WWE SmackDown! Charlotte 3:16

Last Friday night I took my oldest daughter up to Charlotte, NC for WWE SmackDown! We both have been looking forward to this event for many months. This was her first wrestling event and my first in a very long time. Once we got to Spectrum Arena and found our sets, I was surprised at just how good the seats were. I don't think I've ever sat that low in the arena before. My wife and I were at the arena not that long ago for a Charlotte Hornets game, but our seats weren't nearly as good as these. I think our tickets were like $30 or $35 each? I can't remember exactly, but we both were happy with the view.

 

We hit the merch tables pretty early after getting into the arena and the lines were already long. It was hard to tell what exactly they had for sale as far back as we were, but as we got closer we got a better view of at least the various t-shirts they were selling. My daughter narrowed her choices down to a Women's Championship title belt and a stuffed bear...well as you can see she went w/ the bear. I ended up with a shirt similar to the one pictured, however this shirt was exclusive to our live event. The famous Stone Cold Steve Austin skull was on the back of the shirt, but the smoke coming from the eyes was teal and purple...Charlotte Hornets colors! Across the front of the shirt was simply "Charlotte 3:16". My shirt is in the laundry and I couldn't find an image of the shirt online. I was shocked there weren't any listed on eBay Saturday morning.

Before the live telecast on Fox kicked off at 8 PM, the music hit and the announcers (Michael Cole and Pat McAfee) came out to take their positions. I had no idea that this was a thing, but it was cool none the less. Pat McAfee is golden on the microphone and is quickly becoming the next Bobby "the Brain" Heenan.

Roman Reigns and the Usos were the first come out once the show got underway. In typical fashion the "Head of the Table" took his time making his way down to the ring, playing to the crowd's loud cheers (and boos). Once he got the mic his entered his normal diatribe, including "Charlotte, NC...acknowledge me". Yeah, I can't stand the guy. He was running his mouth about how Brock Lesnar was scared of facing him and how sad he was that Brock wasn't going to be there that evening. Once Paul Heyman interrupted and told him Brock was on the way, they high tailed it out of the ring and out of the arena. 

We then were shown the same footage that aired on television from the back, where Roman and the Usos were getting in their SUV only to have Brock show up driving large forklift that he used to impale the vehicle! While Brock was having fun tipping the SUV, the guys moved onto a pick up truck to make their escape...but not before Brock was able to rip off the side door as the truck peeled away.

Brock then showed up, truck door in hand, and made his way out to the ring. Of course all of this is to set up their big match at WrestleMania in a few weeks. These promos have been pretty good and it's got me looking forward to the match.

 

The first match of the evening featured two tag teams, Los Lotharios (Angel Garza & Humberto Carillo) versus Rick Boogs and Shinsuke Nakamura. I love Shinsuke's entrance music so I had to record his entrance. This was a short match, but pretty good. Rick Boogs is quickly becoming more and more fun to watch and not just known for his guitar playing. Shinsuke and Rick would be victorius.

We were treated with a 6 man tag team match next that featured the Viking Raiders and Drew McIntyre versus Happy Corbin, Jinder Mahal and Shanke. As much as I love watching McIntyre wrestle, this was a snooze fest. The Viking Raiders should get a better push than they do, but neither one of them did much in match and were boring. Same goes for their opponents. Drew and the Raiders would be victorius.

We had no idea what the card looked like for the evening so each match was a surprise. The 3rd match of the night was the one that most interested my daughter as it would feature Naomi and Sasha Banks versus Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley. Next to Alexa Bliss, I think Liv Morgan is my daughter's favorite wrestler. I'm just glad they are actually doing something with the women's tag titles, even if they are having to pair up individuals to make new tag teams. All of this is a build up to WrestleMania of course where Carmella and Queen Zelina will be defending their titles.

Speaking of Carmella and Queen Zelina, they made their way out to the announce table during the match. Of course we couldn't hear their commentary during the match, but we did get to see Carmella strut her stuff outside the ring. The match would eventually end in a disqualification as Shayna Bazler and Natalya would enter the ring and interfere with the match. As a result, the women's tag team belts will be defended in a fatal four way match at WrestleMania.

Austin Theory would make his way out to the ring next to accept an apology from Pat McAfee for his attack from the previous week. Pat was shown leaving Vince's office backstage and out to the right. Of course the apology wasn't quite what you thought it would be...or maybe it was exactly the way you thought it would be. Pat is great on the mic and this was a fun build up segment to their match at WrestleMania. I have no idea how this match will go, but I'm looking forward to it none the less.

The previous week's SmackDown! episode featured the New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) versus Sheamus and Ridge Holland. While I didn't watch the episode, I'm kind of glad I didn't as Big E would have his neck broken during the match as a belly to belly suplex went horribly wrong. As a result, Kofi would get his revenge on Ridge Holland. Kofi would go on to win the match.

