Box Break: 2022 Panini WWE Chronicles

It's been awhile since I've posted anything of meaning on the blog. It's been awhile since I've posted anything wrestling/WWE related. the last WWE related post was a box break and it seemed to do fairly well in the "click department" so I decided the other night that it was time to do another box break post. This time around I busted a hobby box of the new WWE Chronicles. This is an anthology type release, the first for WWE. The Chronicles set in itself isn't new as Panini has been churning out the set in other sports for a few years now. While much of the same formula still exists for it's debut in WWE, there are some small changes made.

While trying to figure out the layout for this post and which cards pulled from the box to share, I realized that the newly created checklist for the set on TCDB was absent of any card images. I decided at that point that I'd scan every card I pulled and upload them to the TCDB site and do a play by play breakdown of each pack. Needless to say it took a few hours to get everything prepped and ready, but it was fun. I miss blogging at times so this was the perfect excuse to blow the digital dust off the somewhat dormant blog. Now, shall we take a look at the contents of the box?

Now if you aren't familiar with any of the Chronicles sets that Panini has released, the basic idea of the set is the sets within the set. What I mean is Panini uses designs from across their brands and sports to make one large set. There is a "base" set, who's design really hasn't changed since the set's inception in 2017, but this set ditches the individual numbering of each design as it's own set. Instead you have set that is numbered 001-400, which the first 100 cards being the "base" Chronicles set. Other brands featured in cards 200-399 include Absolute, Black, Certified, Contenders, Elite, Flux, Illusions, Legacy, Luminance, Origins, Optic, Phoenix, Playoff, Prestige, Rookie & Stars, Score, Spectra and XR. The last 100 cards feature brands such as Crown Royale, Gala Rookies, National Treasures, Noir and one One. With the exception of the Gala Rookies, these final 100 cards are serially numbered to /99. Gala are numbered to just 8 copies each. Man, is that ever a sharp stick to the eye of set builders?!

Speaking of set building, I think I've decided I'm just going to aim for the first 300 cards for my set. While I'd love to pick up those final 100, it's going to be pretty tough to to build the partial set. Hobby boxes only yield 6 packs, 8 cards per pack. With a Panini product you know there will be a ton of colored parallels so the 48 cards you get in each Hobby box won't get you very far. In fact, I was surprised at how many different parallels my box yielded. More on that later, shall we move onto pack 1?

PACK 1:

This is the "base" set if you will, the first 100 cards feature this basic Chronicles design. If you've seen any other Chronicles set before, then this design should look familiar. Parallels and autos do exist of all 100 cards. The checklist for this part of the set is quite diverse and features NXT, current and Legends.

Shoooosh please! Chad Gable's new tag line may be a tad irritating, but I like that a talented, smaller guy is getting the push that he is. While I like him teamed with Otis as part of the Alpha Academy, I really liked Chad and Jason Jordan as a tag team.

I'm not a huge fan of Panini's Legacy brand so I could take or leave these if I'm being honest. There are only 10 total cards that use this design and as the brand's name implies, all of the wrestlers are retired Legends.

The Trish Stratus card hails from the chrome Phoenix set which features 25 different wrestlers from across the years. These don't particularly scan well, but look beautiful in hands. These are also some of the best looking parallels in the set.

Optic is a chrome version of the annual Donruss set. I found that scanning these also can be tough, but again look great in hand, especially this blue Prizm parallel. I was glad to pull a card of good ole' "Mean Gene"...I can just hear Hulk Hogan's voice in my head.... "Let me tell you Mean Gene"! All of the blue parallels are numbered out of /99.

Origins gets a big thumbs up from me. Illusions, not so much. Origins has a simple, artistic look while Illusions has a very busy look that hurts my eyes. Plus I'd take Orton over Theory any day of the week!

PACK 2:

I may be in the majority here, but I'm getting tired of the Usos and the Bloodline. The Josh Briggs card is another blue parallel. You'd think the large foil blue Chronicles lettering would help signify it's parallel status, but I didn't even catch it until I started to collate the cards. I like Briggs and his partner(s) in NXT...I hope they stay as a team and get a decent push in the tag team division upon their eventual call up.

The Contenders design has never been a favorite of mine and I disliked the cards in the 2022 Chronicles baseball set (which I'm also working on building), however for whatever reason this design works with wrestling. It also doesn't hurt that its a card of AJ Styles! 

