From Allen & Ginter to 2025 Topps Chrome WWE
In celebration of the upcoming release of 2025 Topps Chrome WWE, RIPPED writer Jake Black tracks the long and glorious history of wrestling, cards, and Topps.
Allen & Ginter and Wrestling
For as long as there have been professional wrestlers, there have been professional wrestling cards. This type of sports entertainment dates back to the 1880s when a young circus promoter named P.T. Barnum began showcasing wrestling as part of his circus acts. A wrestler named Ed Decker issued open challenges to the crowds attending the events under the big top and reportedly defeated every challenger. Eventually, Barnham added John McMahon to his roster and featured matches between the two as his circus traveled the country, making Barnum the world’s first professional wrestling promoter.
Along the way, McMahon headlined the first group of seven wrestlers to be featured on trading cards, included in the 1888 N28 set Allen & Ginter tobacco cards.
Wrestling’s Territories Era
Professional wrestling grew outside the circus and carnivals, leading to competitions worldwide. In 1905, wrestlers worldwide gathered in New York City to compete in a tournament to crown the first World Heavyweight Champion. Estonian strongman Georges Hackenschmidt, who appeared on a 1908 Ogden’s cigarettes card, won the tournament.
With a World Champion now crowned, wrestling expanded into various regional territories, each overseen by a different promoter. In 1948, most of these territories unified themselves under the governing banner of the National Wrestling Alliance. That same year, Topps also published their first line of wrestling cards, titled Magic Wrestling Cards, featuring the likes of Hackenschmidt, Frank Gotch, and other top names in the history of wrestling. To read the biographical information on these cards, collectors exposed the card to sunlight, giving the line its “magic” nickname.
Throughout the Territories Era of professional wrestling, countless sets of cards were produced by numerous organizations, including Topps’ 1951 Ringside Boxing Cards, which featured a handful of wrestlers in the set.
Topps and WrestleMania
In the early 1980s, the organization that would become known as WWE began to expand beyond its New York City roots, using cable and syndicated television to present its product to a nationwide audience, in the process collecting the best wrestling talent from among the territories and putting those territory’s promoters out of business.
1985 Topps WWF Pro Wrestling Stars #1 Hulk Hogan
In 1985, Topps reentered the squared circle for the first time since the 1951 Ringside Boxing Cards and produced a pair of sets for WWE: Topps WWF Pro Wrestling Stars and an extremely limited edition set WWF 3-D. Pro Wrestling Stars featured character bio cards, catchphrases, match moments, and sticker puzzle chase cards that made up a picture of Hulk Hogan. The 3D cards, meanwhile, had an extremely limited run and featured lenticular images of the top WWE Superstars of the era, with no copy on the card backs.
1985 Topps WWF 3-D #10 Andre The Giant
As the ’80s progressed and WWE became an international phenomenon, Topps continued releasing card sets, including the 1987 Wrestling Cards set, which again featured character bios, stickers, and action shots, primarily from the historic WrestleMania III, which was held in the Pontiac Silverdome in front of 93,000 members of the WWE Universe. The set is affectionately known as the WrestleMania III set.
The Monday Night War
These would be the last WWE cards Topps produced in the 1980s. Ironically, Topps returned to the sports entertainment world in 1992 with a UK-exclusive series of cards produced for WWE’s primary rival, World Championship Wrestling[JB6]. One year later, Topps-Ireland produced a series of cards called Wacky Wrestling Cards [JB7] that showcased competitors from various promotions, including WWE and WCW. At the same time, Topps Mexico released a CMLL Lucha Libre Cards set.
Lex Luger looking lethal in a Topps UK-exclusive set
During the ’90s, various other companies created WWE sets. In 1995, WCW launched a new television series called WCW Monday Nitro to compete with WWE’s flagship show, WWE Monday Night Raw, sparking what would become known as the Monday Night War. Topps chose WCW’s side in the Monday Night War, producing WCW sets in 1998 and 1999.
Chief among these sets is the WCW/nWo Series, which, like its predecessors, featured Superstar bios with chase chromium and sticker cards. What makes this set stand out, however, is it is the first line of wrestling cards to feature autograph cards within the series.
Even Jay Leno showed up in a WCW/nWo set
Topps Wrestling Gets Ruthless
When WWE purchased WCW in 2001, it marked the end of the Monday Night War and opened the door to WWE’s Ruthless Aggression Era. In 2005, Topps became WWE’s global trading card partner, producing sets like 2005’s Heritage Set and unique lines like 2007’s Dog Tags, which featured one card and one military-style dog tag per pack, the CCG Payback, and DVD-exclusive cards that were packaged with DVD releases of WWE events.
2005 Topps Heritage WWE Legends #76 Gorilla Monsoon
Topps would also expand its WWE footprint into the digital sphere, with exclusive cards available only through the Topps website. Collectors could own the physical cards if they wanted, or they could store them in a Topps-owned vault.
In the late 2000s, Topps expanded its WWE CCG offerings with Slam Attax. Though primarily a UK release, some series were also released in the United States.
Throughout the 2010s, the WWE/Topps partnership dominated the wrestling card collectors’ market with annual releases such as WWE Topps Chrome, The Road to WrestleMania, WWE Topps Heritage, Topps WWE Undisputed, WWE Women’s Division, WWE Legends, and several others.
Topps NOW to 2025 Topps Chrome WWE
In 2016, a pair of new offerings joined the Topps sector of the WWE Universe: Topps NOW, which featured rapid-response cards featuring moments from WWE events that occurred only days earlier, and WWE NXT, which featured the up-and-comers of WWE’s developmental territory.
As the 2020s dawned, Topps introduced two more innovative WWE card lines: the WWE Topps Living Set and the WWE Transcendent Set. The Living Set included a pair of print-on-demand cards released weekly via Topps’ website, featuring painted portraits of top WWE Superstars. Meanwhile, the WWE Transcendent Set was a prestige series limited to fifty sets. It included extremely rare autograph cards, a WWE event ticket, and a pass to a VIP party where exclusive cards were given to attendees.
At the end of 2021, Topps released its final WWE set, Topps Finest, before embarking on a three-year hiatus away from the ring. However, much like a WWE Superstar making a surprise return in the Royal Rumble, Topps is charging back in 2025 with the first of several new WWE releases, 2025 Topps Chrome WWE. Like its predecessors, the set features Superstar bios, chase subsets, and autographs from the best NXT and WWE Superstars.
With over 135 years of history, wrestling card collecting is just like WWE: it truly is Then, Now, and Forever, Together.
