of 1997. A little rearranging of the gas station income was all it took.

WWF Royal Rumble 1997 VHS

To fill in the gaps, I started picking up some wrasslin videotapes from that same usenet group, used media stores or blowout prices from area video store closures. (Which seemed to be happening with increasing frequency in the late 1990's.) In addition to recording the weekly shows, since I wasn't home at the time. Busy out giving rides to pizza for pocket change.

I have no idea how I survived those years financially, but I did it.

The next year, those post pizza taxi, wrasslin watching nights were joined by then co-worker and future Super A's fan, Rob. Who was usually there for Pay Per View Sunday's, throughout the "Attitude Era", as well. We watched a lot of wrasslin between 1998 and 2000...

How do you feel about Harry Beaver Cleavage, Rob?

Me too!

Almost 12 years (to the day) after the WWF House Show in Bloomington, MN, Rob and I and someone else, went to the WWF House Show at the Denver Coliseum in Denver, CO. We hoped to hear Kurt Angle rip on the Denver Broncos, and were not disappointed!

My souvenir from that event was a discarded fan sign, that I picked up off the floor, while the arena emptied out. As soon as I saw that it was misspelled, I had to take it home! It hung in my Kenyon living room until I moved out of that apartment in 2003.

Hello, General Hafaaz Supacat!

These old wrasslin Pay Per View VHS tapes took up way too much room, until I finally had enough and threw them (and others) away in a mass clearing, in December of 2013. (Door for scale.) I'd never re-watched most of them, and didn't even have a working VCR anymore. Freed up a nice amount of space to simply toss them, and I've never once thought that I wished I still had any of them.

During the late 1990's, ebay was still pretty new. For someone who grew up having to wait for cool stuff to be found at a suburban retail level, this was an incredible thing. I could find all sorts of old wrasslin videos, let alone anything else I ever wanted for my dorky collections. Swing by the ACE Cash Express, in the Way Cool Shops on South Broadway, for a money order and have it show up at my apartment a few days later!

Amongst those many purchases were cheap $5 complete sets of wrasslin cards. 

First up, a set from an era that I watched very little of...

1994 Action Packed WWF - Bam Bam Bigalow

Is it a smart idea to make Bam Bam hang out by the Asbestos Curtains?

Needed this set because even if I'd never watched a Bastion Booger match, I needed a Bastion Booger card!

And these Action Packed 3D cards are actually pretty cool.

1998 Topps WCW - Hollywood Hogan

Gotta commemorate heel Hogan. 

The set is decent, but I'd love to find a quantity of unopened 1998 Topps WCW to rip. The checklist of randomly inserted autographs is incredible. Hogan, Savage, Flair, Piper, Hart, Hall, Nash, Bishoff, Sting and more for the big names. As well as some more obscure and hard to find, like Miss Elizabeth. And I don't care how wrong it is, I REALLY want the Chris Benoit autograph from this set...

Benoit was part of a great midcard for WCW, with the main event clogged by the nWo storyline. Which eventually became bloated and pointless, but it changed the business forever.

And this was pretty sad...

1999 Topps WCW - Bret Hart

Always been a Hitman fan.

The 1999 set is pretty much the same as the year before it.

For $5, it was different enough to warrant the purchase.

Sometime you need another Super Calo!

1999 Fleer WWF Smackdown - Austin vs McMahon

As hot as the nWo storyline was, Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Vince McMahon topped it in every way.

The last of the $5 ebay wrasslin sets of the late 1990's. This was the best one. Fleer made the interesting -and correct- choice of leaving all text, logos and graphics off the front of the card. Leaving just a 3.5" x 2.5" photo. Nothing complicated. Simple and perfect.

After I was finished making these ebay purchases, I didn't buy any wrasslin cards until 2009. Early one morning, the Englewood, Colorado WalMarts started stocking TriStar TNA Blasters. They didn't come with an autograph in every box like they did the next year, so I was pretty lucky to hit this...

2009 TriStar TNAutographs - Kevin Nash

I never have, but if I wrote out a list ranking all the pro-wrassler autographs I want to get, Nash would actually rank pretty high. With the exception of a few, his matches were never that great. But his role in wrasslin history cannot be denied and he's pretty damn charismatic on promos. Sometimes I'll play one of his many shoot interviews on YouTube, as background for whatever it is that I'm doing at the time. He tells a great story.

