Seeking Redemption 20: WWE Undisputed Autos

I picked up a couple of redemption cards from 2017 Topps WWE Undisputed, mostly just because I like to bid on redemption cards to see if I can score a deal.

I was kind of aiming for Cesaro and Big Cass, but I never wound up getting any of their cards. I ended up with a base autograph of Sami Zayn and a Bronze autograph parallel of Heath Slater. It didn't take too long for both cards to be made, so it was just a few weeks before I got a shipping notification.

Here is the Sami Zayn base autograph. It's numbered # 066 / 199. Zayn is a pretty fun wrestler to watch. He's got a high-energy style. I've seen him live twice in the last year. His entrance music seems to get the crowd pretty hyped up, too.

I'm not that familiar with Heath Slater, but the price was right on this autograph. It is numbered # 38 / 99.

Topps' policy lately has been to include a bonus card with most redemption shipments. In this package I got a couple of relic cards from 2015 Topps WWE Heritage. This first one features Tyler Breeze, one half of the Breezango tag team.

The other bonus card in the package was a relic card of The Miz. These aren't the most exciting relics in the world, but they were bonus cards so I can't really feel bad about them. It's cool that Topps even includes bonus cards in redemption packages.

Some WWE Hits and a Bonus from Puro Central Shop

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me. We finished up our work for the Federal fiscal year-end on Friday, so Saturday was my first day off in quite some time. In the afternoon I headed into Boise for a WWE book signing by Charlotte Flair, who was at the Barnes & Noble store autographing copies of 'Second Nature.' I had picked up my book and wristband on Friday, but once I got in line I saw that she was allowing photographs, so I had to run back out to my car and get my phone. One of the bookstore employees complimented me on my Cthulhu-inspired shirt, so that was pretty cool.

I was near the end of the line, so I had a little bit of time to wait, but it wasn't too bad. The line snaked past several discount shelves and I used the time to browse the books. Charlotte was really cool during the signing, making sure to converse and take pictures with everyone in the line. Overall it was a very cool experience, and I was glad that I decided to go. I put this picture on Twitter after I got out of the building and she re-Tweeted it, so that was pretty neat for me.

Here's the autograph I got. The employees at the store had everyone write their name on a Post-It Note so that she could personalize the autographs. The store staff were pretty helpful and personable. It made me feel a little bad for doing most of my shopping online these days.

Charlotte Flair wasn't just in town for the book signing, though, as there was a WWE Live event in Boise Saturday evening. I bought tickets soon after the event was announced, and soon after I got home from the book signing we headed for the arena. I was pretty entertained by the event, and my wife and one of my six year-olds enjoyed it a lot.

My other six year-old whined the whole time and wanted to go home, and my eight year-old was determined to have a bad time until Dolph Ziggler insulted the people of Boise and he started to get emotionally invested in the matches. I think that by the end of the show he was having an okay time. Really, the key to enjoying a wrestling show is to allow yourself to buy into the storyline and be a part of it. It's a lot more fun when you cheer for the faces and boo the heels.

Some of today's featured cards show wrestlers who appeared in last night's show. I got these from the eBay store of the now-closed Puro Central Shop, which until mid-September was one of the primary U.S. sources of Japanese wrestling cards and memorabilia. This is a 2017 Topps WWE Undisputed Green autograph of Natalya, who appeared as part of the losing team in a 6-woman Tag Team match just after the intermission last night. Carmella and Lana finished out her team, while the winning team featured Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Naomi. This Green parallel autograph is numbered # 23 / 25.

The first match of the night included Big E as part of The New Day tag team defeating a team made up of Breezango and The Usos. It was a pretty entertaining battle. I know a lot of people don't like The New Day, but those same people probably don't like anything fun. This Bronze parallel of Big E's autograph is numbered # 24 / 99.

This TJ Dillashaw relic card from 2016 Topps UFC Knockout was included in the package as a bonus, as the owner of Puro Central Shop knows I collect UFC cards. I thought this was a pretty cool gesture. This mat relic card is numbered # 106 / 188.

After the opener between The New Day and The Usos/Breezango, Chad Gable and Rusev battled it out, with Rusev eventually gaining the upper hand. The match was all right, and Rusev got soundly booed after his victory.

