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The box: 2017 Topps Heritage WWE wrestling cards (hobby box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
Packs per box: 24
Cards per pack: 9
Cards in this box: 215
Base set completion: 100 of 100 (100 percent)
Duplicates: 16
Notables on base cards – The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Charlotte Flair, Goldberg, Mick Foley, Maryse, Trish Stratus, Sasha Banks, Bray Wyatt, Chris Jericho, Becky Lynch, John Cena, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Andre The Giant, Bret “Hit Man” Hart, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Lana, Roman Reigns, Triple H, Undertaker, Dusty Rhodes, Edge, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Sting
Rookie (Cup) Cards/NXT Future Stars (18) – Asuka, Bobby Roode, Ember Moon, Eric Young, Hideo Itami, Johnny Gargano, Liv Morgan, Tommaso Ciampa, Austin Aries, Bayley, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Chad Gable, Jason Jordan, Mojo Rawley, Shinsuke Nakamura
Insert cards: 97 (see a sampling in the gallery below)
Gold parallel (1) – “Stone Cold” Steve Austin (/10)
Bronze parallel (12) – Terri Runnels, Jake Roberts, Dusty Rhodes, Bret Hart, Asuka, Rusev, Jason Jordan, Nikki Bella, Kalisto, Rhyno, Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt
SummerSlam All-Stars (24) – Notables include Undertaker, Triple H, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Brock Lesnar, Chris Jericho, John Cena, Steve Austin, The Rock
Bizarre SummerSlam Matches (8) – Big Boss Man, Undertaker, Mankind, Davey Boy Smith, X-Pac, Ken Shamrock, Ric Flair, Rusev
Thirty Years of SummerSlam (48) – Notables include Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, The Hart Foundation, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Mankind, Triple H, Steve Austin, Undertaker, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, John Cena, Edge, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Finn Balor
John Cena Tribute (4) – Wins 10th WWE championship, Wins Triple Threat Steel Cage Match, Wins 2012 Money in the Bank, Teams with The Rock
Autographs/Memorabilia: 2
Bronze Autographs (1) – Alexa Bliss (/99)
Bronze Relics (1) – Hideo Itami (/99)
What’s Buzz-worthy: The Heritage brand is one that combines the stars of today on the designs of yesterday and in WWE that also means the checklist is a blend of the past and present. As said in an early blaster break here, this is a fun blend of the 1987 Topps WWF design and the 1987 Topps baseball design — the best of both worlds — in a product that also takes a particular look at SummerSlam. That’s the WWE’s second-biggest PPV of the year and it’s coming up soon. Just like our blaster break, this box delivered well with a parallel auto of one of WWE’s top female performers (and someone who hasn’t had a ton of ink so far), Alexa Bliss. It’s a card with a good photo — and it’s also fun to compare the signed card to the base card as she switched from Smackdown to Raw during production and after the cards were printed/signed. I managed to avoid any of the manufactured patches — those are 1987 Topps sticker nods that I’d punt far, far away from the WWE Universe — and got a shirt Relic as the second hit. Inserts here once again feel similar to base cards — they use modified subset designs from the 1987 WWF release — like previous recent Heritage sets. That’s a slight negative but the rest is so good I can overlook it. Also making this box strong? A Gold parallel (one in 551 packs; one in two cases) of Steve Austin. … This is a solid take on the 1987 designs and collation here was perfect and even close on the insert sets — a definite plus. About the only drawback is that the stock does can be chippy on the autographs and parallels, which use rich colorful overlays atop the memorable wood borders. Perhaps the stock can be thickened a tad or parallel approaches could be rethought going forward? Heritage WWE has always been a bit overlooked value-wise during the last few years (excluding a decade ago where it was collected hard and released regularly) and it’s by far one of the best releases on the calendar for a few reasons.
Product Grade: A-
Box Grade: A+
Fun Grade: A-
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