From 2005-2009, I paid more attention to TNA than I did WWE. To me, TNA's television was more interesting that what WWE was putting out. It wasn't perfect, nothing ever will be, but I thought TNA did a better job of letting the wrasslers be wrasslers. The WWE was sliding into their stale formula that exists today. Everyone all started looking the same, talking the same and having the same predictable feuds. Nothing felt fresh or even interesting anymore.

Being an alternative to WWE, I wanted to support TNA. They came through Colorado in 2009, and it worked out best for my schedule to hit the show two hours south of where I lived, instead of a closer one. Drove down to Pueblo for the show and stayed the night afterwards. We then checked out downtown Pueblo the next day.

May 29, 2009. TNA House Show, Pueblo, Colorado

Scott Steiner vs Samoa Joe

The tickets were reasonable. We (my ex and I) sat in the second row, ringside. Both tickets were less than $100 combined. I was there to see Samoa Joe. His style and overall presentation was unlike anything I'd seen in my time watching wrasslin. Kurt Angle was the first, Samoa Joe was the only other pro-wrassler that I had to see live. 

"He's FAT!!"

You've gotta give it up for Scott Steiner!

Wasn't long after the TNA cards appeared at my local WalMarts, that Topps' 2009 WWE set showed up in similar Blasters. In the interest of fairness and competition, I had to give Topps a chance to plead its case for a share of  my collecting dollar.

2009 Topps WWE Toppstown - CM Punk

Not sure what looks weirder... CM Punk with long hair, or the terrible Photoshoppery that covered up the giant Pepsi logo tattooed above Punk's bicep. Even though I voted with my money for TNA, because of Samoa Joe, CM Punk is another one I would've liked to seen live. From about 2009, until he finally had enough of WWE and walked out on his contract, in 2014, he was the best thing on their television. Didn't matter what he was doing, it was always worth watching.

I don't think I bought any more wrasslin cards after 2010, until I grabbed two jumbo packs of 2015 Topps WWE from that same Englewood WalMarts.

2015 Topps WWE - Larry Zybszko Autograph

This was in one of the two packs. Not that I would have been able to name Zbyszko -let alone spell it- as an autograph I'd want going in, but I was very happy once I got it. 

Hey Greg, I see your dad on that list quite a bit... Where are you?

Now Mad Dog Vachon will have a fellow AWA alumnus to join him in the autograph collection. Zybszko was the last AWA World Champion, as the long time promotion was slowly and sadly dying. Growing up in Minnesota, I have a bunch of fond memories of AWA television in the late 1980's.

Verne just wouldn't evolve.

Those packs of 2015 Topps WWE were the last wrasslin cards I bought until just recently. Sure, I'd occasionally find a wrasslin card tucked inside a Fairfield Re-Pack, but that was about it.

1992 Championship Marketing WCW - Ric Flair

The best wrasslin card ever from a Fairfield Re-Pack!

I'm okay with the fact you can barely see Flair's face, because check out that robe!

Around 2015, I was so thoroughly disgusted by the product that WWE was putting out, I quit spending any money on them. I refused to buy the WWE Network out of principle, even though I probably would have liked it a bunch for all the old footage. My lack of wanting to support the WWE, even led to the Wrasslin Wall of Fame (located in The Home of Happy Playthings), going nearly 7 years since its last induction.

The Home of Happy Playthings Wrasslin Wall of Fame

Top: Terry Funk, Andre the Giant (as Giant Machine), The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Jimmy Hart), Owen Hart, X-Pac, Goldust, Chris Jericho

Underneath Top: The Honky Tonk Man, Brutus the Fucking Barber Beefcake, Akeem the African Dream, King Kong Bundy, Rob Van Dam, Raven, Stevie Richards, Chris Jericho again...

Underneath Underneath Top: Andy Kauffman, Kamala the Ugandan Giant, the 1-2-3 Kid, Diesel, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Hollywood Hogan, Eric Bischoff.

Underneath Underneath Underneath Top: Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho again, the Ultimo Dragon, Carlito, Al Snow.

Underneath Underneath Underneath Underneath Top: Edge, Christian, Stevie Richards, Daffney, AJ Styles.

Not Pictured: Bam Bam Bigalow, Pac, EC3.