Next up was another Tag Team match between The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley) + Luke Harper and The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) + Erick Rowan. The crowd was on the side of the Hype Bros, and they eventually delivered a victory.

Once that match was done, Sami Zayn came out and beat Mike Kanellis. Sami Zayn seems to be incredibly popular, so the crowd was pretty excited about this one. After losing, Mike Kanellis got the microphone and complained that Mike Kanellis never loses. He demanded another match, and someone whose name I can't remember ran out and beat him up again and pinned him.

The last match before the intermission was a Fatal Four-Way match for the WWE US Belt. The participants were AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Kevin Owens, and Tye Dillinger. Most of these guys have pretty strong followings, so the crowd was pretty happy as the momentum swung between the different wrestlers. AJ Styles eventually won, and then the show went into a short break.

Following the intermission was the Women's Tag Team match between Charlotte-Becky Lynch-Naomi and Natalya-Carmella-Lana. Becky Lynch got easily the biggest response from the Boise crowd, so she's pretty popular here. Each wrestler got a little time in the spotlight during the match, and Charlotte finally closed it out with a submission victory.

One of the most entertaining matches came next, as Dolph Ziggler came out and turned the crowd against him with an insulting speech, and Bobby Roode put on quite a spectacle during his entrance. I hadn't watched many of Roode's matches previously, but he really seemed good at working the crowd. I always like it when a wrestler I've overlooked comes out and makes me a fan.

The Main Event was a bit of a dud, with Jinder Mahal defeating Shinsuke Nakamura in a battle for Mahal's WWE World Title. Mahal and the Singh Brothers riled up the crowd and made the event into kind of an India vs. the United States thing, but that didn't make a lot of sense as Nakamura is a wrestler from Japan. The crowd didn't seem to know what to do, and I thought it was awkward that, "U! S! A!" chants kept breaking out when Shinsuke Nakamura would get the upper hand. The match itself was pretty good, but the crowd never really figured things out and that really killed the energy, especially immediately following a couple of pretty exciting matches with a lot of crowd involvement.

Overall I had a great time and enjoyed most of the matches and the pageantry of the event. I hope the WWE comes back to Boise sooner rather than later, but there was a lot of empty space in the arena. I was hoping there would be a better turnout, as it would provide more motivation for them to bring more shows to the area. I did my part by attending Charlotte Flair's book signing and filling up five seats in the arena.

Breaking it Down 36: Two Spots in a 2017 Topps WWE Undisputed Pack Draft

Topps recently released their high-end WWE Undisputed product for 2017. It is a hit-centric product with 8 autographs and two relics promised in each 10-pack box. There are 5 cards to a pack, with various inserts and parallels available.

I didn't really want to shell out for a box, but I bought two slots in a pack draft. There were 80 packs opened in the break, and the randomizer gave me slots 15 and 19 out of 20 in the snake draft format. That meant I would probably be locked out of the top picks in the draft, but it also meant that I wouldn't be getting the worst picks. A pack draft works pretty much how you'd expect. Participants pick in turn after all of the cards are opened, getting the entire contents of the selected pack. Once all 20 spots are picked, the draft order reverses for the next round. That meant I got picks 15, 19, 22, 26, 55, 59, 62, and 66 out of 80. I don't have all of the base cards in order, but I put hits and parallels into the proper spots.

Pack 1 - Pick 15

There wasn't much of excitement as far as base cards in this particular scan, but this is a look at the base cards. You can see that the Women's Division has their own checklist, designated by a W- prefix.

The Bret "Hit Man" Hart vs Edge card is part of the Dream Matches insert set. There are parallels for that set, but I didn't get any of those in my selections. With the 15th pick I got my 4th-ranked pack of the break, with a Brie Bella Autograph Relic Green parallel numbered # 21 / 25. Some of the stuff I really wanted but missed out on at the top were Bayley and Asuka autographs, as well as a "Macho Man" Randy Savage Gold parallel numbered # / 10.

Pack 2 - Pick 19

With the 19th pick I got my 5th-ranked pack of the break. I guess I had some different ranking criteria than some of the other participants, but that probably worked out in my favor. In the base cards I got a decent Triple H card and a Bronze parallel of Rowdy Roddy Piper, numbered # 55 / 99.

