Tag: wwe trading cards

Daily Update: Bandido, SmackDown, WWE trading card record set

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

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Join us in Las Vegas for our annual F4W Convention

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

Highlights include:

*Update on C.M. Punk. AEW’s new television deal, issues a Saturday show has to deal with and pluses of a Saturday show

*Lots of news on WWE & AEW major shows the next few months, including All In, SummerSlam, Double or Nothing and Backlash.

*Nick Khan talks the WWE/UFC merer and what it means, upcoming negotiations, how Endeavor can help WWE grow, WWE budget cuts and more

*Full coverage of AAA TripleMania, the good, the bad, the angles and more

*Full coverage of New Japan’s U.S. tour in Washington, DC and Philadelphia

*Ted DiBiase Jr. indicted on 13 counts in welfare fraud cause, and updates on it

*Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show

*The most detailed look at the TV ratings from the past week, including where wrestling ranks with sports an with entertainment programing, competition, segment by segment, comparisons with last year and more

*Continuation of the CMLL champion of champions tournament

*Mercedes Mone in Japan, negotiation updates, her comments on Japan and more

*Details of the biggest women’s show in Japan in decades this weekend at the Yokohama Arena

*Ticket sale update on the show

*Cinderella tournament finals

*Champion Carnival update

*Notes on major NOAH show

*Will Ospreay talks future

*John Morrison’s boxing debut and comments form that

*Lots of notes on he death of Butch Miller

*Bill Goldberg and a retirement tour

*Abdullah the Butcher and financial issues

*NCAA looking at changes to wrestling rules and scoring and why

*Concert/wrestling joint promotions

*Major European show this weekend loaded with top international stars

*Impact major show rundown

*Lots of fallout to C.M. Punk returning to AEW

*Great lesson for AEW wen getting a big sports lead-in going forward

*Lots of injury updates

*Advanced ticket sales for WWE & AEW upcoming show

*Streaming numbers for WWE & AEW

*International TV ratings

*What milestone did Raw achieve this past week

*What milestone did AEW achieve this past week

*Lots of new UFC major fights

*What were the most in-demand sports tickets so far in 2023

*Former UFC fighter arrested in a $200,000 burglary

*More details on the new WWE Twitch deal

*WWE performer goes into another major sports competition next week and attempts to make the 2024 Olympic team

*Notes on two WWE signees that a betting site already has odds that one of them will be world champion by 2027

*Notes on all the WWE live events on the road over the past week

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].

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Friday Update

Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing our show on Saturday morning this week and there is a ton to talk about, plus we’ll be doing history talking thing like Bruno Sammartino, Andre the Giant. Bryan and I will be doing our weekend show on Sunday night.

Bandido’s new visa and passport are literally in his hands so he will be back in AEW shortly.

Smackdown is tonight in Columbus, OH, with Gunther vs. Xavier Woods for the IC title, Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan vs. Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green for the tag team titles and Viking Raiders vs. Braun Strowman & Ricochet. They had 9,500 tickets out as of this morning so with a walk-up would probably hit 10,000. It looks like it’ll be up 55 percent or more from the last night Smackdown ran in the building last year.

A Dwayne Johnson 2022 Panini Prizm WWE Back Prizm trading card sold for $126,000 last night at the PWCC marketplace. It would have been the largest sale of a WWE trading card of all-time. The reason the price was so high is that only one card was printed. Because there was only one card, showing Rock vs. Steve Austin, it was considered the most valuable trading card from WWE in existence.

Rampage will be airing tomorrow night at 10 p.m. Eastern headlined by El Hijo del Vikingo defending the AAA title against Dralistico, Jon Moxley vs. Christopher Daniels, and FTR & Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal vs. Slim J & Tony Nese & Ari Daivari & Josh “Woods.

