BuzzMania 8: Ripping My Past NXT Favorite Pays Off (Hour 2)

The biggest weekend in pro wrestling is here with WrestleMania 41 set for this Saturday and Sunday from Las Vegas. We'll make today a big one for wrestling collectors right here on The Buzz with #BuzzMania8, a marathon of wrestling breaks all day long.

This release is perhaps an all-timer for me with a few key newcomers and ink for them, too. Atop that, there are plenty of others who have impressed since their time in NXT and are mainstays of WWE now. These two boxes have big potential.

The Brand: 2020 Topps WWE NXT wrestling cards (two hobby boxes)

Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (when available) 

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

Base Breakdown

Packs per box: 2
Cards per pack: 25
Cards per box: 50
Cards in this lot: 100
Base set completion: 
35 of 100 (35 percent)
Duplicates: 6
Triplicates: 1

Notables on base cards: Swerve Scott, Imperium, Ilja Dragunov, Pete Dunne, Austin Theory, Finn Balor  (Note: A sampling of everything in the gallery below -- but check other breaks of this one to see more base cards.)

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Insert Breakdown: 54
Roster (24) – Austin Theory, Toni Storm, Xia Li, Tegan Nox, Santana Garrett, Flash Morgan Webster, Steve Cutler, Kay Lee Ray, Adam Cole, Marcel Barthel, Shayna Baszler, Candice LeRae, Damian Priest, Marina Shafir, Fandango, Aliyah, Vanessa Borne, Angel Garza, James Drake, Wolfgang
Called Up (8) – Ricochet, Aleister Black, Otis, Lacey Evans, Nikki Cross, Tucker
Johnny Gargano Tribute (8) – Johnny Gargano
Bronze parallels (12) – Triple H, Imperium, Shayna Baszler, Adam Cole, Mark Andrews, The Undisputed Era, Tyler Bate, Dave Mastiff, Roderick Strong, Pete Dunne, Velveteen Dream, Flash Morgan Webster
Blue parallels (2) – Swerve Scott, Mark Andrews (/50)
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The Hits (Autographs/Memorabilia) Breakdown: 4
Roster Autographs (2) – Rhea Ripley, Oney Lorcan
Silver Roster Autographs (1) – Arturo Ruas (/25)
Gold Roster Autographs (1) – Mia Yim (aka Michin) (/10)

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My Take Before I Broke This: I've busted a few cases of this one and a few cases worth of loose boxes, too, with some strong results ... and sometimes the key autos can arrive in the same boxes to amp things up. This is a release that got reconfigured after COVID delays from a standard 24-pack box down to a two-pack box with an auto in each pack along with base cards and inserts and, well, it helped. The crop of names here is strong -- and the first-time signers list is strong, too -- and that made this one an easy go-to rip back when these boxes were cheap. They've since vanished thanks to some good names on Roster inserts (labeled as Rookie Cards for newcomers ... but they are inserts) and then the ink -- and the ink is the key. All standard autos here are on-card with a meaty rainbow of colors -- but skinny stock can create challenges for condition. The base set is the weak spot here -- it's highlights and men's-only moments as the women's highlights went to the women's division set and that's a choice that I hope never, ever comes back -- but since it's a small box I can ignore that in favor of what made me rip. Box prices, if too high, are definitely not be worth the risk here but if I can find these cheaper I'll still be ripping. That is why this favorite and a BuzzMania mainstay got a spot in this year's lineup. (Again.)

Who Won The Battle? I won here thanks to two autos, but it wasn't without some stress as those were not the ones I saw first when I opened my four packs. The Blue parallels coughed up a great AEW name to have here, though he's affordable, but two of my autos are good fits for my collection. The Yim ink is a very solid find, though she's a veteran and not as pricey -- but the timing here is good as she might be on the best run of her time on the main WWE roster in recent months.

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The Top Rookies: There are no actual (by-definition) Rookie Cards here, but the Roster cards -- the closest thing to that -- in this box were a miss considering all of the possible names. I'll go with the best-looking visual here and a guy who was notable in the recent past, a guy with a Wrestlemania match vs. John Cena two years ago, Austin Theory.

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Card That Stole The Show: While Yim is the rarest find, the Ripley auto here is one of the biggest possible autos in the release as it's from her Rookie Card year and among her first certified autos. This find made this pair of boxes a big win and almost had this break near the main event slot when I was figuring out the lineup.

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Lot Grade: A+ ... Ripley ink is an automatic win and two rarer parallel autos (one a hotter name right now) gets this to a top mark -- though there are still boxes that could top this.
Fun Grade: A ... The autograph names can be hit and miss -- some names are misses all these years later -- but the wins can be big. That Ripley will end up slabbed. (Maybe Yim, too.)

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The Bottom Line: Ripley rookie-year ink makes this one a winner ... the rest of the solid stuff here just makes it stronger.

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