BuzzMania 6: The Topps Heritage End Of An Era Rip (Hour 10)

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 10th break of the day takes us back to the brand that carried the Topps WWE revival in 2005, evolved some before a break and then popped back up with some of the best modern-retro meshed cardboard of the company's run. This one is smack dab in in the midst of that with a throwback to 1987 seen a few ways. 

The Brand: 2017 Topps Heritage WWE (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: 9
Cards in this box: 214 (a sampling of everything in the gallery)
Base set completion: 
100 of 100 (100 percent)
Duplicates: 15

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 (20) – 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 ... technically some of the NXT names here are Rookie Cards as they are part of the base set -- not inserts -- and the Cup cards are intended to be RC logos for arrivals to main roster over NXT. (Not a lot of actual RCs here, though.)

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Insert Breakdown: 99
Silver parallel (1) – Nikki Bella (/25)
Blue parallel (1) – Andre The Giant (/50)
Bronze parallel (12) – Steve Austin, John Cena, Tommaso Ciampa, Becky Lynch, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Natalya, Zack Ryder, Mick Foley, Bob Backlund, Dolph Ziegler, Lex Luger
SummerSlam All-Stars (24) – Notables include Undertaker, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Brock Lesnar, Chris Jericho, John Cena, Steve Austin, The Rock, Ultimate Warrior, Edge, Bret Hart, Kurt Angle, Kofi Kingston, Rob Van Dam
John Cena Tribute (4) – John Cena
Bizarre SummerSlam Matches (8) – Mankind, Davey Boy Smith, X-Pac, Ric Flair, Rusev, Kane, Bray Wyatt, Ken Shamrock, Big Boss Man
Thirty Years of SummerSlam (48) – Notables include Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, Mankind, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Triple H, Edge, Bret Hart, Razor Ramon, Ultimate Warrior, Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Randy Savage, Kurt Angle, Finn Balor, Charlotte Flair
Commemorative Patch Card (1) – Chris Jericho (/299)

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The Hits (Autographs/Memorabilia) Breakdown: 1 (second "hit" this time is a manufactured Relic listed above)
Blue Autographs (1) – Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake (/50)

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My Take Before I Broke This: I ripped a bunch of retail for this one to build up the ol' collecting ranks on the cheap once stuff dropped in price but hobby boxes never really did until they went poof and they suddenly re-surfaced with premium prices a few years later. Why? I'm assuming the hobby boxes got ripped in a solid, steady volume as they all include one on-card auto and the potential for more showcasing the stars of the present-day WWE as well as throwbacks that help flesh out the Heritage name here quite well. This one meshes the wood-border 1987 Topps MLB design with the stars-and-stripes styled 1987 Topps WWF set and then uses some new creations and subset styles to flesh out the rest. It didn't wow me back then -- I actually think the H sets that came before and after this are better in different ways. I was really hunting for a break like this for today but didn't think it would happen until it simply presented itself out of the blue without a big price tag. (Still more than it was back then but not as big as it might be ... and I don't think these are consistent enough to carry a premium ... but the supply might be low now.) There are some good autos to be found here and color parallels add to the chase, too,

Who Won The Battle? I think my win here was just finding a hobby box of this one with a modest price. I dubbed this one the End Of An Era Rip as I'm not sure I'll ever open another one of these again.

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The Top Rookie: This isn't a big card but AEW's Athena -- formerly known as Ember Moon -- is an actual RC here so I'll give it the nod.

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Card That Stole The Show: To be honest, nothing really jumps out here -- there's a lot of solid stuff but nothing perfect like what can be found in Heritage before and after or even in other boxes of this one I ripped in the past. I'll go with the auto since it's a parallel for a WWE Hall of Famer who definitely signs a crisp and clean sig. Blue ink is one in 93 packs for those wondering at home.

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Box Grade: B+ ... this brand can deliver well but this box can be topped despite a trio of rarer finds (the Blue Andre is one in 56 packs) and a ton of past/present star power.
Fun Grade: B ... same as above. Feels a little closer to average while still delivers well.

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The Bottom Line: This one does mark the end of an era -- for now -- but Topps will be back in the WWE card game in a few years. But will they revive Heritage when they return? My gut isn't so sure ...

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