We’re looking for reports on these weekend shows:

*WWE Smackdown tonight in Columbus, OH (dark matches only)

*GCW tonight in Atlanta

*WWE Saturday night in Fort Wayne, IN

*WWE Sunday night in Toledo, OH

We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]

We’re doing one weekend poll, which will be for Sunday’s Stardom show at the Yokohama Arena. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]

UFC tomorrow at the Apex in Las Vegas which starts at 4 p.m. Eastern time

Brady Hiestrand (136) vs. Batgerel Danaa (136)

Francis Marshall (146) vs. William Gomis (147) – Gomis missed by one pound

Mohammed Usman (239.5) vs. Junior Tafa (252)

Karol Rosa (144.5) vs. Norma Dumont (145)

Rani Yahya (136) vs. Montel Jackson (136)

Ricky Glenn (155.5) vs. Christos Giagos (155.5)

Jeremiah Wells (171) vs. Matthew Semelsberger (171)

Jasmin Lucindo (126) vs. Brogan Walker (126)

Bobby Green (156) vs. Jared Gordon (155.5)

Brad Tavares (185) vs. Bruno Silva (185)

Sergei Pavlovich (260.5) vs,. Curtis Blaydes (262.5)

Priscila Cachoeira vs. Karine Silva was canceled as Cachoeira missed weight by four pounds

Bellator runs tonight on Showtime at 10 p.m. as part of its two shows in Honolulu at the Neil Blasdell Center Arena:

Liz Carmouche (125) vs. DeAnna Bennett (126.2)

Tim Johnson (262) vs. Said Sowma (239.2)

Arlene Blencowe (146) vs. Sara McMann (145.6)

Danny Sabatello (135.6) vs. Marcos Breno (136)

Levan Chokheli (169.6) vs. Michael Lombardo (170.8)

The main event is unique as it was to be for the flyweight title. Bennett missed weight by 1.2 pounds so she can’t win the title. Carmouche said that she would still put up the title and if she loses, she will vacate the title. I have no idea why she would do this.

Ray Borg also had what was called weight management issues and was pulled from tonight’s show. There must be something serious to this because Bellator has released him and his management team has dropped him for missing weight. Borg, who once fought for the UFC flyweight title against Demetrious Johnson, had missed weight four times already in his career. He was to be facing Kyoji Horiguchi.

Bellator also runs tomorrow night in the same building at 11 p.m.

Charlie Leary (164.2) vs. Yancy Medeiros (162.4)

James Gonzalez (145.8) vs. Aaron Pico (145.6)

Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (126) vs. Kana Watanabe (125.6)

Raufeon Stots (134.2) vs. Patchy Mix (135) for the bantamweight Grand Prix and a $1 million prize and the interim bantamweight title

This is Pico’s return after his horrible shoulder injury in October and surgery. Macfarlane is super over in Honolulu and has some of the best ring entrances anywhere.

Other Notes

David Taylor has been added to the Beat the Streets event on 6/10 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ which will feature best of three matches to determine who represents the U.S. in the upcoming world wrestling championships . The names wrestling announced so far are Taylor (189 pounds), Amit Elor (women 158), Zain Retherford (154), Kayla Miracle (women 136), Yianni Diakomihalis (143), Sarah Hildebranddt (women 110), Kyle Dake (162), Kyle Snyder (213), Helen Maroulis (women 125) and Jordan Burroughs (174). Taylor, 32 won a gold medal in 2021 and was world champion in 2018 and 2022. In college he won the Danny Hodge trophy in both 2012 and 2014.

MCW is doing an all-women’s show on Saturday night in Joppa, MD at the RJ Meyer Arena. Leila Grey of AEW is on the show.

AIW tomorrow night in Akron, OH at the Tadmoor Shrine has AIW champion Matt Cardona vs. Joshua Bishop, Fred Rosser vs. Dominic Garrini, plus Tom Lawlor, Jordan Oliver, Steph De Lander and a meet and greet with Ron Simmons.

The PFL has announced a show on 7/8 in Berlin, Germany at the Verti Music Hall. The show will air live on DAZN. Farfbod Iran Nezhad (11-2) vs,. Francesco Nuzzi (9-1)_ headlines the show. The shows on 7/8 in Berlin, 9/30 in Paris and 12/8 in Dublin will be part of tournaments in different weight classes with $100,000 going to the winners.