The only exception I made on my self-imposed WWE ban, was for their excellent DVD sets. Up until they stopped making them. These collections of documentary/biography and matches were always well done. Just about the only thing I felt the company wasn't completely botching. 

Year after year, their weekly television became more and more tedious to watch. Stale characters became even staler, as most of the same ones had been in the same spots for years. Storylines were repetitive and predictable, since we've seen all of them before. All wrassler promos sounded exactly the same, because they were all written by the same team of 40 writers, none of whom had ever been an athlete, let alone a pro-wrassler. These shows give the feel of exactly what it is. People who don't know what they're doing, all trying to appease the whims of an out of touch, near 80 year old Vince McMahon.

I'm willing to suspend disbelief to a great deal in watching wrasslin in the first place. 

Don't insult my intelligence.

Just like you said you weren't going to do, back in your 1997 promo announcing the “Attitude Era”.

Oh, and Matt Riddle's Ass Pigeons...

In October, 2019, we finally got an alternative to a nearly unwatchable WWE product. 

AEW Dynamite debut on Turner Network Television. A nice throwback to the Monday Night War of 1995-2001, even if they were on different nights of the week. It's a much needed alternative. The product still isn’t as good as it could be, but is something that I’m at least able to watch. I can't make it through WWE television anymore. But I can watch AEW. It'll keep my interest enough that I wont turn it off before finishing. Or fast forwarding too much.

But there are flaws...

Like these guys. And all of their friends. I get that style of wrasslin' is what the current fanbase wants to see, but I really don't. Super flippy-floppy, choreographed gymnastics mixed with jumping off everything, combined with a heavy dose of no psychology, is something I just don't enjoy after a couple of minutes.

AEW also has its good points.

Eddie Kingston in a Montreal Expos jersey is one of them. 

Eddie Kingston period, is another.

The reason I can watch -and enjoy- AEW is the wrasslers are allowed to talk as themselves. Wrasslin should be: "I'm going to kick your ass and take the belt!” And not: "I'm going to compete for a championship opportunity at our next Premium Event, WWE Cash Grab, next Sunday evening, on the Peacock!" Bad storylines can be made better by the wrasslers actually being invested in their words and actions. Both companies have some bad storylines, but at least AEW's roster talks like people actually talk!

Speaking of talking...

AEW provided a compelling enough product that CM Punk came out of retirement to work there. Like he'd never been gone a day, was just as good after a 7 year absence as he was when he left. 

Oh yeah, didn't I have some cards to open?

Since I was just talking about them, I'll start with the 2021 Upper Deck AEW Pack. I don't think I've bought any Upper Deck packs since 2010, after MLB took their license away. I still mourn that loss to the baseball card world...

Who did I get?

2021 Upper Deck AEW - Powerhouse Hobbs

I like Powerhouse Hobbs...

2021 Upper Deck AEW - Ricky Starks

I like Ricky Starks...

2021 Upper Deck AEW - Pac

And I like Pac. 

This pack is looking like a winner...

2021 Upper Deck AEW - John Moxley - Main Features

Another former WWE Main Eventer, that left the company for more creative freedom. Not a huge Moxley fan, as the style of simply "beating each other up with random objects", doesn't do anything for me. A little of that goes a long ways, then I lose interest. When everything is insane, then it's just plain stupid.

I only got five cards in the pack, because the last one was extra thick.

There were only four packs left in the box, so I hit it lucky...

2021 Upper Deck AEW - Kenny Omega - Wednesdays in Action

According to the wrapper, the Wednesdays in Action inserts fall at a rate of 1 in 64 packs. Not a big Omega fan either. His wacky antics with the Bucks and the rest of that crew are just hard to watch. Although I enjoyed some of his storyline with Don Callis managing him. But I've always liked Don Callis. 

Before we get to the WWE Undisputed pack (which also has five cards in it), I'm going to select my favorite five cards from the 2021 WWE Finest Blaster. That way, all three products will be represented by five cards! 

Fair for Flair... 

2021 Finest Pack

The Blaster box had 7 packs of 4 cards inside. A total of 28 cards for $19.99.

Not a bad deal in today's collecting world.

2021 Finest - Bobby Lashley

I like Lashley.

I also like that he wasn't booked as a total joke the last couple of years.

