Box Breaks: 2016 Topps Road To Wrestlemania & 2016 Topps WWE

 

I'm going to break down my box breaks into 2 posts since it involves two different "sports" (I know I know wrestling isn't real...I don't need the spiel lol). Wrestling has always held a special place in my heart since I was a kid. It was something that my Grandpa used to love to watch and we'd talk about it or on the times he'd come over to the house on Monday's he'd be watching Raw right there with me (he used to always joke about me scarfing down a whole pizza in front of the TV while watching Raw). I know it's hokey, I know it's cringeworthy, but regardless 27 years later, I'm still watching it. It hasn't really converted until collecting much though. I do have a very small wrestling collection. A few autographs and relic cards that I've bought over the years, and a couple of autograph display pieces of Triple H and Stone Cold, along with an auto photo of Kevin Owens, but compared to my sports collection, it pales in comparison. I'd never bought packs or boxes of wrestling cards, and I decided to give it a whirl. These boxes were affordable and I thought it would be a fun and interesting rip. Here are the results

2016 Topps Road To Wrestlemania

Wrestlemania Roster (1 Per Pack)- Just missing cards #2, #8, #13, #16, #22, #28

Bronze Parallels
Rusev (Card #11)
Big Show (Card #18)
The New Day (Card #22)
Rusev & Summer Rae (Card #55)
Brock (Card #56)
Brock (Card #60)
Brock (Card #66)
John Cena (Card #69)
Undertaker (Card #79)
Becky Lynch (Card #88)
Breeze/Rose (Card #90)

Rock Tribute
Cards #1,#3,#5,#8


Dusty Rhodes Tribute
Cards #3,#4,#8,#9


Roddy Piper Tribute
Cards #1, #5, #6, #7


WWE Immortals
Randy Orton
Paige
Undertaker
Brock

Silver Parallel
Seth Rollins (Card #68)

Base Card SP
Alberto Del Rio


Shirt Relic
Becky Lynch

Hall of Fame Commemorative Ring Relic
Bret Hart

Overall Thoughts: I'm not going to lie, it was quite a boring rip. I like the idea of basically this set being a look back on important events that happened throughout the year, but to me the set design is pretty bland. I don't expect anything like high end, but it was rather uninspiring. The one per pack Wrestlemania Super Star Insert were ok, and to me the best insert set was the Immortals set, but overall just blah. The Rock, Dusty Rhodes, and Roddy Piper tribute inserts are underwhelming. The Parallels are just dull Bronze and Silver Bordered cards. The only cool card I liked was the Hall of Fame Commemorative Ring Relic card of Bret Hart. It features a replica of a WWE Hall of Fame Ring embedded into the card. Unfortunately, this also is considered on of the box "hits". I think a more ideal format would for this to be one of the inserts you could pull along with 2 relic/auto's a box, but alas it's not, therefore I had to sift through some very boring cards. I also pulled a Becky Lynch Relic, which has the same design as the regular base set. I know it's a lower level set, just wished for a little bit more pizazz when it came to the inserts. Here are some pics of the different cards and hits

 

 

 

 

 

 

So would 2016 Topps be any better? Here are the results

2016 Topps


Authority Database
Triple H
Stephanie McMahon
Kane
New Day
Wyatts
Sheamus
Sting
Reigns/Ambrose
Randy Orton
Undertaker
Chris Jericho
Daniel Bryan

Anti-Authority Database
Stephanie McMahon
Kane
New Day
Wyatts
Sheamus
John Cena
The Rock
Reigns/Ambrose
Randy Orton
Brock Lesnar
Undertaker
Chris Jericho

Bronze Parallel

Booker T
Corey Graves
Mark Henry
Stardust
Bam Bam Bigelow
Bushwhackers
Doink
Jake Roberts
J.J. Dillon
Nasty Boys
Ric Flair
Trish Stratus


Rock Tribute
Cards #11, #15, #18, #20


Silver Parallel
Ric Flair


Shirt Relic
Zach Ryder (34/299)


Autograph
Luke Harper (#32/99)

Overall Thoughts: A much better base set design in my opinion than the Wrestlemania set. The one per pack Authority/Anti Authority cards are bland though and my one minor gripe is on the parallels, it was confusing to me, because it blends in to the card that at first I couldn't even tell I had pulled parallels until I went back and saw them. I wish there were more variety of inserts, or tough to pull inserts like in sports. Here it's basically the parallels, bland Rock Tribute insert, 1 per pack bland insert, and your auto/relic cards. I'd love more variety like a super tough insert that's 1:100 or something in that respect. The hits were underwhelming (Ryder Relic/Harper Auto) but you can't expect something super in every box. Much better than the Road to Wrestlemania break, but still a little disappointed overall in what I thought would be a much more fun break. Pics of some of the cards

 

 

 

This is the Bronze Parallel, you can see the bronze around the borders of the card..not impressed. The Silver is the same way.

 

 

  

Overall Thoughts of the Break: Boring and disappointed. I think less is best when it comes to Topps WWE Products. Even though WWE Undisputed is expensive, it's only 10 packs and every pack has a hit to keep your interest. Ripping opening 24 packs per box of these products and only really pulling 4 cards that stand out leads to an uninspiring break. I might stick to the occasional singles when it comes to Wrestling cards. As you can see, nothing to threaten the Top 5 Pulls of 2016 lol. Tomorrow, we'll look at my 3 box Stadium Club Baseball Break!

Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1-Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch
#2-Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey
#3-Kristaps Porzingis Gold Strike Auto/Jersey Rookie Card
#4-Myles Turner On Card Patch/Auto Rookie Card
#5-LeBron James Memorable Materials Jersey Card