Even before Topps officially announced its new multiyear partnership with WWE, wrestling fans and collectors were anticipating the return of a digital app that was archived in 2021.
On December 27, 2024, the official Topps WWE SLAM: Card Trader X account posted, “From the top rope! Topps WWE SLAM will be back and better than ever in early 2025! Get ready to experience the official WWE digital trading card app like never before on your quest to build the ultimate WWE Superstar collection!”
And (many) SLAM fans rejoiced.
Topps WWE SLAM: Card Trader is a digital trading card app where fans can create an account and buy, collect, and trade digital trading cards of WWE superstars and legends. It’s free to create an account, and you can purchase packs of cards using free daily coin bonuses, but in-app purchases are also available (and highly promoted within the app).
Some may think this sounds like NFTs, but it’s not, because SLAM users don’t actually own the digital cards on their accounts, and they can’t sell them, without violating the app’s terms of service. Unlike NFTs, they aren’t advertised as an investment. Users can only open packs, collect, and trade their digital cards with other SLAM accounts within the parameters of the app, and if the app goes away, like it did in December 2021, users lose access to most of the app’s functions.
As I alluded to in a previous article about the latest Topps WWE partnership, I had a challenging relationship with SLAM in the past. In the essay “To BUNT, or not to BUNT” (Topps BUNT is the baseball version of this app), published in my book Things You Never Knew Existed, I wrote about my addiction to digital trading card apps, and how what began as a fun, free hobby turned into a time consuming and costly obsession, which really didn’t end until I deleted all digital trading card apps from my assorted electronic devices, and then SLAM was archived in 2021, prior to the WWE trading card license moving from Topps to Panini.
Well, SLAM is back, and I’m happy to try it again, but with some self-restraint this time.
The app officially returned, to new and past users, on January 21, 2025, and I had the app queued up on my phone the morning of the launch of SLAM 25.
I used my Facebook account to link to SLAM, and it restored my account, but it wasn’t the account I had previously used. Instead, it was an account and username I had previously used for Topps’ Star Wars digital trading card app, so it registered as a new SLAM account, with the username of JARJAR4LIFE (as in Jar Jar Binks), so add me as a friend if you want to trade some cards.
This definitely wasn’t my SLAM account (or my main SLAM account), but I decided I’d worry about that later, because once I was in my new SLAM account, I was at least able to find and become friends with my prior SLAM account, and look at all of the digital WWE trading cards I hadn’t seen since 2021. After all, I never truly owned them, so looking at them this way was nearly as satisfying as seeing them in my new account.
As for the new app, or the new layout of the app, it’s busier than I remembered.
Granted, Topps has continued to develop digital trading card apps for baseball, as well as Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney, so it’s not really a new app layout, it’s just new to SLAM, and I haven’t accessed their other apps for several years, so I’m behind the times.
The stars of SLAM are Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, and Rhea Ripley, so their likenesses are all over the app.
A few new features of SLAM 25 are the arcade, mystery boxes, and events.
The arcade is like a roulette game with various prizes in each section of the wheel, with prizes being free WWE cards and coins, while mystery boxes are free packs of cards. Mystery boxes and arcade wheel spins are replenished on a timed basis, so after you use them up, you have to wait for them to refill, but this is a fun and free way to bulk up your collection.
According to Topps Digital Support, events are “tasks that allow you to earn extra Coins, Credits, and other content by simply completing various in-app activities. They’re a great way to boost your progress and get rewards!”
The main attraction, though, are the WWE digital cards. BUNT 25 has an all-new set of cards, its first new set of base cards since 2021, so the roster looks quite a bit different than it did last time around.
The base cards themselves look good, with big bright in-ring photographs and simple, yet colorful borders, and come in an array of “tiers” of rarity. The design isn’t the same as what’s scheduled to be released in-stores later this month with 2025 Topps Chrome WWE, so the variety of SLAM is always something to look forward to.
Free base cards are only desirable for so long, though. The real attraction is always the inserts.
As of the day of release, the only packs of cards available to purchase are packs of base cards, but I’m sure the limited inserts and digital autographs are coming soon. That’s how Topps gets people to buy more coins and diamonds, the other in-app currency purchased with real-life dollars.
I’m determined, this time around, to not make any in-app purchases, and only collect what I can buy with free coins, or trade with fellow app users. Topps WWE SLAM: Card Trader was, and hopefully is, a fun app, and I look forward to seeing what they create this time around, with the aid of the new Topps WWE partnership.
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