2021 Finest - Sasha Banks/Eddie Guerrero Legacies

Hmmm... Mixed emotions on this one... Eddie Guerrero was one of my favorites and an all-time legend. Sasha Banks? I guess she's good. I'm always reading about how she's good. Everything I've watched her do, I didn't really like. Guess I just don't get it.

2021 Finest - Zelina Vega - Blue Refractor

The card looks really cool. But I don't think I've ever watched a Zelina Vega match. Had to amend that after I found out that she used to wrassle under the name Rosita, in TNA, about a decade ago. I saw her wrassle there a few times.

2021 Finest - John Cena - Refractor

His shirt may say "Never Give Up", but he hasn't been a regular with the company in years. 

2021 Finest - John Cena - XFractor

You know, I'm fine with multiple Cena inserts in the Blaster. Cena's place in history is secure. Hell, I'll even agree with his t-shirt. While I wasn't a fan (due to the Super-Mega Babyface push lasting a decade plus) I have all the respect in the world for how he handled himself. Seems like one of those all around good guys. 

So I’m happy with this card.

2021 Finest Blaster Top

Wish I could have gotten a Shinsuke Nakamura card from the box though. 

Maybe even a card of the guy to his right, with the almond head.

2021 Topps WWE Undisputed Pack

Since it was the most expensive, the 2021 Topps WWE Undisputed Pack is your Main Event Of The Evening!

(I should have uploaded a video clip of Michael Buffer yelling about Garlic Bread for car insurance...)

First card!

2021 Topps WWE Undisputed - Wes Lee

Who? 

Couldn't the WWE Random Name Generator come up with something more bland and unrealistic?

2021 Topps WWE Undisputed - Asuka

Oh, and I really hate that all of the WWE title belts are now just giant bedazzled WWE logos.

The only thing I know about Asuka is that I've never understood anything she's said on TV.

2021 Topps WWE Undisputed - Bray Wyatt

The ultimate example of WWE coming up with a good idea, then having no clue what to do with it. For years we watched Bray devolve from a simple Louisiana Bayou Weirdo (with his creepy family) into a demonic children's show host, that shoots fireballs and teleports...

Yeah...

2021 Topps WWE Undisputed - Roman Reigns

Remember those five or so years of WWE heavily pushing tacky babyface Roman, to the loud boo's of arenas nationwide? Only to finally figure out that Reigns is a natural heel, and he would get over huge if the company just got out of the way.

It's not what the fans want, it's what Vince wants!

And the pack hit...

2021 Topps WWE Undisputed - Angelo Dawkins - Autographed Mat Relic 1/99

Well, this is pretty cool. Even if I barely know who Angelo Dawkins is, and haven't seen one of his matches. I know he's in a tag team, but tag team wrasslin is pretty meaningless in today's WWE. If there was something serious going on, I'd probably be interested. But it's been treated like a joke for so long, bad gimmicks and meaningless feuds, that I just don't care about the WWE tag division.

So that was the best card I got from these packs, but I can't in good conscience give WWE the win here.

And I can't side with AEW either. That Kenny Omega card is cool, but it's still Kenny Omega.

Well, we'll give the win to AEW anyways, since they employ this guy...

The newest addition The Home of Happy Playthings Wrasslin Wall of Fame, Maxwell Jacob Friedman!

In my opinion, his feud with CM Punk has been the best I've seen in pro-wrasslin since Bret Hart vs Stone Cold Steve Austin, back in 1996-97. Tremendous television that showed me that pro-wrasslin can still be good. As long as the talent are allowed to do their thing and have the ability to do it well.

While I was at Rochester, MN's Nerdin' Out, I was on the lookout for more inductions...

The stocked AEW figures didn't overly impress me.  What I didn't notice until I looked at this picture much later, was Nerdin' Out had the WWE King Mabel figure that I regret not buying at the Lake Street KMart, a few years ago. Had I paid any attention to those WWE figures, I would have bought it without a second thought.

Ooops...

Another recent induction will join MJF on the wall...

In addition to all his other accomplishments, the autographed Christmas Variant Jim Cornette now has the honor of headlining The Home of Happy Playthings Wrasslin Wall of Fame!

From the TNA section of the wrasslin card album...

Almost like he's cutting a vicious promo on Shit Stain!

And since I have no ending to this story, I’m going to finish off with this video for the song Buffalo by Stump, that I recently found online. 

I’m obsessed with this song!

Oh, and AEW Dynamite is on tonight.

Don't forget!