By this time it was getting late and my wife and I weren't sure how well my daughter would fair. I snuck a picture of her, bear clutched in her arms as she watched the Kofi match. Spoiler, she did great! She never once complained or told me she was tired...I was shocked...and pleased at the same time.

Being in Charlotte, NC I felt there was a good chance we'd see Charlotte Flair. Sadly she wasn't in a match, but in typical fashion she was there to promote her upcoming WrestleMania match with Ronda Rousey. Charlotte would make her way out to the ring in her fancy attire and speak to the fans, before Ronda would come out. Charlotte grabbed a kendo stick and "greeted" Ronda as she got into the ring. They would brawl for a bit before it was time to end the show with the camera focusing on Charlotte gloating on the ring's apron.

We thought the night was over since the televised portion was over, but then Roman's music hit. His whole crew came out to the ring to take on Drew McIntyre, Shinsuke and Rick Boogs. This was an odd match as it was low key and there was a lot of standing around. This was in large part due to a fan that came down to the wall around the ring, talking smack to Roman and Paul Heyman. At this point Paul would remove his sports jacket and try to go over the wall at the fan. One of the Usos was holding Paul back...which I have to admit was pretty hilarious. All the while this was going on outside the ring, Shinsuke was sucking wind while the other Uso just stood there watching the commotion outside. Towards the end of the match, Roman would make his way into the match to give everyone a Superman punch, though the babyfaces would end up with the 1-2-3.

Overall this was a fun night. Most importantly my daughter had a great time. We stayed at a hotel across the street from the arena and when we got back to our room my daughter jumped into bed to tell my wife all about it. She was running on adrenaline and told me she wished it had gone on longer. She was ready for her next event that same night! 

As of this post WrestleMania is just two weeks away. I know my oldest is looking forward to watching, but I'm secretly hoping we all can at least watch Saturday night's event as a family. Call it cheesy, but I grew up watching wrestling with my grandfather so I find it cool that at least one of my daughters can enjoy this with me.

Box Break: 2021 Topps WWE Women's Division (x2!)

 

Thanks to the good folks over at Midwest Cards, I grabbed a two boxes of 2021 Topps WWE Women's Division for my daughter and I to open. Since she has taken a liking to wrestling cards it's been even more fun to rip product like this. I figured she'd want to build her own set too so it made sense to grab two boxes before the prices rose. With Topps losing the WWE license there was a lot of uncertainty of what was going to happen with these last few products that have been delayed. The Women's Division came out just a few days before 2021 Topps Finest WWE which marks the end of Topps' run with the WWE license.

Like in past years, the set is made of up of action cards that are dated from previous episodes of RAW, SmackDown and pay-per-view events. There is also a set of 55 cards that depicted the various women on the rosters. These part of the set I would find to be tougher to complete. Several different levels of parallels exist, but I found them hard to point out initially. A few insert sets also exist, though I forgot to hold out a few of them for photos. The draw of course are the two guaranteed hits in each box. One is an auto while the other will be a relic. Manufactured relics count as a hit so if you don't like those, what out!

The first box was probably the better of the two, though it wasn't great either. We did hit a green parallel of Auska & Bailey (02/50), but I didn't know it until I sorted the cards. All of the base cards have white bars of light in the lower left corner and the parallels change that up with different colors. The serial numbering is on the back so it's really easy to pass these up as you're thumbing through the packs. The Diamond die-cut inserts are really nice so I was glad to pull 3 of these, especially Indi Hartwell. The two hits were a mat relic of Sasha Banks (162/250), which was event used in the 2021 Royal Rumble on 01/31/21. If Topps can name the date of the event the memorabilia piece is from in wrestling, why can't they do that with their sports cards? The other hit of the box was an on card autograph of Piper Niven...or now as she is called Doudrop (075/199). What's odd about this card is that all of the base cards depicting her are labeled as Doudrop. Whatever, Topps made a few lazy mistakes with this set such as backs of the cards printed upside down. I guess I can let it pass since I know they were rushed to get this set out the gates before the license expired.

The second box I thought initially was a dud...mainly because of the horrible manufactured logo relic of Nia Jax (071/150) we pulled as one of our two hits. I was holding out hope that the auto would make up for the other hit, but nope...it was of Alyse Ashton. I was the WWE pretty regularly and even I didn't know who this was. Turns out she was a former interviewer. Yeah...*yawns*. Only bright side I could find with the card was that it was her "RC" and she has a nice autograph. We rounded out the box with two more die-cut Diamond cards. Like with the previous box, I found a colored parallel when I was sorting the cards in my sorting tray...thought it was a double of Io Shirai and Candice LeRae then I noticed the serial number on the back...1/1! Alright, that helped redeem what I thought was a stinker of a box.

