Sponsored Blaster Box Break: TRISTAR 2010 TNA New Era

There’s been buzz about this release ever since it was first publicized.  Say what you will about the TNA product on television, but this release contains autographs from some of the biggest names in the history of wrestling.  Hulk Hogan was the driving force of the WWF for decades while Ric Flair was doing the same thing over in WCW.  Now they’re facing off in the same federation and TRISTAR is striking while the iron is hot.

Those two cards aren’t the only ones available in this release though.  The Jeff Hardy autographs in the set should prove to be popular as will RVD’s autographs.  There’s a large autograph checklist though and the majority of the 55 autographs don’t have the amount of name recognition that the average WWE wrestler does.  I know that I’d be tempted not to rip the card in half if I were to pull a Bubba the Love Sponge autograph.  He’s not a wrestler and doesn’t belong in this set no matter how good of a friend he is to Terry Bollea.

I doubt that there will ever be a market for wrestler “rookie cards",” but if there were, this would be RVD’s TNA RC.  TRISTAR did a great job with the quick turnaround of this set.  Hogan, Flair, RVD, Hardy and Mr. Anderson haven’t been in TNA all that long, but they got them into this set and did a good job of it.

The cards look very nice and the photography is great especially when you consider that a lot of these images were taken from the big TNA Monday night special and the show where Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair made their debut with TNA.  The time period between those shows and the release of this set wasn’t long at all.  You’ve got to give TRISTAR plenty of kudos for that.  They definitely struck while the iron was hot and it is paying off.  The cards have improved by leaps and bounds since the first TNA set.  I still don’t know of too many people who are a fan of the glitter, but it’s TRISTAR’s thing so I don’t mind them sticking with it.

Each blaster box contains 24 cards and that includes one autograph card.  So, you are basically paying $20 or whatever the blasters sell for at retail for just the one autograph card.  These are unnumbered retail versions of the autograph cards.  That seems pretty pricey for what you get in a box.

TRISTAR continues to deliver fun autographs on their cards.  The card of Mr. Anderson reads, “Mr. Anderson… Anderson!!” which is what the wrestler yells into an old school microphone lowered from the ceiling as part of his entrance.

On the downside of things, the stickers are once again on stickers.  I can understand it for this set since there was a quick turnaround time, but there’s no way that there should be sticker autographs on future sets.  All that TRISTAR has to do is send a representative or two down to Orlando on a Thursday night with cards to be signed and they’re all set.  It’s really inexcusable.  On-card autographs would really bring these sets to the next level.

Technorati Tags: TNA Wrestling,TRISTAR,box break,TNA The New Era

A Quick Heads up

I know that I don’t have a ton of wrestling fans reading this and I think there’s even fewer wrestling card collectors, but since there are some of you out there I just wanted to pass along a little heads up.  I got word today from TRISTAR that they would only be able to send out a blaster box due to the quick sell out of the new TNA New Era product.  I have a feeling that this might be a product that follows in the steps of Topps’ UFC sets as far as price after release goes.  There’s an amazing list of autographs to pull out of this product and I see it as being something that picks up in popularity as box breaks start to show up online and people see the Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair cards coming out of it.

I’m very appreciative that TRISTAR is sending something over to review and I should have that blaster box break in a couple of days.  I was always planning on buying a box for myself, but I know that I won’t be able to do it right at the release so I’m glad that I’ll have some cards to show off here on the blog.  I just hope that the box prices haven’t climbed too high once I am able to pick up a box.

Technorati Tags: TNA Wrestling,TRISTAR,2010 TNA New Era,Hulk Hogan,Ric Flair

TNA 2010: The New Era

TRISTAR will be releasing their next TNA set on April 28th and it looks like they’ve got a big winner here.  They were already doing a good job with the TNA sets and it looks like the quality continues to improve while the TNA roster gets better by leaps and bounds.  In fact, this past weekend I ordered my very first TNA Pay Per View and was very happy with what I saw.  The Ultimate X match featuring the Motor City Machine Guns and Generation ME was easily the match of the year so far in any federation.

