BuzzMania 7: Even More Elite Arrive On A Big Day ... (Hour 6)

The biggest weekend in pro wrestling is here with WrestleMania 40 set for this Saturday and Sunday from Philadelphia. We'll make today a big one for wrestling collectors right here on The Buzz with #BuzzMania7, a marathon of WWE wax box/pack breaks all day long.

This one is a rip of a release that's about collecting basics -- mostly base and inserts with a lot of variety. With autographs being quite rare on the retail front and somewhat rare in hobby, I played it safe for the dollars with a break of a few discounted blaster boxes. 

The Brand: 2022 AEW Metal Universe -- five blasters

Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com for hobby boxes

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

Base Breakdown

Cards per pack: 7
Packs per box: 5
Cards per box: 35
Cards per lot: 175
Base set completion: 
85 of 100 (85 percent)
Duplicates: 25
Triplicates: 11

Notables on base cards: MJF, Toni Storm, Ricky Starks, Britt Baker, Orange Cassidy, Thunder Rosa, Darby Allin, Anna Jay, Penta El Zero M, Jade Cargill, Sammy Guevara, Julia Hart, Daniel Garcia, Kris Statlander, Hook, Jamie Hayter, C.M. Punk, Riho, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Hikaru Shida, Jon Moxley, Athena, Eddie Kingston, Rey Fenix, Penelope Ford, Sting, Jim Ross, Ruby Soho, Taz, Serena Deeb, Bryan Danielson, Swerve Strickland, Samoa Joe, Christian Cage, Claudio Castagnoli

(Note: A sampling of everything in the gallery below -- but check other breaks to see more base cards.)

Note on Rookie Cards here – None are noted on-card via a RC logo, but anyone in base set without previous-year AEW, WWE, WCW, Impact, Panini Lucha Libre AAA or BBM (Japan) or Leaf in-pack cards is likely a RC here based on traditional definitions.

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Insert Breakdown: 54
Blue Spectrum parallels (25) – Adam Page (2), Powerhouse Hobbs (2), Wardlow, Hikaru Shida (2), Andrade El Idolo (2), Miro, Matt Sydal (3), Sting, Mark Henry, Paul Turner, Stokely Hathaway (2), Evil Uno (2), Nick Jackson, Dustin Rhodes, Daniel Garcia (2), Samoa Joe

Purple Spectrum parallels (1) – Evil Uno (/199)

SPs (Nos. 101-150) (5) – Penelope Ford, Jungle Boy, Cash Wheeler, Hook, MJF

1997-98 Retros (5) – Thunder Rosa, Riho, Britt Baker, Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson

Skybox Premium (1) – Smart Mark Sterling (uncorrected error on name)

Skybox Premium Star Sapphire (3) – Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter, Ethan Page

Technicians (3) – Scorpio Sky, Eddie Kingston, Jon Moxley

The Merch (3) – Hook, Adam Cole, Andrade El Idolo

Bonzo Gonzo (2) – Adam Page, Max Caster

Hardware (1) – Luchasaurus

Paladium (1) – Rey Fenix

Turn Up The Heat (1) – Anna Jay

Feeling The Love (1) – Britt Baker

Planet Metal (1) – Red Velvet

Planet Metal Gold (1) – Jade Cargill

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The Hits (Autographs/Memorabilia/Manufactured Relic) Breakdown: None ... but as expected.

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My Take Before I Broke This: I did really well with my first taste of this one not long after it arrived with an auto of a key, young name on the women's side of things -- one in 240 packs -- so with hobby boxes not guaranteed ink (but jam-packed with plenty of everything else) I went with a small lot of these at a fraction of their suggested retail price figuring that the likely hitless experience wouldn't be as rough vs. the cost (similar here to hobby) with maybe some accidental topping of a hobby box in the volume. Or something like that.

Who Won The Battle? I think rough collation won this one but that can happen with loose box lots and not several known to be from the same case. The base collation was rough but the Blues -- a highlight in this format if you ask me -- were perhaps even worse with triplicates of some names. It did make up for it with some rarer insert finds here and there, but ultimately I think this one's strength was a few key (AEW original) names showing up a few times across the board and some exclusives here helped, too. The dupes could have also gone my way showing key names more than once but I'm not sure they did beyond my Garcia pair above ... and that's not that big of a deal.

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The Top Rookies: There are about a dozen RC names here in the base set -- though they are names that would have indy cards -- and I didn't land the best of them (that's Danhausen if you ask me) ... so I'll go with my Hook SP here. The younger names and AEW-only veterans here are worth the look on the cheap across the board in this one in my view.

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Card That Stole The Show: I like a lot of the inserts here, but I'll go with the one-in-60 find -- the Gold Jade Cargill insert. She's left for WWE and not as big of a name here for this set as much as others, but a big name on a rarer card wins when it's a scenario with few numbered cards and nothing that's a hit.

Lot Grade: B ... Too many dupes but a good run of inserts that definitely beat the odds. Dupes and minor condition issues stuck with me some.
Fun Grade: B ... I like a lot of what can be found here but this one is condition-sensitive for sure with corners and edges and all that foil work.

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The Bottom Line: I didn't mind these while I was ripping though I didn't feel like I landed a "big" and I didn't notice all the duplication (especially on the Blues) until a full sort later. That made me wish I had tried a hobby box -- they're available at that link above and worth the look.

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