Certified has a mirror like shine finish to the card front. The design stays true to the Certified brand, looking better in hand than on screen. Aoife Valkyrie just recently made her debut on NXT programming so I was little surprised to see her included on the checklist. However I don't understand the hype associated with her debut thus far.

What's this, another parallel in the same pack? This time we have a red parallel of the legend himself, Andre the Giant. Red parallels are numbered out of 199. This is another that I almost missed because the red foil blends in well w/ the bronze color used on the Legacy cards. I'd also like to mention that the photo selection for most of the cards is rather good. Here we have Andre getting ready to slap the chest of "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Can't you already hear the slap and see the giant red hand print he'll leave on Savage's chest?!

I'm only familiar with the XR design thanks to the last two years of the baseball Chronicles set. XR cards are printed on a slightly thicker cardstock and feature a foil front like Certified. There are a total of 20 XR cards in the set.

Flux I believe started as a NBA set, which is why I wasn't all that familiar with it. These cards are printed on a chrome stock, but feature monochrome images of the player, or wrestler in this case. I don't think they look all that great, yet they still intrigue me. Like with the other chrome cards in the set, these didn't scan all that well. There are a total of 25 different cards with the Flux design.

Early in my pack ripping I hit my first of two guaranteed autographs. I'll have to admit that this card of Imperium member, Giovanni Vinci didn't move the needle too much. At least he has a cool auto. Keep reading to discover who or what the last hit was.

PACK 3:

Hey, this Josh Briggs card looks awfully familiar?! MVP, Montell Vontavious Porter...he may not have had a lot of ring action in 2022, but did receive his fair share of television time as Bobby Lashley and Omos' manager.

Next up we have a base Optic card of Kevin Nash...excuse me, Diesel. In the 90's and 2000's I was more of a WCW fan so he'll always just be Kevin Nash to me. 

One the other side we have a Donruss Rated Rookie of Schism's "leader", Joe Gacy. Never card for this NXT guy much, but since they rolled out the Schism faction he and his creepy persona is starting to grow on me. The 10 card Rated Rookies checklist is quite good with some great talent currently on display in NXT.

Talk about a pair of boring wrestlers! It could only be worse if we had also pulled a card of Karrion Kross! This year's Absolute design is pretty nice. While the card subject isn't my favorite, it is a better (recent) photo of Goldberg.

The Elite cards feature a lot of silver holofoil coupled with another color, in the case of Omos it's red. At first I thought this was a red parallel, but nope, it's just card #248 in the set. 20 cards make up the Elite set.

I typically like Spectra, but the Spectra cards in the WWE set seem to fall a little flat compared to the same design in the baseball set. For starters these Spectra cards aren't printed on the same thicker cardstock that their baseball brethren are on. Perhaps its that and Theory on the card I pulled that bring this set down.

Black is a decent looking design as-is, but the colored parallels look great as the various colors look great against the holofoil black background and design. Here we have a Purple parallel numbered to /49 of AJ Styles...doesn't it look rather sharp?

PACK 4:

I opened this box with my oldest daughter who has taken a liking to wrestling and wrestling cards. When I told her that "Cowboy" Bob Orton was Randy Orton's dad she was a little shocked. "It's time! It's time! It's Vader time"! RIP big guy.

I'm ready for someone to take the belt off of Belair and who better than another female powerhouse like Ivy Nile? Belair is sporting this year's Score football design, which is just decent at best when compared to previous years. Ivy is from the Rookie & Stars set. Both of these sets are comprised of 10 cards each and follow each other in the main checklist.

Past versus the present. I wonder who'd win a match between "Mr. Perfect" and Shinsuke?

By this time in the box I believe this was our third Red parallel pulled. The red surprisingly pops well on the Flux design which is aided by the Prizm technology.

When she fought in NXT UK she was know as Piper McNiven. She was repackaged a Doudrop when she was brought over the WWE main roster. I feel sorry for her and by the look of her face in this photograph she doesn't appear to be all that happy herself.

PACK 5:

OK, the 5th pack is not starting off that good...sorry to all the man.soor fans out there. This new gimmick of his as part of the Male Models is just not working.