One of the big selling points for this set is that there are over 30 different Hulk Hogan cards available.  This includes the base cards, relic cards, autograph cards, autographed relic cards and an Obak insert.  This set definitely has Hulkamania.

The base cards look great with excellent photography.  I count 11 cards in the base set with Hulk Hogan’s name on them so if you are a fan of the Hulkster then this is the set for you.  There’s a lot more than that though.  This set has content as recent as TNA’s big move to Monday night which included the return to wrestling of “Mr. Monday Night,” Rob Van Dam.  That’s a huge coup for TNA as the WWE had been trying to lure RVD back for a while now.  He did rejoin them for one night, but that would be it.  Jeff Hardy’s first TNA card is in this set as well with a picture from the Monday Night Special where he made a brief appearance.  Some other notable new additions are Scott Hall and Syxx-Pac, Shannon Moore, Mr. Anderson, Generation Me, The Pope, Desmond Wolfe and THE Brian Kendrick.

The two per box Obak cards should be very popular.  I loved the Obak set and can’t wait for these cards.  Hopefully they don’t prove to be too popular since this is a set that I’ll want to chase.

Each box contains one memorabilia card numbered to 1, 25, 50 or 199.  There aren’t any bums in the relic set.  The single relic set includes Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Sting, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Mr. Anderson and Syxx-Pac.  There’s a dual relic card of Beer Money Inc.  Triple relic cards feature three Hogan swatches; Hogan, Flair and Sting (pictured) or the members of The Beautiful People.

Who wouldn’t love pulling a Hulk Hogan autograph out of one of these boxes?  Autographed cards are numbered to 1, 5, 25 or 50.  There are single signed cards of just about every member of the TNA roster.  Some of the highlights are Hogan, Sting, Angle, Kevin Nash, AJ Styles, RVD, Samoa Joe, Velvet Sky, Christy Hemme, Daniels, Daffney, Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair.

There are some nice dual autographed cards highlighting business partners such as Hogan and Dixie Carter, allies like Hogan and Abyss or bitter enemies like Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson.  The Hogan/Angle and Hogan/Flair cards should be two of the more sought after cards from this set.

There are also triple signed cards as well.  There are four different cards with one featuring former nWo members Hogan, Nash and Syxx-Pac another with the current members of The Beautiful People, the third features The British Invasion and the last one features some of the more popular ladies of TNA (Tara, Christy Hemme and Traci Brooks).

Last, but certainly not least are the quad signed cards.  There are five different cards including the one pictured here that Beckett called the greatest wrestling card ever produced.  I think I’ve got to agree.

The other quads feature the current members of The Beautiful People along with former member Angelina Love.  The Hogan/Jarrett/Angle/Foley card should be popular as well, but not as popular as the pictured card.  There’s a card of TNA Knockouts Taylor Wilde, Sarita, Hamada and Awesome Kong and the final quad is of Hulk Hogan, Abyss, Ric Flair and AJ Styles who have been the subject of many main events lately.

There are 6 different single event-used, autographed cards.  Along with the pictures Ric Flair, you can also pull Hulk Hogan, Mick Foley, Sting, AJ Styles and Velvet Sky.  No bums there and these cards look great.

You can find the checklist and more details about the set on the official website.  Thanks to the generosity of TRISTAR, you can expect to see a preview of the set right here on the blog close to the release day.