The hit in the pack was this Autograph Relic card of JoJo, the Raw brand ring announcer. I was probably swayed in my rankings by the face that I saw her announcing live at a Raw show in Cincinnati earlier this year. You see a lot of similar fabric colors and textures across the relics in the set, leading me to wonder if there was a specific event where all of the talent wore t-shirts that were used for these cards.

Pack 3 - Pick 22

With the 22nd pick I got my 15th-rated pack, so I was still feeling pretty good about this break. The highlight of these base cards for me is probably Big E.

The pack's hit was this Silver autograph of Chris Jericho, another wrestler I saw live at the Cincinnati show. He's a long-time favorite and great on the mic. This one is numbered # 17 / 50, and the only real knock is that the pen skipped off the foil at the start of his name, and you can see where he picked it up and started again.

Pack 4 - Pick 26

The scans for this pack came out a mess, with scans of all different sizes. I don't know what I was thinking. Anyway, this was my 17th-ranked pack, and I got it with pick 26. It featured a base autograph of Becky Lynch, numbered # 120 / 199, and a Gold parallel of Jason Jordan, numbered # 10 / 10. Jordan was recently revealed to be Kurt Angle's son in the WWE storyline. This was one of those packs that got ranked higher for me because of the parallel included alongside the hit.

The insert in the pack was this Dream Matches card of The Rock and Shawn Michaels.

Up there are the scans of the card backs from that pack, which I got all jacked up because the Becky Lynch autograph has a vertical front and a horizontal back, and I couldn't make the scans match up in even numbers.

Pack 5 - Pick 55

All of my picks were clustered into two groups of four, so it was a long time between my fourth and fifth picks. This was another pack that got a small bump in my mind because of the parallel. In this case, the parallel was a Rich Swann Green card, numbered # 01 / 25.

I also scanned this Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Goldberg Dream Matches insert alongside the hit of the pack, A Bronze Natalya Autograph Relic numbered # 48 / 99. It was my 28th-ranked pack, and I got it with pick 55.

Pack 6 - Pick 59

There's not much excitement among the base cards here. I guess Daniel Bryan has a pretty big following, but I missed out on his time in the spotlight.

There is another Dream Matches card here, featuring Undertaker and Sting. The hit is an Autograph Relic of Alicia Fox. It's a Bronze parallel, numbered # 48 / 99. I had this rated as the 31st-best pack in the break, and I got it with pick 59.

Pack 7 - Pick 62

Pickings were getting pretty slim here in the last quarter of the break, but since I was out before the last 14 picks there was still some value to be found. This pack held a Bronze parallel of Dash Wilder, numbered # 22 / 99.

The hit in this pack was a Silver Autograph Relic of Simon Gotch, numbered # 42 / 50. He is no longer with WWE, having been released from the company in April. That's probably why a Silver Autograph Relic fell so far in the draft. Still, I had this pack listed barely inside the top half of packs at 39th, and I got it with pick 62.

Pack 8 - Pick 66

This pack was a pretty good pull at 66, even though it held my first non-autographed hit of the break. Part of the reason was the Bronze Alexa Bliss parallel shown here, numbered # 98 / 99. Apparently she is one of the big draws in this product, and a couple of her hits went inside the top few picks in the draft, alongside a Goldberg autograph and a Charlotte Flair Autograph Relic.

The hit in the pack was a base Relic of Asuka, numbered # 023 / 199. I missed out on an Autograph Relic and an Autograph of Asuka earlier in the break, but at least I got a relic. Because of the parallel and the relic of Asuka, I had this pack ranked 48th, and I got it with my last pick at position 66.

This draft went pretty well for me. My position in the break meant that I missed out on a few of the top cards, but it also kept me from getting most of the real duds in the break. I really would have liked to get one of the Bayley or Asuka autographed cards that came out of the case, but they went too quickly. I still wound up with some of my top picks, and I think I did better than I would have just buying a box of my own. Obviously I could have bought my own box and hit it big, but I also could have opened a dud. This format kind of averaged those odds out.