Alright Panini, you've redeemed yourself! A Red parallel of the new NXT Women's champion, Roxanne Perez! This young girl has been receiving a tremendous push ever since her debut. She was front and center of the recent Mandy Rose controversy and received a winning pin fall over the former champ a little earlier than planned from what I hear. Roxanne is a lot of fun to watch in the ring. I wonder how long it'll be before she gets called up to either RAW or Smackdown?

All ten of the cards from the Luminance brand feature a horizontal orientation and are some of my favorite photos in the set. Sadly this is the only Luminance card I pulled, but I've seen some of the others and they look great. Panini used a great image of Edris Enoff here. He and his partner, Malik Blade, make a up a good, young and raw tag team on the NXT brand.

I enjoy watching both of these talents perform in the ring so it's a little saddening that neither are on TV right now. Big E I understand, but Tommaso Ciampa has just disappeared. At least he got his first name back...although that's not represented on this XR card.

Rick Boogs is yet another wrestler that has been MIA and on the shelf for awhile now. He was last used as a glorified hype man for Shinsuke Nakamora, but I feel he's far more talented. Let's pair him up w/ Elias so the two can form a legit rock band! This Silver Prizm parallel of his Optic card is beautiful in hand.

PACK 6:

My last pack in the box started off with two great retired legends in The British Bulldog and Greg "the Hammer" Valentine.

These Prestige and Playoff cards were the only ones pulled from the box. I give Prestige the slight nod in the design category, but both sport some pretty good images. Each of these brands are represented by 10 different subjects and follow each other in the numbering of the main set.

I believe this Spectra card of AJ Styles was the 3rd card of his pulled thus far. I'm not complaining. 

Gable Steveson hasn't done much since signing w/ the WWE, but many think he's destined for greatness in the coming years. I guess only time will tell.

Now this I was not expecting. In the 5th pack there was a dummy thick card in the pack, but I also noticed there was a similar thick card in this pack so I didn't know what to expect. This National Treasures card is not part of the base set, but what a card it is! Numbered to /49 with an embedded piece of ring mat complete with a auto sticker. I've seen some really nice National Treasure hits on eBay already, but I'm more than happy w/ this card. This is a nice "upgrade" if you will over the first hit I pulled.

Why of course the very last card I'd pull would be another AJ Styles card! This makes the 4th AJ card and the 2nd Black parallel of his...all from the same box.

Overall I had a blast opening his Hobby box of WWE Chronicles. I'd love to open a 2nd box, but I'll have to wait to see how successful the breaks I run over in my Facebook group are this month! I believe there will be a retail component to this set released at some point, but judging from how I could never find much of Panini's other WWE sets at local retail I'm not holding my breath that I'll get to experience much of it. 

Regardless, Panini has done a great job in my opinion at catering to both the player (or wrestler) collector and set collectors. There is a great checklist featuring wresters from all eras, lots of cool brands/designs and of course parallels and autos to chase. It also offers a challenge to set builders, like myself, especially if they want to go for all 400 cards. So far the set seems to have a good reception from fans and collectors alike so it'll be interesting to see if boxes hold their price (currently about $120) or if they'll slowly decline like Prizm, Revolution and NXT 2.0 boxes have.

Pack Break: 1996 Pinnacle Denny's Hologram

The things you find in your office once you start putting away stacks of cards and opening old card boxes. I recently unearthed a sealed pack of 1996 Pinnacle Denny's Hologram that I swear I don't remember acquiring. Back in the 90's these were some of my favorite food related sets and even today are sets that I'm working on completing. 

Upper Deck kicked off the Denny's hologram cards, but Pinnacle took over the duties in 1996. Gone were the standard holograms and replaced with full motion holograms! The technology at the time was pretty fascinating, though like most holograms hasn't aged well. When you tilted these cards just right you got to see the player pictured in motion...whether it was swinging the bat or hurling a pitch.

I prefer 1997's lenticular design over 1996, but this was still a beautiful set and a nice change of pace from the previous Upper Deck sets. Thankfully most of these Denny's sets are easy to pick up and are cheap as well because they are still some of the more "funner" cards from the 90's.

Box Break: 2022 Panini WWE Revolution

 

Panini's second WWE trading card release in 2022 happened to be the Revolution brand. I have to admit that I wasn't too thrilled with the news. I was still looking for WWE Prizm at retail and having mixed results so one one hand it was nice to have something else to chase. Hobby boxes weren't cheap (as expected), but the price didn't hold for very long before boxes could be had for as cheap as $65.00. The boxes don't guarantee an autograph so I'm guessing the speculators or flippers bypassed this product all to together.