Technorati Tags: TNA Wrestling,Hulk Hogan,Ric Flair,TRISTAR,new release information,Jeff Hardy,RVD,Rob Van Dam

TNA 2010: The New Era

A NEW ERA HAS ARRIVED:
TRISTAR ANNOUNCES UPCOMING RELEASE OF NEW TNA WRESTLING TRADING CARDS AS TNA MAKES HISTORY TONIGHT ON SPIKE TV WITH MOVE TO MONDAY NIGHTS

All-New, Exclusive-Licensed Trading Card Set Features Legendary Pop Icon HULK HOGAN

HOUSTON, March 8, 2010 – As TNA Wrestling begins a new era with “TNA iMPACT!” moving from Thursday nights to Monday nights beginning tonight, Monday, March 8 (9:00-11:00pm ET/PT), TNA’s exclusive trading card licensee, TRISTAR, announced the upcoming release of an all-new trading card release, entitled “TNA 2010: The New Era.”  The new product is scheduled for release in late April 2010.

“TNA 2010: The New Era” Trading Cards will hit stores worldwide in late April, featuring TNA’s many new talent additions this year, namely legendary pop culture icon Hulk Hogan, one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world.

Hogan is the subject of numerous cards in the new product and is featured prominently on the product packaging.  “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair, who debuted with TNA on the company’s first-ever Monday live “TNA iMPACT!” on January 4, 2010, will have his first-ever TNA trading cards in the set.  Plus, special cards of Jeff Hardy, Scott Hall, Mick Foley, Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle and many more.  "The Icon" Sting, who has signed a new contract with TNA and will be at tonight’s historic broadcast on SpikeTV, will be featured as well.

“With Hulk Hogan’s arrival, “TNA iMPACT!” has delivered its highest-ever ratings and is growing its fanbase,” said Mandy Fuerst, TRISTAR’s Vice President of Operations.  “As a new era dawns in TNA with iMPACT!’s move to Mondays, we look forward to showing the TNA fans that TNA trading cards are a great way to collect their favorite stars.  Collectors recognize the quality and value of these cards with all of the autographs, serially-numbered parallels and event-used memorabilia cards.”

Among the cards to be most highly sought-after in the new product are a limited quantity of trading cards featuring Hulk Hogan’s hand-signed autograph, as well as cards including a swatch of the shirt that Hogan wore on his first-ever live appearance on “TNA iMPACT!” on January 4, 2010.

The new set of high-quality, glossy cards showcases never-before-seen photos, with parallel editions of each base card featuring serial numbering.  What can TNA Wrestling fans and collectors look forward to in “TNA 2010: The New Era” Trading Cards?  Highlights include:

• Special card subsets including
  • “Hulk Hogan: The Pop Icon”
  • “The Nature Boy” (Ric Flair)
  • “Dynamic Duos
  • “Monday Night Magic”
• TNA Debut cards of newcomers Flair, Hardy, Hall, Eric Bischoff, Jimmy Hart, Mr. Anderson, D’Angelo Dinero, Desmond Wolfe and many more.
• TNA Autograph cards with hand-signed signatures from 60+ different TNA stars. Dual, triple and quad autograph cards!
• TNA Authentic Action event-used memorabilia cards, featuring clothing right off the backs of top TNA stars, including Hogan, Flair, Foley, Angle, Kevin Nash, AJ Styles, The Beautiful People, Sting and more! Look for dual and triple event-used memorabilia cards, plus event-used memorabilia and autograph combo cards.

The TNA 2010: The New Era Trading Card checklists, as well as all the product details, will be available online next week at www.TNAWrestlingCards.com.

My Take: I just got finished watching the big TNA move to Monday night and it was a good show.  I like the current TNA roster a lot.  They’re not bogged down with geriatrics like they were when the Main Event Mafia was dominating the show.  The additions of Jeff Hardy, RVD and Shannon Moore should compliment an already great roster.

As usual with TRISTAR products, this set will be all about the fun autograph cards.  Each set keeps getting better as far as design and photography goes.  I’m excited to see what’s in store with this set.

Technorati Tags: TRISTAR,TNA Wrestling

New England Championship Wrestling

It’s been a busy weekend and the construction still isn’t finished up on the third floor, so I didn’t get a chance to do much as far as baseball cards go.  I didn’t want to go the whole weekend without posting something, so here goes.

