Home /
Guides/ Sports cards/ Wrestling cards: WWE, AEW and the rookie cards

Wrestling cards: WWE and AEW cards, licences and rookie cards

Official wrestling cards are made under licence from the promotions. The WWE licence moved from Topps to Panini in 2022 and back to Topps in 2025, while Upper Deck got the exclusive rights to AEW cards in 2021. Besides rookie cards and signed cards, collectors look for kiss cards, which the wrestler has kissed, and relic cards with a piece of the ring mat from an event.

Quick facts

WWE licence	Topps 2005 to 2021, Panini from 2022, Topps again from 2025
AEW licence	Upper Deck, exclusive rights from July 2021
Marking of new names	RC at Topps, First UD in Upper Deck AEW
NXT	WWE's development brand, with its own marking in Topps checklists
Formats	Hobby box, value box, mega box and blaster
Special insert cards	Kiss cards and mat relics

What is collected

Rookie cards	Marked RC in Topps checklists. Which card counts as the first one is disputed.
Signed cards	Signed directly on the card or on a sticker attached to it.
Relic cards	A piece of the ring mat from an event or of a shirt the wrestler has worn.
Kiss cards	Cards the wrestler has kissed, with the lip print left on them. They come both signed and unsigned.
Numbered parallels	The same card in a different colour with a printed print run, down to 1 of 1.
Legends	Well-known names from the promotion's history, marked Legend in Topps checklists.

Topps calls the relic cards with ring mat mat relics, and the mat comes from a named event. In 2017 Topps WWE it was SummerSlam 2016 or NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn.

The series you will come across

Under each series you will find what sets it apart from the others.

Topps Chrome WWE

First edition 2014

Topps Chrome WWE was released in 2014 and 2015 and came back in 2020 after a five-year break. After 2021 the series was paused while Panini held the WWE licence, and the 2025 edition marked its return after Topps got the licence back. That edition included The Rock Retrospective Autographs, the first licensed WWE autographs of The Rock since 1998. Both 2014 and 2026 had autographs signed directly on the card, and in 2026 there was a separate set of signed cards for the wrestlers from NXT.

The chase cards are The Rock Retrospective Autographs in Superfractor form, his first dual-signed card together with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the signed NXT cards.

Upper Deck AEW

First edition 2022

Upper Deck AEW is the base series for All Elite Wrestling. It started with 2021 Upper Deck AEW, which was released in January 2022 as the first product under Upper Deck's multi-year exclusive rights to AEW cards. It was also the first time Upper Deck made wrestling cards. The 2021 base set was divided into Wrestlers, Tag Teams, Crew and AEW Magazine, and The Dotted Line was a rare chase card with an autograph. The 2026 edition was the sixth in the series.

The chase cards are Ring Masters Autographs, with odds of 1 in 3,000 packs, and the Fanimation chase card.

Upper Deck Allure AEW

First edition 2023

Allure is Upper Deck's chrome series for All Elite Wrestling and has come out every other year, with editions in 2022, 2024 and 2026, unlike the yearly Upper Deck AEW. The first, 2022 Upper Deck Allure AEW, was released in November 2023. Signed cards are not found in every hobby box, and the focus is on coloured parallels and chase cards – on average twelve parallels and eleven chase cards per box in 2026. The parallels have names such as Black Rainbow, Red Pulsar and Orange Slice.

The chase cards are Golden Treasures and Golden Treasures Auto in a single copy, and the numbered Purple Diamond parallels, limited to 10 copies at most.

Topps Universe WWE

First edition 2026

Topps Universe WWE has a space theme, foil details and several different card designs. The series started with 2025 Topps Universe WWE, which was released in February 2026 with two signed cards and one relic card in every hobby box, the same as in the 2026 edition. The parallels have names such as Galaxy, Orange Warp and Red Magma, with FoilFractor in 1 of 1 at the top. The rookie cards of wrestlers from NXT, such as Zaria and Jordynne Grace in 2025, have their own NXT marking.

The chase cards are FoilFractor in a single copy and the anniversary autographs, such as Stone Cold's and The Rock's 30th-anniversary autographs, and Title Marks Relic Signatures with title belt material.

Topps Stadium Club WWE

First edition 2026

Topps Stadium Club made its full wrestling debut with the 2026 edition, the series' first in WWE. The base set has 200 cards and also comes in Chrome, and a hobby box has 16 packs of eight cards and two autographs. The series also comes as a mega box with six packs of ten cards and as a value blaster with six packs of five cards. The autographs come in three designs – Concentration, Inked and Main Stage – and the Beam Team insert set turns up on average once in 192 hobby packs.

The chase cards are Gold Rainbow Foilboard in a single copy, SuperFractor in a single copy among the Chrome parallels, and the Beam Team cards.