I was familiar with the Revolution brand thanks to their NBA & NFL licenses. The design even showed up in 2021 Chronicles (baseball) as an insert set. I've never been wild on the design or the parallels, but I've seen some cool/wild inserts and designs. After paying my bills associated with hosting my breaks, I had enough to grab a box during a Labor Day sale so I thought I'd take a chance. My oldest daughter enjoys opening wrestling card boxes/packs with me so I thought if nothing else it'd be fun for the two of us.

Here you have two examples of the base card design. It features a silver sheen holographic background with colored waves and angles layered on top. Black, Red, Gold are the main foil colors used on the front. The wrestler's name and the Revolution logo are in gold foil.

The back of the card features the same photo from the back, but outlined with white and a think black border. There is a bio box that lists where the wrestler is from and little about their in-ring career or persona.

PROS:

* The design actually works, much better for WWE than for traditional sports

* Most of the photos used are great action shots. The photo of Indi Hartwell has to be my favorite photo of her on any of her cards thus far released.

* A small and manageable set at just 150 cards

* A good mixture of main roster talent, NXT 2.0 and Hall of Famers

CONS:

* The photo is duplicated on the back

* At just 5 cards per pack & 8 packs per Hobby box, it won't be easy (or cheap) to build the set unless you have help in the trade department

* No guaranteed hits

The Astro parallel seemed to be the most common as we pulled 3 from our box. The Astro cards feature small stars in the holographic silver background. In a very welcome move, Panini actually listed the parallel name underneath the card number on the rear of the card. I hope they continue to do this for all of their releases moving forward.

Groove parallels have small "disco" balls if you will scattered across the background of the card. This card of Doudrop was the only Groove parallel pulled. Not my favorite parallel if I'm being honest.

Fractal parallels have a "cracked ice" look across the back o the card. This technology or design has been used by several card companies over the years and isn't something I care for. I know some collectors love these type of parallels, but for me they are just "meh".

Angular parallels are probably my favorite thus far, I just like how the angled pattern in the background of the card meshes with the main design. The teal foil is also a nice touch. These cards are numbered out of /199. Jacy here is 144/199.

Lava parallels are one of the toughest to pull as these are numbered to just 10 copies. These have a angled sheen in the background that kinda looks like lava...hence the name of the parallel. I was shocked to pull this 10/10 Bret Hart card.

Looking at the checklist on TCDB.com, there are also Cosmic, Cubic, Galactic and Sunburst parallels of the 150 card base set. Good luck if you are chasing these for your favorite wrestler.

 

There are a few insert sets, but again with the small pack out of Hobby boxes you'll probably only pull a few. We ended up with 4 inserts I believe, including this Shock Wave card of Sasha Banks. Like with the base cards, inserts also have several different parallels to chase. While I don't mind parallels of the base set, making additional parallels of inserts is a bit much for my taste.

Speaking of insert parallels, we ended up with a Sunburst parallel of the Becky Lynch Supernova insert. The base design of the Supernova card is pretty cool in its own right, but the Sunburst version looks equally cool. I would have like to have seen a Sunburst parallel for one of the base cards. This Sunburst parallel is numbered 95/99.

I'm rather fond of these trippy looking Vortex inserts. I can only imagine some of the various parallels that exist make this design look even more wild.

The one insert set that wasn't represented in my box was the die-cut Liftoff! The few I've seen from this set look great.

Overall I enjoyed ripping this box. I wish there were more cards/packs per each box as it didn't take by maybe 10 minutes to rip the whole box. I was pleased with the cards in hand however. They scanned surprisingly well, but they still look much better in hand. Even though each box didn't yield many cards, I'd be prepared to buy another as I'd love to build this set. I don't believe I pulled any doubles, but I have plenty of other wrestling cards listed on my TDCB profile so if you are a user there and want to work up a trade, hit me up...my user ID is flywheels.

2022 Topps Now - #688 Vaughn Grissom

  

When the Braves' second baseman, Ozzie Albies, went down with an injury a lot of Braves fans weren't sure what would happen next. Backup veteran, Orlando Arcia would eventually take Ozzie's place in the line up, however when he too went down with injury the Braves looked to their minor league system for an answer.