I’ve been a wrestling fan for most of my life.  It only made sense that I would end up becoming friends with a co-worker who is a wrestler.  One of the federations that he wrestles for has a weekly OnDemand show on NESN, the same network that carries the Red Sox, and also has their shows available online and on iTunes as a free podcast.  I’ve attended the last two TV tapings and they’ve been a lot of fun.

Here’s the first episode that my friend appeared on.  Here he challenges for the TV Title.  It’s a great match and my friend is a great heel.  You have to skip ahead to get to the match, but it is worth it if you’re a wrestling fan.

NECW On Demand - February 15, 2010 from NECW on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: New England Championship Wrestling,NECW Wrestling,NECW,Ray Kejimura,Iron Raymond

Blaster Break: 2009 WWE

I still haven’t gotten around to buying a hobby box of 2009 Topps WWE.  I’m so used to buying HTA jumbo boxes that I think that I’m holding out for them to suddenly appear.  These are great cards, but I just haven’t seen them at a price that makes me want to pick them up immediately.  I’m hoping that the box prices will drop a little bit more and then I’ll pick one up.

I was in Target the other day and saw that they had 2009 WWE blasters on the shelves.  I didn’t buy any blasters of 2009 Baseball since I bought a jumbo box of each series.  Since I hadn’t yet purchased a box of WWE, I decided to grab one of the blasters.  The good news is that they didn’t carry over the Target exclusive parallels from baseball.  The great news is that they did carry over the manufactured patches.

I’m not exactly sure what this set is comprised of, but I’m glad that I pulled the card that I did.  This is a nice looking patch from the most recent Wrestlemania.  It also looks like you can pull a Royal Rumble patch, The Bash patch, SummerSlam patch and at least one other.  The John Cena picture on the front is the same on all of the cards which is kind of lame.  I probably wasn’t going to purchase another blaster anyway, but that fact cements it.

Technorati Tags: WWE blaster break

Box Score: 2007 Topps WWE Heritage III

This is the first installment of something new that I want to start doing here on the blog.  Box Score will be a final review of a box of cards.  I’ll go over the cards from the box that are going into my collection, cards that I’ve sold online and what is available for trade if anyone is interested.  I’m a fan of letting the hits that I don’t want pay for the base cards whenever possible and this will show if that ever happens.

I paid $15 for this box during the BlowoutCards Black Friday promotion.  I got a complete set out of the box.  That’s going right into my collection.  This set sells for around $10 on eBay.

My favorite card from the box, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan Allen & Ginter is a welcome addition to my collection and was a card that I was trying to track down for a little while now at a reasonable price.  This individual card probably would have cost $5 - $6 delivered from eBay.  I’ll be holding into the other Ginter cards as well since they’re extremely cool.  I wish that Topps had done a whole WWE set in the Allen & Ginter style before giving up the retro theme for the wrestling sets.

Matt Hardy has been a favorite of mine for a while now so this card will be going into my collection as well.  This card probably would have only cost a buck or two plus shipping to acquire since I don’t think that wrestling jerseys go for that much on the secondary market.

The big hit from the box was the Jeff Hardy autograph.  Hardy was one of the top babyfaces in the WWE when he decided to take a leave of absence and made a huge return to TNA during their big Monday night special where Hulk Hogan debuted on TNA.  Since I’ve had the opportunity to meet Jeff in person and already have his autograph, I decided to throw this card up on eBay and twenty-one bids later the card sold for $22.50.

You can’t complain when you can sell a single card from a box for more than what the box itself cost.  So, it’s like I added all of the above cards to my collection for free.  There aren’t any other hits in these boxes other than the relic, auto and Ginter cards so the only thing left to trade are the extra base cards.  If anyone is interested, comment or send me an e-mail.

