BuzzMania 6: Some Unforgettable Friday Night Heat (Hour 12)

The biggest weekend in pro wrestling is here with WrestleMania 39 set for this Saturday and Sunday from Los Angeles. We'll make today a big one for wrestling collectors right here on The Buzz with #BuzzMania6, a marathon of WWE wax box/pack breaks all day long.

This 12th break of the day was almost an accidental bargain find for me ... and it ended up being a reminder of why I ripped a lot of it not all that long ago when it delivered big. 

The Brand: 2019 Topps WWE NXT (hobby box)

Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (when available)

What's inside this one? Keep reading ...

Base Breakdown

Packs per box: 24
Cards per pack: 7
Cards in this box: 166 (a sampling of everything in the gallery below)
Base set completion: 
100 of 100 (100 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards: Walter, Keith Lee, The Street Profits, Pete Dunne, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, The Viking Raiders, Matt Riddle, Adam Cole, Rick Bugez  ... and everybody else.

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Insert Breakdown: 61
Roster (48) – Notables include Walter, Toni Storm, Keith Lee, Chelsea Green, Deonna Purrazzo, Marcel Barthel, Xia Li, Io Shirai, Kacy Catanzaro, Matt Riddle, Rik Bugez, Damian Priest, Bianca Belair, Johnny Gargano, Montez Ford, Pete Dunne, Adam Cole, Shayna Baszler, Dakota Kai, William Regal, Cathy Kelley (UER)
Bronze parallels (12) – The Undisputed Era, Pete Dunne, DIY, Roderick Strong, EC3, Dominik Dijakovic, Aleister Black, Ricochet, The Viking Raiders
Red parallels (1) – The Viking Raiders (1/1)

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The Hits (Autographs/Memorabilia) Breakdown: 4
Autographs (4) – Io Shirai, Johnny Gargano, Nikki Cross, Deonna Purrazzo
Blue Autographs (1) – Ivar (/50)

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My Take Before I Broke This: I was digging deep to find stuff on the cheap for this one -- and that's not that easy as Topps hobby boxes are really drying up now -- but this one presented itself around the original price instead of a $100 (sometimes more) mark that I don't think is reasonable unless you defy the odds or a box runs warm. Why? The biggest names here for ink are arguably a little softer than they were back then -- even though the price of boxes is up -- and the stock here is not collector-friendly across the board. The base set and everything else is so skinny you can damage the cards just pulling own the wrapper a little too hard. Combine that with on-card signatures and a dark design that includes a lot of black ink and ... it can be frustrating if you're somebody who is a real stickler on condition or likes to grade. Plus, just like last hour the base set here is men's highlights only and the Roster cards are the main draw along with the ink ... and the rest isn't that strong.

Who Won The Battle? Ultimately I won with this box but it wasn't without some drama ... the first auto I pulled early on was Ivar on a parallel (one in 156 packs) and a normal box only includes two autos. I thought it was going to be a dud but, thankfully, this was a Hot Box that included five autos -- one or two per case if I remember correctly -- and that helped quite a bit with four notable sigs and one being an international star on her first WWE cards here, Io Shirai. I didn't land a bigger-value auto this time beyond maybe her, but the four regular ones are notables in NXT, WWE and even in Impact where Purrazzo has been their champ and a high-profile performer for some time off and on since her WWE exit. Atop all that, this box included a 1/1 parallel -- that one also of the Viking Raiders (aka Ivar and his teammate) and with that being my second bigger find here. I had initially thought I was getting Vikinged here. (I didn't but I did once open a box here with a pair of Damian Priest autos ... that has turned out OK but wasn't fun at that time.) Red is was one in 2,295 packs ... so a big find no matter who's on it.

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The Top Rookies: This pair of first-timers here are on inserts but if you rip these packs both of them are first autographs you'd want to find. Storm ink was really, really big upon arrival -- and that's a Rhea Ripley year-before-RC appearance on this card -- while Walter's ink here will, in theory, always be a little more limited. Why? He's known as Gunther now. Storm gets the edge here for me ... but both of them (and others) here are interesting in this set. There technically aren't any RCs by the purest definition here.

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Card That Stole The Show: This Io Shirai first-time auto is solid with a string auto but also it's remarkably clean ... so this one will get graded. I can't say that for a lot of the others here.

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Lot Grade: A+ ... Hot Box with a 1/1 and five autos of stars who have made solid contributions ... I would have liked to find some Storm ink or others but this was a good box.
Fun Grade: A- ... See above.

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The Bottom Line: Hot Box, on-card ink, young stars who have delivered ... very strong at a cheaper price. Just short of being the main event, too.

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