Latest news with #Luraschi
New York Times
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Topps announces WWE Debut, Wrestlemania patches as bigger vision begins to take shape
Topps has announced that the Debut Patch, which started with MLB and then MLS, is coming to WWE, along with Wrestlemania patches that will be worn by wrestlers. Those patches will then be put into one-of-a-kind trading cards. The first patches to appear on WWE superstars will be worn by all wrestlers scheduled to have a match at Wrestlemania 41 in Las Vegas this weekend. Then, beginning on April 21, every wrestler making their first main roster appearance on Raw or Smackdown will wear the corresponding Main Roster Debut Patch. Advertisement The patches will primarily be worn on each wrestler's boot and after their match it will be removed, authenticated by Fanatics, which owns Topps, and put into a trading card that will also be autographed. The initial wave of Wrestlemania and Main Roster Debut patch cards will go into sets that will be released later this year, though Topps would not confirm whether those cards would go into the same sets or be split into different products. 'We worked with WWE on where to place (the patches),' said Topps senior vice president of product Clay Luraschi. 'Obviously wrestling's very physical, so the likelihood for the patch to be pulled off is high, so you want to put it in the safest place, but at the same time you want to have it in a place that's visible, so the fan can make the connection to what it is and what it means. So the boot, which is also something that's standard across almost all wrestlers, makes the most sense.' Topps decided to launch both WWE patch types at the same time because they see both as being equally important. 'A superstar's debut in Raw or Smackdown, it means they made it, and also to be at Wrestlemania is as big a deal, and is the pinnacle for wrestlers,' said Luraschi. 'So you have to commemorate both those events. WWE has been a great partner and we discussed what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it. The way it came together, it was like a no-brainer on both sides.' The Wrestlemania patch concept isn't just for this year, though. Each Wrestlemania going forward under Topps' 'long-term' trading card partnership with WWE will have a patch that reflects its own unique logo. '(Wrestlers) who have had a Debut Patch, and then at some point if they're at Wrestlemania they'll have a second patch, but it's one of the biggest events in entertainment and you have to tell the story behind it,' said Luraschi. 'And that's the great thing about these patches is that it's narrowing down the idea of what a relic card is. It's tying something to a specific event. It's truly telling the story. … Guys and gals are gonna hit second, third, fourth Wrestlemanias and we'll be telling the story along the way.' 'Storytelling' is a term that comes up a lot in discussing this patch program and it helps bring into focus the wider possibilities that are now starting to take shape for it. The long-term partnership between the two companies, which Topps also has with MLB and will soon begin with the NFL, NBA, and more, means the milestone moments of a wrestler's entire WWE career can now be represented in one-of-one patch cards — from their main roster debut to each climactic Wrestlemania match they have. Advertisement This is starting to play out in baseball cards now, as well, where the Debut Patches began in 2023. In March, Topps, Fanatics, and MLB announced that starting this season, individual award winners will wear gold-embellished versions of the MLB logo patch on their jerseys, which will go into trading cards. The record sale for a Debut Patch card also came in March, when Paul Skenes' was bought at auction by Dick's Sporting Goods for $1.11 million. But does the Wrestlemania patch indicate that there could soon be a World Series patch or one for other premier events? 'We're always thinking about what the next thing is,' Luraschi said. 'We're always innovating, we have an incredible creative team, and I just think the idea of, again — and I just keep beating on the storytelling piece — but it's so important as the tie-in to the patch. It's just going to keep evolving and it's going to keep unlocking even more interesting (elements) and even more innovation.' As the patch concept expands from the debut to other milestones of an athlete's career, the potential to overdo it grows, however — something Topps is cognizant of. 'We're being very mindful of how we release these concepts,' said Luraschi. 'The great thing is that they're all one-of-ones, they're very scarce, so there's not a ton of them out there. When you have something (that's working) sometimes the knee-jerk reaction is to, lets just keep doing it or lets do a bunch of it, but we understand what we have here and it's our responsibility as a leader in the industry to make sure it's presented and parceled out in the right way for people to enjoy and to give it its highest level of collectability.' Patches aside, the partnership with WWE has shown early signs of success. In January, 2025 Topps WWE Chrome, the first release under the new license, sold out online in five minutes, according to Topps. The print-to-order Topps Now card featuring The Rock, John Cena, and Travis Scott to commemorate the moment Cena made his long-awaited heel turn at Elimination Chamber in March had a print run of 55,211 — the fifth highest total for any Topps Now card across all sports. Advertisement 'The response was tremendous,' Luraschi said of Topps WWE Chrome. 'It was best case scenario. … This segment of the business, WWE trading cards, has so much runway, and you saw with Topps Chrome. And if we keep doing the right things and we keep supporting (it), and WWE continues to do what they're doing, this can really be an important part of the trading card business. I truly believe that.'
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'It hasn't even scratched the surface': Inside Topps and WWE's new trading card partnership
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.'
