First look: 2014 Topps Road to WrestleMania wrestling cards
By Chris Olds | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor
The next set of World Wrestling Entertainment cards from Topps will be filled with WrestleMania moments.
As in autographs and Relics from some of the biggest names in the 30-year history of WrestleMania — Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Trish Stratus and John Cena to name a few.
And even the Ultimate Warrior.
Topps unveiled its plans for 2014 Road to WrestleMania on Tuesday, and it’s a set that will arrive on Sept. 10 packing more than perhaps any other WWE brand before and two hits per 24-pack hobby box. Boxes will carry a suggested retail price of $48.
The base set will consist of 110 cards showcasing the lead-up to WrestleMania 30, which was recently held in New Orleans. There will be a 22-card insert set to highlight the undefeated streak of Undertaker, which ended at the event, as well as a 10-card Ultimate Warrior career highlight insert. Rounding out the offerings will be a 60-card 30 Years of WrestleMania set and an eight-card Queen of WrestleMania set focusing on Stratus. The Stratus cards will be two per box, while the Warrior cards will be six per box and the Undertaker cards will be in every pack.
Each base card will have three parallels as well as 1/1 printing plates. There will be hobby-only Bronze (12 per box), Black (one per box) and Gold (/10) cards — and the same parallel patterns will be found for autographed cards.
Among the signed cards will be single, dual and mat autos with competitors from the past and present among them, including Hogan and Stratus, though a preliminary checklist was not released. Memorabilia cards will be found for mat Relics, competitor swatch Relics and a dual Relic for Undertaker — a hat and pants card. Topps also is planning printing plates for the Relics.
For the product as a whole there will be approximately 30,000 Relics and fewer than 4,000 autographs. Just 22 dual Undertaker Relics and 25 Stratus auto Relics will be made.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
too bad the release date wasn’t timed better
I agree, but then I figured this is a bit of a rebranding for the “Best of” line.
This should do pretty well with some of its inclusions.