'It hasn't even scratched the surface': Inside Topps and WWE's new trading card partnership

Yahoo

31-01-2025

Weeks after shaking up the streaming landscape with its debut of "Monday Night Raw" on Netflix, WWE is altering the collectibles marketplace as it releases its first set of new trading cards in four years.
2025 Topps Chrome WWE, Friday's first release for the trading card and wrestling behemoths in their new licensing agreement, comes at a time where the world of collectibles — trading cards in particular — has exploded, with record-setting sales and statistics across all sports and interests.
Spurred in part by the pandemic in 2020, the majority of growth within the hobby has come from more traditional sports — MLB, NBA, NFL, etc. — but the combat sports cards niche (which includes wrestling) has grown immensely over the past few years. From 2020 to its peak in 2022, PSA saw a 1092% increase in combat cards submitted for grading. Even as sets dwindled and submissions slowed, 2024 still saw 25,436 cards graded — a higher total than any pre-2021 year on record.
'I see a lot of opportunity and I see where the wrestling trading card market has gone over the last 10 years and it hasn't even scratched the surface with the amount of current WWE fans that are in it,' Clay Luraschi, senior vice president of product at Topps, told Uncrowned. 'What we want to do is bring new eyeballs to WWE trading cards.'
Topps wasted no time in capitalizing on its newest licensing agreement. After Topps had the rights to produce WWE trading cards from 2005 to 2021, Panini — one of the major players in the trading cards space — took control and for the past three years had been the exclusive creator and distributor of WWE cards. In 2023, the agreement between WWE and Panini was terminated, opening the door for Fanatics to regain the key license. Unlike other sports leagues where there is opportunity to create unlicensed product, the nature of WWE's product and presentation prevents that.
'It's a lot of the same people we have worked with in the past,' Luraschi said. 'The process has been really great and smooth. We had a lot of asks going in and they had a lot of asks of us. We've been on the same page since day one. Some of the things you haven't seen in wrestling trading cards that you may have seen in other products, you'll see that now. We'll even take it up another level by leveraging themes and superstars to put things in WWE cards that aren't in other products as well. The energy that we're creating between the two groups is really at the highest level.'
One of the challenges any company faces when creating wrestling trading cards is the unique universe in which professional wrestling operates. Without a traditional offseason or draft, it can be a bit ambiguous as to who is a 'rookie' in WWE.
For collectors, rookie cards often represent the most coveted — and lucrative — items in the entire industry. In 2024 alone, Victor Wembanyama, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson and Elly De La Cruz were among the top 10 most-graded athletes by PSA, representing more than 820,000 submissions, per the New York Times. In addition, demand for Caitlin Clark grew 2,400% on Whatnot — a popular selling platform for cards and collectibles — showing the immense popularity of rookies across sports.
'We'll be very exact about where a person's first card is going to appear,' Luraschi said. 'We know that is an important part of the trading card business and an important part of the experience. Those things will play a part in our WWE products.'
Rookies aside, the fact that WWE lives in a world that is part sport, part entertainment lends itself to a distinct advantage over traditional sports trading cards.
'The superstars are such incredible personalities that there are just so many different things you can do with them in regards to a trading card,' Luraschi said. 'You see inscriptions on all different types of trading cards, but the ones you can do on WWE, it's limitless. Being able to leverage the personality of the subject I think is a huge, huge benefit for WWE trading cards. The autograph was introduced to trading cards to bring the star closer to the collector. This adds a new level.'
A prime example of said inscription strategy is coming immediately in Topps' first set. One of the major asks when Topps and WWE explored reuniting was getting Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson to sign cards for the set.
With Johnson more closely involved with WWE over the past year, bringing him into the fold with his first licensed WWE autograph card in nearly three decades was a major win for Topps and creates a chase that Luraschi believes could mimic that of the Paul Skenes MLB Debut one-of-one card from 2024 Topps Chrome MLB Update Series.
'I think those Rock autographs are going to be chased like no other cards you've seen chased before,' Luraschi said. 'These Rock autographs are going to become some of the most sought-after collectibles of the year because of who he is, we've never done this personally, and it hasn't been done in a long, long time.'
Much like Topps did when it jumped back into creating NBA cards — unlicensed for the time being — in 2024, the brand is going immediately to its popular Chrome branding. Topps' MLB products tend to release its Series 1 and Series 2 sets before the Chrome variation hit shelves each year. Generally across the board for collectors, Chrome is a more desired offering. For WWE in particular, SportsCards Pro data shows that 26 cards from the last Chrome set in 2021 have a resale value of more than $100 when graded in a PSA 10.
'Chrome is one of our biggest brands and a lot of it has to do with the technology,' Luraschi said. 'When I look at Chrome cards that we have done in the past, there's a lot of activity around those cards. That brand is still very much living in the WWE. I thought it was the perfect product to be the first one out in the reintroduction of Topps and WWE.'
One of the bigger changes that has taken place over the past decade in WWE and the sports world in general is the rise of women's sports. WWE underwent the 'Women's Revolution' in the mid 2010s and has produced some of the most talented female stars in the industry. A similar surge has taken place in the collectibles world as well.
Aside from Clark's aforementioned immense popularity, Whatnot data shows there has been an 870% increase in interest in the WNBA market. PSA data suggests the same, as WNBA represented the top three grading submissions for 2024 basketball sets, due in large part to Clark and a popular rookie class overall. Topps Chrome WWE's 300-card base checklist represents this growing trend, with roughly one-third devoted to female stars, past and present.
'The female athlete in general is as important in our culture as it has ever been,' Luraschi said. 'WWE pushes that to a level unlike any other platform out there. That's a huge opportunity for all of us. The stuff that you're doing today is drastically different than 10 years ago.'
Even though it has only been roughly a four-year separation, Topps and WWE have evolved significantly during that time period. WWE has signed billions of dollars worth of television rights deals in recent years and Topps has become one of the primary brands under the Fanatics umbrella. Despite the licensing agreement not taking effect until this year, Topps and WWE played a major role in last summer's Fanatics Fest event in New York City, illustrating the impact both brands have with collectors.
Both brands, it appears, are ready to rumble.
'They're passionate, we're passionate,' Luraschi said. 'There's definitely a renewed energy because we're both different companies than we were when we last worked together. There's a different energy. We know there's so much more that we can do this time around and we're committed to it.'