Topps Cosmic Chrome WWE

First edition 2026

Cosmic Chrome is Topps' space-themed chrome series, and the WWE edition came out for the first time in 2026. The base set has 200 cards, and a hobby box with 20 packs of four cards contains one Nucleus Refractor, four serial-numbered parallels, two Refractors and 13 inserts. The parallels have space names such as Purple Nebula, Black Eclipse and Red Flare and end with a Superfractor in a single copy. The Planetary Pursuit insert set has 120 cards in ten tiers, from the Sun to Pluto, and the autographs, including Cosmic Autographs and Milky Way Marks, are inserted at random in the packs.

The chase cards are the Superfractor in a single copy, Planetary Pursuit in the Pluto version – on average one card in 32,200 packs – and case hits such as Cosmic Dust, Geocentric, Hyper Nova and Light Years.

The licences: who makes the WWE and AEW cards

Topps' first wrestling set was 1985 Topps WWF, and 1987 Topps WWF contains Bret Hart's rookie card. After 1987 Topps and WWF went separate ways for many years. In the early 1990s Merlin released WWF sets in Europe, and Fleer made WWF cards from 2001. The first kiss cards appeared in Fleer's wrestling sets. Topps returned in 2005, after Fleer closed down, with Topps WWE Heritage, and was then the only maker of official WWE cards up to and including 2021.

Panini became WWE's exclusive partner for trading cards and sticker packs from the first quarter of 2022, and the first product was 2022 WWE Prizm. As early as March 2022 WWE announced that Fanatics, which had bought Topps earlier the same year, would become the sole supplier of licensed WWE cards, with the Topps logo, once the existing rights had expired. On New Year's Day 2025 Topps announced a long-term agreement with WWE, and the first cards under the new agreement were released on 31 January 2025.

The first official AEW cards came from Upper Deck, which in July 2021 got the exclusive rights to the promotion's trading cards and memorabilia in a multi-year agreement.

What makes a wrestling card sought after

Among the most popular wrestling cards is 1982 Wrestling All-Stars, with Hulk Hogan's and Ric Flair's rookie cards. At first the set could only be bought through the magazine Wrestling News, and the key cards are rare, especially in high graded condition. Some of Hogan's first mass-produced cards came in 1985 Topps WWF. Collectors disagree on whether the rookie card is the very first card or the first licensed card with wide distribution, so in wrestling it is not always clear which card counts.

Collectors prefer an autograph signed directly on the card to a sticker attached to it. Kiss cards have been among the most popular cards of female wrestlers since they started. Numbered parallels are printed in far fewer copies than the base cards, and the rarest are numbered 1 of 1.

Which product should you buy

In the Topps WWE series the hobby box has signed cards in every box. Value box and mega box are retail formats with fewer cards and their own parallels that are not found in the hobby box. Upper Deck instead gives an average for the hobby box, where a signed card can be replaced by a relic card or a rare parallel. The difference between the channels is explained in the guide on hobby or retail.

Try the category	Value box or mega box
Chase autographs	Hobby box of Topps Chrome WWE or Topps Universe WWE
Chase parallels	Upper Deck Allure AEW, hobby box
Collect AEW	Upper Deck AEW, hobby box or blaster
Collect one wrestler	Singles, instead of opening packs against the odds

Common mistakes

A value box is not a smaller hobby box. The retail formats have their own parallels, and at Topps signed cards in every box belong to the hobby box. At Upper Deck the signed card is an average and not a guarantee for every box. If you buy an early card as a rookie card, you should know which card collectors count, and a base card should not be compared with a numbered parallel of the same wrestler.

Frequently asked questions

Who makes the WWE cards? Topps took back the licence in 2025, after Panini had held it from 2022.
Who makes the AEW cards? Upper Deck got the exclusive rights to AEW's trading cards in July 2021.
What does NXT mean in the checklist? NXT is WWE's development brand, where wrestlers train before they move up to the main roster on Raw or SmackDown. A rookie card of a wrestler from there can be listed as NXT RC.
What is a kiss card? A card the wrestler has kissed, so that the lip print stays on it.
How are new wrestlers marked in the AEW cards? Upper Deck AEW has its own group in the base set, First UD, for well-known wrestlers who appear in the series for the first time. You can read more about rookie cards in the rookie card guide.

How to read a wrestling card

The markings are in the checklist, where Topps gives the brand for each wrestler. In 2017 Topps WWE there was also a separate marking for the wrestler's first NXT card.

Series name	Shows the promotion, such as Topps Chrome WWE or Upper Deck AEW
Year	The year of the set is in the name. The edition can be released the following year.
Brand	Raw, SmackDown or NXT, and Legend for legends
Card number	Numbers on the base cards, a letter code on signed cards and relic cards
Numbering	Printed print run, such as /50, and 1/1 for a single copy

Starting to collect wrestling cards

Choose a promotion first, WWE or AEW. The cards come from different manufacturers.
Open a value box or mega box to see what a series looks like before you buy a hobby box.
Learn the RC and First UD markings before you sort.
Put the cards you want to keep in penny sleeves as soon as you open them.