Technorati Tags: Mickie James,Bobby Heenan,Matt Hardy,Jeff Hardy,WWE Heritage 3

Mail Day: Dribs and Drabs

My eBay purchases have been dwindling as of late.  These days it is just so easy to get cards that I want cheaper elsewhere.  I’ve been buying bunches of cards at .18¢ a pop on Sportlots and have been getting other singles on CheckOutMyCards.com for less money that you’d pay on eBay.  Still, there are still bargains to be found on eBay even with the $3 shipping fee that you’re going to pay most of the time.  Here are some of those bargains.

Dufex!  This 1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection card just had to become a part of my collection.  This is hands down the best parallel set ever.  I never minded getting common Dufex cards, but I’m not a big fan of getting common gold, mini or foil parallels.

Hopefully some card company brings back Dufex technology some day.  It’s much better looking than 99% of what the card companies are currently putting in packs.

Since I wasn’t all that happy with the kiss card that I got in my box of TNA Impact, I decided to see what some of the other ones are going for online.  I saw this one of Roxxi with a cheap price on it and jumped at it.  Roxxi is from this neck of the woods which is cool and I’ve always enjoyed watching her on TNA.  This is card 3 of 75 and is a fun card to add to my collection.

The only good thing about “Big Baby” Glen Davis getting injured is that there’s been a little less interest in his cards.  I won this for .99¢ and the shipping wasn’t bad.  I think it cost $2.50 delivered.  This isn’t the best looking card, but I like what they did with the sticker autograph.

Davis came back for 2 games before spraining his ankle and missing a game.  The Celtics on a whole are battling injuries at the moment.  Pierce will be out for a while, KG is going to miss a couple of games and reports state that Rajon Rondo will not be playing in Saturday’s game against the Raptors.  If this team is healthy once the playoffs start, they can bring championship #18 to Boston.  It looks like staying tough might be easier said than done though.

This is a very nice looking card and the auto is on-card.  The only problem is that Big Baby got a little carried away while signing this card.  It looks like it slipped or he was holding it crooked and he signed outside of the signing area.  It gives it a little bit of character.  Some day I may pick up a better version of this card, but this one is just fine for now.  I’ve got plenty of perfect Davis autographs.

I’m pretty sure that this is the only Ultimate Collection card that I own.  Those packs are way out of my budget and I’m not sure that I would buy them even if I could afford them.  I don’t see the difference between this card and something that you’d get out of the flagship set.  Every single card in packs that cost this much should be something special.  At least number the darn thing.

Here’s another set that I would never purchase any packs of, but there are some nice singles.  Topps refuses to get on-card signatures for its high end releases which can be annoying.  That’s one thing that Upper Deck really has going for them.  Most of the time, they have on-card autos on their high end releases.  Hopefully baseball isn’t full of nothing but sticker autos next year when Topps is the only game in town.

How many variations are there in this Sweet Spot Classic set?  I thought that I was actually getting close to having most of the versions out there, but then they started popping up in slightly faded gold ink.  I’ve also seen a red and blue stitched card that I missed out on.

Checking the Upper Deck site tells me that this was once black ink on this card.  I had forgotten about the fading issues with 2007 Sweet Spot.  Good thing I scanned this card because one day I may no longer be able to see the autograph.

Here’s a different card with faded black ink on a silver stitched baseball.  This one hasn’t bled badly, but the black ink has faded and looks gold.

To answer my previous questions, there are 16 different Dwight Evans autograph cards in the set including 4 1/1s, 4 bat barrels, and 4 glove.  I love the gold and silver ink cards that I have from this set, but these others leave a lot to be desired.  I may just have to forget that they exist and not pick them up for the Dewey player collection.

That’s it for now.  I’ve got a bunch of cards sitting in the CheckOutMyCards warehouse waiting to be shipped to me.  Once I get those shipped to me, there will be a nice sized mail day post for those.