Overall I wasn't as impressed with the Women's Division set this year. I'm glad it was back to a standard 24 pack style box over the blaster box/fat pack packaging of 2020. The quality control of some of the cards wasn't the way you wanted to see this set go out, though any time autos are on card it's a plus. Even the mat relic design was pretty nice...which is a little surprising. I was able to complete one base set and came close to a second. The collation of the roster cards though wasn't great and left me about 6 cards shy from my set and a whole lot for my daughter's set. I'm going to post what few doubles I have left on my Trading Card Database profile page in the hopes I can make some trades to finish out both my daughters set and my own. Maybe I can strike up some trades on Twitter as well.

I'm sad to see this set go away after 6 years as it's been a fun set to collect. Once I upgrade to a 4" binder I'll have all the WWE Women's Division sets (2016-2021) all together in one place.

Care Package from SMG

The other day I had a package waiting for me in the mail box and it was simply addressed to "Hops". I knew immediately who the sender was without even looking at the return address. Larry, the Sewing Machine Guy had sent me a bubble mailer with cards for no other reason than him just being a cool guy.

Of course inside the bubble mailer were several Braves cards. This Detroit Tigers fan knows what I like after all! There were far more cards than the ones pictured, but these were some of my favorites. Dansby Swanson is one of my favorite Braves players so it was pretty sweet to get his Archives and Heritage RCs. Ian Anderson is another up and coming young player so finding another one of his RCs was also nice to see.

Thank you so much Larry for the nice little Braves care package...I'll make sure to put these cards to good use!

The End of the Freddie Freeman Era in ATL

What roller coaster this MLB off season has been since the Atlanta Braves won the 2021 World Series. All the fans knew that Freeman would enter the season as a free agent, what we didn't know was that a lock out was on the horizon. This caused zero negotiations through the winter causing many fans to panic at the thought the long tenured first baseman wouldn't return for the 2022 season. 

During the off season there was chatter that Freddie wasn't going to re-sign. Multiple team names started to enter the conversation of different suitors for the first baseman. Could Freeman really go to the rival Dodgers? While I hate to think about it, he is from California and I could see him going "home". After all, he's spent the whole off season there...could that have effected his decision? 

Could Freddie end up in Yankee pinstripes? New York loves to spend and could possibly compete with the amount of money LA could offer. While I'm not a fan of the Yankees, I'd rather see him go to NY than LA any day of the week.

Then today happened. I was on my way out the door to head to Home Depot to look at carpet with my wife and I saw the news on Twitter...the Braves had traded a plethora of young prospects for the A's Matt Olson. I had heard earlier that this was plan B. Plan A of course was to re-sign Freeman, but if that didn't work plan B was to bring in a younger, less expensive slugger. The tweet mentioned Cristian Pache, Sean Langeliers and two other pitchers were headed to Oakland for Olson. Braves nation was divided. 

Where do I fall? While I don't want to sound like a bad fan, I'm actually OK with the trade. Yes, I hate to see Freddie go for a lot of reasons. Let's be honest though, the days where players play their whole career for one team are long gone. The fact that Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter did it still amazes me. I've heard that Freddie wanted to stay in Atlanta. I've also heard he really wanted to go home. I'm sure money was part of the equation, we're talking professional sports after all. I've heard and read a lot of comments/tweets today where fans were bashing the front office for letting Freeman go. I think after winning the World Series Freddie's price went up and essentially he priced himself out of Atlanta. Had the Braves lost the World Series I think he would have stayed and the Braves would've re-signed him. This is a business though and the decision to not bring him back is just that...business. However I don't really care who's "at fault" here. I'm going to miss him...but I'm also looking forward to seeing what Olson can do. I already saw a tweet today that effectively said Braves country will be OK after the first time Olson launches a homer across the Chop House...and they are probably right. Players change teams. It's a part of modern day sports. Wherever Freddie lands, I wish him the best.

How does this move effect my collecting? Not much. I'll still collect Freeman...even if he's in Dodger blue *shudders* or Yankee pinstripes. Heck, I'm already looking at some of Olson's 2017 cards on eBay...which is a mistake because the prices are ridiculous. There will be plenty of 2022 cards coming out w/ Freddie in a Braves uniform and I'll try to gobble up as many as I can...but I don't plan stopping just because he'll (eventually) have another logo on his chest. I still collect Dale Murphy, David Justice, and Jeff Francouer...regardless of the team.

Thank you Freddie for everything. It was a blast having you anchor the line up as well as first base for all of these years. We'll miss your hugs as much as your bat and that stretch at first. We'll miss seeing Charlie on television broadcasts and during the All-Star festivities. Best of luck wherever you go...just not against the Braves!