On August 10th, Vaughn Grissom made his MLB debut at Fenway Park. He was promoted from AA, the second player this season on the team to receive the call up. For some young players the bright lights of the big stage can be too much, but not for Grissom. The 21 year old collected his first career hit and a home run in his debut. He also stole a bag during the game, making him the youngest player in MLB history to hit a home run and still a base in their debut game. The Braves would go on to win the game against the Red Sox 8-4.

With Topps giving this card the Call-Up designation means his true rookie cards won't be seen until 2023 Topps Series 1. I hate having to wait that long to get more cards of Vaughn, but the way he's been playing at least he has a good chance at receiving another Topps Now card before the 2022 season wraps up!

TCBD Trade Completed w/ Too Many Verlanders

While I may not be as active on the blog and the trades via the blog have all but shriveled up, that doesn't mean that I'm not still making trades online. All of my trading now consists with the aid of the awesome resource site of Trading Card Database. Not only can I track my collection there, but also easily facilitate trades. One recently completed trade was with Dennis from Too Many Verlanders.

I've been pretty busy lately and fell behind on my TCDB activity, including pouring over the details of the trade Dennis proposed to me, but I'm pretty sure he tossed in these various Braves cards just because he's a swell guy. I love the 3 MLB Showdown cards, oddball stuff like this is what makes collecting fun. The Ryan Klesko jersey was a nice surprise, as was the Bowman Chrome Xfractor auto...even if I have no idea who the player is!

6 more cards for the Vladimir Guerrero PC. All but 2 of these are super shiny and one of the others is a super cool Topps HD card!

The next PC Dennis filled update is that of Brian Jordan. Being a two sport star, I mainly focus on his baseball playing days so it was nice to receive 9 new cards. This season Brian has taken on more opportunities with Bally Sports' coverage of Atlanta Braves cards, stepping in the booth from time to time to call the game w/ Chip Carey. I've heard some people think he talks about himself too much on the telecasts, but I enjoy what he brings to the table.

Kevin Seitzer is a relatively new PC of mine and I've been overwhelmed by the response after I got my want list updated on TCDB. Seitzer is the current hitting coach of the Atlanta Braves and is a part of the offensive numbers the Braves have been putting up.

For Atlanta Braves' fans Sid Bream's historic slide into home plate during the 1991 NLCS will forever be etched into our hearts and minds, but my PC of Sid isn't because of that play or that he played for the Braves, but that is a fellow believer of the Christian faith. Sid routinely inscribed various Bible verses with his autographs, which I do own a few. Sid has been one of those guys I already had a good many cards of, but recently decided to pump up the PC by adding every card of his that I didn't already own to my TCDB want lists. Yet another player I've received a lot of in recent months via TCDB trades.

When I was first getting into collecting I heard a lot about Darryl Strawberry. As time would pass his name would stay in the news, but usually for the wrong reasons. Darryl will be the first to admit he's made some bad decisions, but it seems that life is behind him now. I may be a little late in starting a collection, but it's been a fun ride thus far since I added more of his cards to my TCDB want lists.

Ray Durham played ball at a local rival high school of mine in my hometown of Charlotte, NC. Like some of the players I collect, I just casually collected him, putting aside cards of his as I'd pull them from packs or find them at shows. I'm grateful for these 5 new cards, especially the Finest. First things first however, that protective peeling on the Finest card has got to go!!

I've got a pretty good size PC of the ageless wonder, Julio Franco, yet Dennis was able to find 4 cards off my want lists for me. Again, that Finest covering will be peeled!

While I'm moving away from building modern sets, there are enough other sets I'm working on and all of these cards above will help fill holes. The Sportflics Double Take is a much welcome addition...I'm such a sucker for lenticular cards.

Speaking of Finest cards, I decided to try and build the 1997 set (for whatever reason) even though I knew it wouldn't be the easiest task. While I've been able to cobble together some cards, I welcome the opportunity to obtain more!

While baseball is my main jam, I am excited to see my Carolina Panthers take the field this Sunday against the Browns. That said I was happy to add 4 new Panthers to the collection, along with a new Mike Glennon to my NC State alumni collection.

I can't say thank you to Dennis enough for proposing a trade to me. It was one of the largest trades I've pulled off in awhile, but I'm glad we each had things the other could use. If you've not taken the time to familiarize yourself w/ the Trading Card Database platform, you really ought to as it's a great site that helps bring collectors together.