Technorati Tags: Mail Day,Dwight Evans,Glen Davis,Big Baby,Mike Piazza

Box Break: WWE Heritage III

There weren’t a lot of baseball or basketball boxes available to me in the BlowoutCards Black Friday sale since I was working that day and couldn’t camp out at the computer.  I did take the opportunity to grab my fair share of wrestling boxes.

I thought the idea of WWE Heritage was an interesting one, but the boxes always seemed too expensive to me.  I’m not a huge fan of the hits that you get in wrestling boxes and that seems to be what you are mostly paying for.  I seem to remember the boxes not costing as much when Fleer was putting out the WWE sets, but I could be wrong.

The main design from this set draws from 1980 Topps as you can see here on John Morrison’s card.  The former Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion is one of the more exciting stars to watch.  He’s a less risky, more technical version of Jeff Hardy.  His finisher, Starship Pain (a split legged corkscrew moonsault in the corner), is one of the cooler finishers in the WWE at the moment.

Wow, these cards scanned really poorly.

The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase was one of the bigger stars when I watched wrestling as a kid.  He was known for his valet Virgil (who would eventually turn on him), the Million Dollar Championship, trying to buy the belt from Andre the Giant on Saturday Night Main Event and stuffing money into the mouth of his defeated opponents after putting them to sleep with his finisher, The Million Dollar Dream.  Ted’s son, also named Ted, is currently wrestling in the WWE as part of Legacy.

The designed used for the WWE Legends is the wood grain from 1987 Topps.

Last, but certainly not least, we have the WWE Divas who appear on cards using the 1982 Topps design.  Divas are all about looks first and wrestling ability 22nd.  If the match doesn’t involved Mickie James, Natalia Neidhart, Gail Kim, Melina or Beth Phoenix then you aren’t going to see much wrestling at all.  That’s why there’s a never-ending stream of pillow fights, bikini matches and other gimmick matches that try and hide the fact that most of these ladies just can’t wrestle.  They’ve got good looks and implants and that’s plenty for many of the WWE fans out there.  Me, I fast forward through most of the Diva matches that are on WWE programming.  I’d never, ever fast forward if Mickie James and Natty Neidhart ended up facing each other in the ring though.

To me, this was the hit of the box.  I absolutely love the Allen & Ginter WWE minis and this one here is the best of the bunch from Heritage III.  Bobby “The Brain” Heenan was by far the best thing about wrestling in the 80s and 90s.  His quick wit and sarcasm added so much to the matches that all kind of resembled each other back in those days.  He and Gorilla Monsoon were the main reason to watch Prime Time Wrestling which I would still watch over Raw, Smackdown, Nitro or Impact any day of the week.

Heenan has battled and beat throat cancer.  While it has limited his public appearances, when he does speak you can see that wit and humor is still there.  Here’s hoping that one day he’ll be healed up enough and has the desire to make a return to the wrestling world.

I also pulled Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Chief Jay Strongbow minis.  According to the odds, I should have gotten 4 minis, but one of them didn’t make it into the box.  I’ll forgive them for giving me The Brain because he’s easily worth two regular minis.

Jeff Hardy was at the height of his popularity when he decided to take a leave of absence from the WWE.  Unfortunately, soon after he got into some legal problems involving some drugs which led to all kinds of speculation and rumors.  Hopefully he’ll rest his body and mind for a year or so and return to the WWE.  While in the Hardy Boyz, Jeff did some ridiculous things especially during big pay per view events.  His matches were always worth watching because you didn’t know what insane spot he’d perform next.

I already have a Jeff Hardy autograph that I got in person so this card will most likely end up on eBay.  A thirteen year old, female wrestling fan with stockings on her arms and black nail polish will appreciate this a whole lot more than I will.

I’m posting this card last because it will be remaining in my collection and because I have a story to tell.  I made a trip to Wizard World Philly a while back to see Kevin Smith do one of his amazing Q & A sessions as well as get something signed by the man.  Matt Hardy was also making an appearance at the convention so I decided to bring something to have him sign as well.