WWE announces ‘comprehensive’ long-term deal with Fanatics

Posted on by Joseph Currier

WWE has entered into a major new business partnership with sports platform Fanatics.

WWE and Fanatics announced on Monday that the two companies have agreed to a “comprehensive, long-term sports and entertainment partnership” that ranges across multiple businesses. Those businesses include e-commerce, licensed merchandise, and trading cards/NFTs

The deal includes Fanatics introducing a new version of WWE Shop this summer:

As part of the agreement, this summer Fanatics will exclusively re-introduce a new, rapid e-commerce and mobile destination, WWE Shop, giving fans around the world access to a leading assortment of WWE merchandise across all categories, including apparel, hard goods, such as title belts, headwear, accessories and more. Fanatics will work closely and collaboratively with the talented teams at WWE who have significantly grown this business in-house for decades, and the company will also add rights to design, manufacture and distribute real-time, on-demand merchandise collections to celebrate unpredictable WWE moments and new and emerging Superstars.

Also as part of the deal, Fanatics Collectibles will become the exclusive provider of licensed WWE physical and digital trading cards, That portion of the deal will go into effect when WWE’s existing trading cards partnership with The Panini Group expires over the next few years:

Fanatics Collectibles, the company’s trading cards and collectibles division, will also become the exclusive provider of licensed WWE physical and digital trading cards, which will once again bear the nostalgic Topps logo. Fanatics acquired the legendary 70-year-old Topps brand earlier this year, which previously held a long-term relationship with WWE. That deal will commence when WWE’s existing trading cards rights expire over the next few years.

Fanatics’ Candy Digital is also set to become one of WWE’s primary NFT partners later this year:

Also under the pact, later this year Fanatics’ next generation digital collectibles company, Candy Digital, will become one of WWE’s primary NFT partners. Candy’s team of world-class digital artists, designers, and technologists will curate and build a full range of high-quality trading card NFTs featuring WWE’s biggest moments and stars.

“WWE is one of the most widely admired sports and entertainment properties worldwide, and it made perfect sense to activate many parts of our Fanatics global platform to create a first-of-its-kind, all-in fan experience,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said. “From e-commerce and licensed merchandise to trading cards and more, we’re going to offer up an incredible set of capabilities to help WWE’s passionate fans worldwide celebrate their favorite Superstars, marquee events and the WWE brand overall.”

“Fanatics is the industry leader and Michael Rubin is a visionary,” WWE’s Vince McMahon said. “We believe this multi-platform partnership will set a new standard for WWE e-commerce, apparel and merchandise, while providing our fans globally with more ways than ever to engage with WWE and our Superstars.”

WWE enters into multi-year trading card partnership with Panini

Posted on by Joseph Currier

WWE has entered into a new merchandising partnership to produce trading cards.

It was announced on Monday that WWE and The Panini Group have entered into a multi-year agreement to make Panini WWE’s exclusive trading card and collectible sticker partner. WWE previously worked with Topps to produce trading cards.

The deal begins in the first quarter of 2022, with multiple trading card products set to be released within the first year. The first product, which is titled “2022 WWE Prizm,” will be released to coincide with the buildup to WrestleMania 38.

The trading cards will be available at mass retailers including Walmart and Target, hobby stores nationwide, and online.

“We have always been intrigued by WWE as a license partner and their fans’ incredible passion,” said Panini America CEO Mark Warsop. “Our entire team is looking forward to adding WWE, a truly iconic license, to our roster of exclusive partners. We have big plans for our WWE portfolio and the new heights we can help WWE trading cards and stickers reach in the collectibles arena.”

“Panini has a 60-year history in sports and entertainment collectibles and is a leader in the trading card space throughout the U.S. as well as in Latin America, Europe and Asia,” said Scott Zanghellini, WWE Senior Vice President, Revenue Strategy & Development. “We believe that this partnership perfectly aligns our mutual interests in providing fans with exclusive collectibles and, ultimately, growing this category globally.”