Collecting Game-used: My first match-used memorabilia

Mia Yim vs. Io Shirai, NXT -- Oct. 2, 2019 (WWE photo)

If you're a regular reader of this Collecting Game-used series, you've seen plenty of game-used baseball memorabilia, some NFL and then some other pieces here and there every month, but to finish off the series this year I figured I'd go with a first for me and my stash of photo-matched pick-ups.

This month, it's my first piece of WWE match-used memorabilia.

Since wrestlers are classified as independent contractors out there on the business side of things, they are responsible for their gear's creation and own it all when their time ends with a promotion, if they decide to move on or change their look for whatever need arises or for character changes. To simplify that, it means with some luck you can get Superman's cape from Superman instead of going through the movie studio -- and that simple metaphor is why I lead things off with the epic photo above.

My new piece is from wrestling veteran and former WWE star Mia Yim -- also known as Reckoning at the recent end of her recent run -- and she had all of those things in play that led some match-used memorabilia to my hands. She's had a pretty consistent gear style for most of her career until the name change and promotion and she recently posted on social media that it was time for some new stuff. That's likely a sign of some new chapters to come and that's how I found this piece -- she was selling the old to add the new. Another cool part? I was able to match things to a number of matches and even some cardboard from Topps. Heck, I even now know who made it for her.

You can see it in action above -- and get the details if you keep reading.

THE BASICS ...
Match-used gear: Mia Yim NXT/WWE gear from 2019 and 2020 (wristbands, top and belt)
Watch it in action (videos): Mia Yim vs. Io Shirai (NXT, Oct. 2 2019) as well as NXT's Smackdown invasion (Nov. 22, 2019) and Yim vs. Dakota Kai (NXT, March 11, 2020) and Yim vs. Indi Hartwell (NXT, Aug. 12, 2020)

The matches: Confirmed to at least four TV matches/moments as noted above and more live events/shoots below ... including appearances on at least three Topps cards.

What's Buzz-worthy: I told a good chunk of the story of this "Blasian Baddie" piece up top, but this was an easy grab -- for substantially less than a price of a Topps WWE Undisputed box -- when I was able to match it to her autographed card in the 2020 Undisputed set as well as her 2020 Topps Finest and NXT cards, too. It turns out even the handful of TV matches I noted here are part of some key moments -- not her ladder match that had some painful spots (I could have landed that gear, though ... liked this look more) -- but some that can be watched in HD where you can see the details of the gear in the ring right down to matching gems and other details. That 2019 match? It was part of the first two-hour NXT show when it moved to the USA Network full-time. That Smackdown invasion melee set up the Survivor Series matches a couple days later (she wasn't on that ... it was just after her broken nose) and then the match vs. Hartwell was from her final win on NXT before she moved to the main roster as part of the Retribution faction. Yim had a few other variations of this gear style in this timeframe -- a silver one that she wore in the Royal Rumble with the bullets on the opposite side, some paisley black and white as well as plenty of blue gear, too, which all alternated with varying pants styles adorned "Baddie." There's a ton of consistency of her gear -- she's worn a halterneck-style top for years as one can see with her time in Shine, as Jade in Total Nonstop Action, in Shimmer, in other indies and even her work in Japan as seen on her cardboard there (I still need one of those). A lot of her looks from recent years appear to be designed by Tampa-based gear-maker Jolene Jilnicki and they're both often tweeting each other about it (including this group at that link). One-of-a-kind pieces like this are really well-crafted (durable and flashy) and just like the traditional sports' game-used items -- though this is more impressive and better-crafted than a jersey -- they still are find-able if you know where to look ... or who to follow.

>> See all past Collecting Game-used stories from Buzz here

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