What I decided upon was a Jakks Pacific wrestling figure in the package.  The figure came with a little boom box that played the wrestler’s theme music.  Matt loved the figure when he saw it.  He was playing with the boom box and having a great time.  I was surprised that he wasn’t sent any figures by Jakks.  He said that they sent him some of the first couple of figures that they did, but that was about it.  He was a great guy and it was a fun interaction.  Matt’s got a great autograph that you can actually read (unlike his brother) and the figure looks great.  That will definitely get posted once it is out of storage and on display in the room.

While this was a fun idea for a set, I’m glad that Topps has gone away from the Heritage theme and is now using the current year’s design for the WWE sets.  I got a complete set out of my box along with a stack of 20 or so extras.  I give the set itself a C+.  The legends are kind of weak in this set and I’m not a big fan of the design on the autographed cards.  I’ve got to give my box an A+.  I got two hits that are going to become great additions to my collection and one of the better autographs that can be pulled.

Technorati Tags: box breaks,Jeff Hardy,Matt Hardy,Mickie James,John Morrison,WWE,Bobby Heenan

Box Break: TNA Impact 2009 Edition & Maximum

I’ve been a wrestling fan for most of my life. World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment has been there all of those years, but for the most part I’ve never been a big fan of the main event stars that WWE likes to shove down your throats. I couldn't stand Hulk Hogan and his title reign that lasted for years. I’m not a big fan of HHH. The exceptions have been Don Muraco, Bret Hart, The Rock, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and John Cena. For the most part, those are all high charisma guys who made wrestling entertaining. the WWE likes to push the big brawlers whether they are entertaining or not. I guess that’s why I’ve always easily strayed to other wrestling federations.

What drew me to TNA was their X Division. They had a group of highly talented cruiserweight wrestlers (plus Samoa Joe) who did things in the ring that you’d never see in a WWE ring. AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Chris Saban, Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal and others drew people to TNA who wanted to see great action in the ring. It helps that TNA hasn’t tried to produce a G rated product like the WWE does these days. The WWE would never allow anything along the lines of a finisher called the Flying Firecrotch Guillotine. Heck, they changed the name of John Cena’s finisher from the F.U. to the Attitude Adjuster. Lame.

That’s it for the wrestling history. I’m sure that people aren’t coming here for that. You’re here for sports cards and here are some sports entertainment cards for your viewing pleasure. I had a bit of a brain fart on Black Friday and ended up ordering one of each type of TNA Impact box from BlowoutCards. That means that I’ve got a whopping 10 hits to present to you. Things will start off a little slow, but I promise that they’ll pick up at the end.

Each box contains one glitter parallel numbered to 20. I got Christopher Daniels and family. Daniels himself hadn’t appeared on TNA programming for a while after getting fired in a story line, but he wrestled as both Curry Man and Suicide during the time that he was away. When he came back, he was turned heel and is now feuding with longtime friend and TNA Champion AJ Styles.

I’m not sure what these numbered cards go for, but I’m willing to guess that this might be one of the cheapest low numbered paralleled sets to put together. No one is looking for these cards when they bust these boxes and I don’t think that the demand for them is very high.

Doug Williams autograph numbered to 60. Imagine if a sports card company came out with a set where you got three autographs per box and each one was numbered to 60 or less. That would be the most popular set ever don’t you think? Do the autographs on-card and collectors would flip. Scrub autographs wouldn’t look so bad if they were numbered to 60. Speaking of scrub autographs, I present to you this here Doug Williams card.

Daffney autograph numbered to 60. I’ve been a fan of Daffney’s ever since she was in WCW as David Flair’s girlfriend.

TriStar has made these sets fun. They’ve had the wrestlers put a lot of inscriptions on the cards. Again, this is something that’s a huge deal when it comes to mainstream sports cards. Heck, you have to pay more for inscriptions these days when you get an autograph at a card show. Daffney is known for the screams that she unleashes during matches and added the inscription “Scream Queen” to this card.

