It’s my favorite time of the year. The leaves are changing colors, temperatures are cooling, Halloween is around the corner, and we have a new set of Upper Deck AEW wrestling cards. The year 2024 marks the start of the fourth year of the partnership between Upper Deck and AEW, and as I’ve said before, I think it’s been an excellent partnership, so far. Even though we’re just now getting the first set of 2024 Upper Deck AEW wrestling cards in the fall of the year, it’s par for the course for wrestling cards, considering that 2024 Panini Prizm WWE just came out in August, so Upper Deck AEW isn’t too far behind.
2024 Upper Deck AEW Wrestling officially released on September 18, 2024, and since then I have bought into a couple box breaks of the product, but just this past weekend, Upper Deck provided me with a complimentary box of cards to review for SlamWrestling.net, which I’m excited to share here.
This year’s set of cards features a similar configuration to previous releases, including a 100-card base set, which breaks down into 70 single wrestlers, 20 tag teams and trios, and 10 crew cards, including announcers, managers, and referees, and each hobby box includes 12 packs of 12 cards, including one autograph, relic, or “tech” card, and a variety of parallels and inserts.
While I’d already seen some of these cards on social media, prior to opening my own box of cards, I was yet to see them in person, but now that I’ve held them in-hand, I can say with confidence that this is the best looking set of Upper Deck AEW flagship cards that they’ve made. While 2021 will always be a sentimental favorite, because it was their first year of cards, Upper Deck and AEW have continued to make improvements on these cards, and 2024 is the peak of their collaboration.
In a number of ways, I’m a superstitious fellow, so when I open a box of cards, I tend to see the first pack of cards as an omen of things to come, and I couldn’t have been happier with my first pack of 2024 Upper Deck AEW Wrestling. My first card of the pack, and the box, was a Kris Statlander base card. This gave me my first in-person look at the latest design of these cards, and I think they knocked it out of the park. It’s clean, crisp, and with sharp photography. I really like the lower border and the placement of the AEW and Upper Deck logos, and the nameplates are the perfect readable size and font. A few cards in, I pulled a base card of RJ City, who finally has his first AEW trading card (but still no All Elite logo, wink wink). Then I pulled the biggest card of the pack, an MJF Outburst parallel. This is a new parallel design for 2024, which falls at about one per hobby box, and it looks incredible. After this, I pulled a Saraya Stepping Into the Ring insert, a Matthew Jackson Dazzlers, and a base card of Willow Nightingale, so it was an excellent first pack of cards.
My second pack began with a tag team card of Darby Allin and “Joker” Sting (pretty cool), then a gold parallel of Jon Moxley, and then I pulled two inserts new to this year’s set, a Darby Allin Retouched card, and a Cash Wheeler Gaming Card. I can’t quite tell what the theme of the Retouched set might be, but the Gaming Cards are in the style of a trading card game (TCG) card, with rounded corners and skill points, similar to a Pokemon card. It seems this set replaced last year’s Double or Nothing playing cards, which was my favorite insert from last year.
In pack three I pulled a Pyro parallel of the Death Triangle trio, featuring PAC and the Lucha Bros, and after that came a couple more new inserts, a Jon Moxley Heroes and Heroines insert and a Jay White We Are Global insert. The Heroes and Heroines insert is styled like a comic book cover, which I enjoy, as a comic book collector myself. Later in the pack, I pulled a base card of Roderick Strong, which was upside down for seemingly no reason, and was a little misleading, because an upside down card is like the universal sign for a hit, so I initially expected it to be an autograph or something like that.
In my next pack I pulled a “Hangman” Adam Page gold parallel and really noticed how well the gold parallel stands out this year. They’ve always been good, but in previous years, I feel they were sometimes a little muted, while this time the gold foil really pops. After this, I pulled a Darby Allin Heroes and Heroines insert, a Danhausen Gaming Card, and just a great looking Darby Allin base card.
Pack five included a Billie Starkz base card, which is notable because it’s her first AEW card, which some may call her rookie card, even though she has a variety of independent wrestling cards. Still, it’s her first AEW card, so congratulations to Billie Starkz! Next, I pulled a Bryce Remsburg gold parallel, a Ruby Soho Steel Cage parallel numbered out of 249, and a Wardlow and Christian Cage poster insert card, which is another cool new insert this year.
My sixth pack included a base card of Adam Copeland, his first pack-pulled AEW card, a Konusuke Takeshita Pyro parallel, a Ricky Starks Heroes and Heroines insert, a Satnam Singh Dazzlers insert, and a tag team card of the Hardys. This pack was sort of a reminder of some of the talent who are no longer with AEW, or are who are rumored to be departing, which is a reality for trading cards, in general. On the one hand, you have the first AEW cards of talent like Billie Starkz and Adam Copeland, but on the other hand, you have cards of talent who have left the company, like the Hardys.
Halfway through my hobby box of 2024 Upper Deck AEW Wrestling, I still hadn’t pulled my one “hit” of the box, so the biggest card so far was still probably the MJF Outburst parallel, but with six packs to go, I still had a bunch of wrestling cards to look forward to.
Pack seven started off strong, with a Will Ospreay base card, followed by a Manager card of Prince Nana, mid-dance, then I pulled a Butcher and Blade gold tag team card, a Serena Deeb Canvas insert, and a Darby Allin Total Access card. This box has definitely featured a plethora of Darby Allin cards.
In the next pack, I pulled a Mariah May, her first pack-pulled AEW card (aka her “rookie”), an MJF Heroes and Heroines insert, a “Hangman” Dazzlers insert, and a Malakai Black Gaming Card.
Pack nine and ten highlights included an Adam Copeland Pyro parallel, an FTR Canvas insert, a Satnam Singh Heroes and Heroines, Samoa Joe Canvas, and a Chris Jericho Heroes and Heroines.
In my eleventh pack of the box, I pulled a Bryce Remsburg Steel Cage parallel numbered out of 249 (my second parallel of him), and a Taya Valkyrie Acetate Debut card. Acetate cards are considered a “tech” card, therefore this was my one guaranteed hit of the box, and while I really like acetate cards, and I like Taya, this would definitely be seen as a minor hit, relatively speaking.
In my twelfth and final pack of 2024 Upper Deck AEW Wrestling, I pulled a Claudio gold parallel, a Nick Wayne Canvas card, and a Chris Jericho and Bryan Danielson poster insert card numbered out of 249, which was a good way to end the box.
Overall, I really liked this box of cards. In terms of value, as in monetary value, I didn’t pull anything that would recoup the cost of a box of cards, but that’s alright with me, because my goal isn’t to sell these, it’s to add them to my collection of AEW cards. If reselling was my goal, as it is with some, I might be disappointed by a Taya Valkyrie Acetate card for my “hit,” but I don’t think that’s ever been the priority for Upper Deck AEW cards, and I like that. The 2024 Upper Deck AEW Wrestling set isn’t for breakers or flippers, it’s for fans and collectors, and I think AEW fans will be very happy with this set. I know I am.
RELATED LINK