New York Times
31-01-2025
- Business
- New York Times
The rise of WWE trading cards? What to expect from Topps Chrome and beyond
The new year has brought a new era for the WWE — not just with the company's landmark Netflix deal, but in the trading card world too, with a 'long-term partnership' that reunites it with Topps. All of this coincides with a growing number of indicators that suggest wrestling cards could be the next trading card segment to see substantial market growth. Content creators around the hobby have suggested as much in recent months, and recent numbers seem to back up that belief. CardLadder's wrestling index, which tracks sales of a curated list of key cards in the category, is up about 25 percent over the last three months — far more than any other sports category and about double the second best performing sector in that span, Pokemon. And in December, a new record sale for a wrestling card was achieved when a 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Hulk Hogan card graded a PSA 9 (one of 17, with none higher) sold for $132,000, surpassing the $126,000 that The Rock's one-of-a-kind 2022 Panini Black Prizm card sold for a year earlier. Advertisement According to eBay, users searched its marketplace for WWE items at a rate of 2,700 times per hour over the course of 2024, up nearly five percent from 2023. On January 6 of this year, when the WWE debuted on Netflix, searches went up nearly five percent compared to the average the week prior. But individual wrestlers featured in that debut episode saw much more significant jumps in search interest on the platform that suggests growing collector interest as programming reaches new audiences. 'I think WWE is primed for an incredible run in trading cards,' said Topps senior vice president of product Clay Luraschi this month. 'I've seen it bubble up over the last five, six years and now it's just perfect timing. And with all the stuff that we're going to be doing this year, and some of the things that haven't been done, it's gonna add to that excitement.' Topps returns to making WWE cards after the license spent the last several years with Panini. Luraschi noted that Topps, which is now owned by Fanatics, is 'a different trading card company than we were the last time we were doing WWE products.' 'The last couple of years Topps has had a real focus on highlighting key moments,' Luraschi said. 'The more we can tell a story behind each and every card, the more powerful that product's going to be. So you'll see a lot of great storytelling in our WWE products that you haven't seen before, and you'll see lots of cool, unique relics that are tied to events, which we haven't done in the past, you'll see lots of cool autographs that really bring out the superstar's personality.' The first evidence of that is present in the newly released Topps WWE Chrome set, which includes a long list of past, present and future WWE superstar autograph subjects (set checklist pdf here). Hobby boxes include 12 packs of eight cards each and two autographed cards and are priced at $169.99. Some of those autographs bear unique, wrestler-specific inscriptions that are sure to be chased by collectors and command a premium on the secondary market, ranging from WWE champion Cody Rhodes with 'Story Finished!' to Jey Uso's 'YEET!' and Roman Reigns' 'Acknowledge me,' plus new Women's champion Tiffany Stratton with 'It's Tiffy Time' and WWE Hall of Famer X-Pac with 'I got two words for ya.' Advertisement But the biggest signer in this set is The Rock, who has autographed cards in an official WWE product for the first time since 1998 — the element of this Chrome set that Luraschi is most proud of. The Rock has three featured inscriptions: 'Aloha,' 'Smell It?' and 'Rock Final Boss.' 'The Rock is always on anyone's list,' Luraschi said. 'He's got a lot of things going on, but doing a comeback in trading cards, you can't do it without his presence.' Finding ways to better convey the larger-than-life personalities of professional wrestlers is a key element of what Topps aims to do with the WWE license this time around, according to Luraschi. 'I think the personality part is actually what helps – it's actually what separates (WWE), in a lot of ways, from other properties is that the personalities are so strong and it just really works with trading cards,' he said. 'Maybe it hasn't been captured in the past but we're really gonna capture that now.' That push was inspired by last summer's Fanatics Fest, where the company brought together their many sports league partners for a variety of interactive fan experiences. There was one that stood out from the rest, though. 'I was at the Fanatics Fest in New York and they had this – everyone had their own little area – and the WWE one was just non-stop, all day, everyone's just fired up,' Luraschi said. 'And all I kept thinking to myself as I was watching how the fan interaction was, 'How do we capture that on the trading cards?' How do we capture that fandom, that just intense fandom onto trading cards, and I think what you'll see this year is just kind of the beginning, and then as we release products, and in the coming years you'll see us continue to evolve it to where I think WWE cards can be some of the most sought-after trading cards around. I really do honestly feel that way.' The question of how to capture the excitement that WWE inspires and conveying it through trading cards carries through to the launch video Topps produced to coincide with the release of Chrome. Since this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first ever WWE cards, Chrome also features inserts bearing the retro design of that 1985 set. 'I'm geeking out because I collected that set. I still remember the packs, the front of the pack,' Luraschi said. And since John Cena is embarking on his year-long farewell tour in 2025, WWE sets will feature tributes to his legendary career, starting with an insert set in the Chrome release. 'You'll see some tributes to Cena throughout the year, including some stuff that's going to go across all of our products,' Luraschi said. 'Nothing to unveil yet, but someone as big as he is and who's so impactful in WWE — he's definitely worthy of doing something special throughout the year.' (Side note: To get a sense of the impact Cena has had over his career, give this story in the Indianapolis Star about how his action figure helped get a young boy through an unimaginable tragedy.) And what about debut patches? They've become arguably the biggest chase in modern sports cards, with a presence in MLB and MLS to start, but could they come to WWE next now that Topps has the license? 'You've gotta guess that we're having the discussion,' Luraschi said. 'Yeah, it's something that we're toying around with.' So which wrestlers are most collectors chasing? If you watched that debut episode of WWE Raw on Netflix, the top name might surprise you… Top 5 most searched wrestlers on eBay during 2024: Yes, he was booed out of the building in LA (among other places in recent years), but Hogan still tops the list. Meanwhile, Jey Uso's popularity has exploded as he continues his chase for a top title in WWE. In 2024, eBay searches for his name increased 110 percent over the previous year. Several other wrestlers saw big gains last year, as well, with one from rival promotion AEW leading the way (AEW cards are currently manufactured by Upper Deck): Who will emerge as a hobby favorite in 2025? Well, it just might be Tiffy Time. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission. (Top photo of Damien Priest: Dylan Azari/Special to the Telegram & Gazette / USA TODAY NETWORK)