ODB/Cody Deaner dual autograph numbered to 60. Deaner was brought into TNA as the “winner” of a contest to go on a date with ODB. They were a couple for a while with Deaner managing ODB until they got into a feud over who was the true TNA Knockouts Champion. Yeah… It’s probably for the best that Deaner hasn’t been seen on TNA programming for a while now. Dual autographs. Something else that’s huge in mainstream cards.
Next up is what I pulled out of the Maximum box numbered 9/600 (The regular box was 1012/1800). My parallel card from this box was a little disappointing. It looks exactly like the base version of the card. Not that I’m a huge fan of the glitter that’s all over the inserts, but I want there to be something different if it is going to be a parallel.

This caricature of Mick Foley (Tweak) and Jeremy Borash (Tweet) came from a segment where Foley was talking about how he tweaked matches and Borash Tweeted about it. Yeah, the writing and backstage stuff in TNA isn’t all that great, but the in-ring action more than makes up for it.

Madison Rayne autograph numbered to 60. I now have autographs from two members of The Beautiful People (the other being Velvet Sky). This card shows one of the many bad things about sticker autographs. Stickers are small and autographs can run off of them. That happens at the bottom of this sticker, but don’t worry because at the top of the sticker you’ll find run-off from the sticker above. Another cool inscription can be found on this card.

Matt Morgan autograph numbered to 60. TNA has done a great job building up Matt Morgan into a main event superstar. He’s the type of wrestler that you’d expect to see Vince McMahon drooling over, but WWE passed up on him. If he decides to stick with TNA, “The Blue Print” will be one of their top stars for years to come. Again I’ll mention what if any mainstream sports set had this many inscriptions in it.

ODB Kiss Card numbered to 99. Maximum boxes guarantee one kiss card per box. There are plain kiss cards as well as cards with both lip prints and an autograph. I think there are also dual kiss cards. The card gods decided that this would be an ODB box break since I now have an autograph and lip print from her. ODB started off as more of a comical wrestler which made her popular with the fans. She’s a multiple time TNA Knockout Champion and is entertaining to watch.

Jeff Jarrett/Mick Foley dual autograph numbered to 25. Talent wise, this was the best card in the box. Both of these guys are wrestling legends. Jeff Jarrett was a star in both WWF/E and WCW before founding TNA. Foley and his various personalities have won titles all over the world and have made multiple appearances on the New York Times Best Sellers list. I don’t think there are many cards better than this one available to pull.

Danny Bonaduce autograph numbered to 10. I put this card last mostly due to the fact that it is numbered to just 10 copies. I’m not sure how much of a market there is out there for autographs of this former Partridge Family star. It looks like there were autographed buybacks included in Topps American Pie.

TriStar seems to have a bit of a problem with collation. While I did get a full set out of the regular box, I was 8 cards short of a set from the Maximum box. This is the second time in three boxes that I didn’t get a full set from a TriStar product. Good luck finding singles of stuff like this. Ripping open a box and ending up short of a set really can take the fun out of opening a box such as this due to the lack of available singles.

The design and quality of pictures on these cards are a huge improvement over the last TNA set that I opened, Cross The Line. One or two insert sets would break things up a little bit, but might increase the collation issues. It would be great if TriStar were able to get some on-card autos. It wouldn’t be difficult at all since TNA is headquartered at Universal Studios in Florida. Just send an employee or two there with some cards to be signed and get it done. These inscriptions were look even better if they weren’t crowded onto a small sticker along with the autograph. I don’t mind the absence of relic cards. I don’t feel like they add a whole lot to the WWE sets especially since they started putting a ton of mats pieces into cards. Yawn.

I would give this set a B overall. I would give my regular box a C and the Maximum box an A-.

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