SmackDown is a new release for 2019. It’s not clear if it’s directly because SmackDown is moving to Fox after years on USA. Tonight is the beginning of the draft to fully separate Raw from SmackDown for the new future. The new roster may not reflect this release very well, though. This release matches the Raw release from earlier in the year,
In years past, Topps had two major releases, using the standard baseball design from that year. This changed this year. There seem to be two main releases again, representing Raw and SmackDown, but they are using unique designs for each. The Raw design was rather lackluster, but the SmackDown one stands out a lot more. I still wish they were the same, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.
With all the changes in the WWE releases this year, it’s nice to have a familiar release come out. It has a fairly well known pattern with the base set consisting of 60 roster cards, along with 40 card for specific events. Of course, there are multiple layers of parallels. These cards feature wrestlers from all the different brands, including NXT UK.
There are a few insert sets, but not as many as a lot of the other releases these days have. One feature I’m not a fan of, is that some of these insert sets are retail exclusives. A hobby box may get you close to a base set, but you will be completely shut out of some of the inserts. I wish that wasn’t the case, as I’m not interested in chasing these at multiple stores.
This is a new release for 2019, as part of a revamped WWE lineup from Topps. Earlier, we saw a Raw release essentially replacing the WWE flagship. Now we’re stepping in to a release for a specific pay per view. They already have the Road to Wrestlemania early in the year, so it’s not completely out of the blue with SummerSlam was one of their big yearly shows.
This is a new release, but it’s a familiar layout. The base set consists of 50 roster cards and 50 matches and moments. These have a normal set or parallels. There is also an assortment of parallels included. On an initial pass through, it wasn’t always obvious to me which were inserts and which were base moments. The designs are a bit similar. One selling point for this release is that most of the autographs are on card, rather than stickers.
A box advertises 24 packs with 7 cards per pack. This includes 2 hits per box, one of which is an autograph.
While I guess this is technically a new release, it seems to really be splitting how the long time flagship release worked. In years past, the main wrestling release featured all the current brands on cards using the same style as the flagship baseball release. It gave the wrestling release a big time feel, to be sure.
Those days are now gone. Rather than include all the brands, as in previous years, this set focuses on the Raw roster, along with 205 Live. It also uses a different design from the flagship baseball. This, coupled with the lack of some big names seems to hurt this release. We’ll see if it grows on me over time, but right now, it feels like a disappointing set.
The box contains 24 packs of 7 cards. Each box advertises 2 hits, with one of those guaranteed to be an autograph.
This is a little bit of a different release for me. I generally like the NXT brand and previous card releases, but this year it seems to be focusing on a much higher price point. It features two 50 card subsets, one concentrating on the roster, with the other looking at Matches and Moments from the year.
In previous years, you could find this release in blaster boxes at retail. This year, however, it is a hobby only release. At $200 per box, it seems like it may be difficult to find true value in this release, but it advertises an incredible 10 autographs per box. While NXT definitely has its following, this seems more like a prospects release where you really won’t know the full potential of some of these characters for a few years. Even the big names will probably get much bigger once they hit the grand stage of the main roster.
This box contains 10 packs, with 7 cards per pack, including a total of 10 autographs. This box contained:
