Box Break: TNA Impact 2009 Edition & Maximum

I’ve been a wrestling fan for most of my life. World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment has been there all of those years, but for the most part I’ve never been a big fan of the main event stars that WWE likes to shove down your throats. I couldn't stand Hulk Hogan and his title reign that lasted for years. I’m not a big fan of HHH. The exceptions have been Don Muraco, Bret Hart, The Rock, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and John Cena. For the most part, those are all high charisma guys who made wrestling entertaining. the WWE likes to push the big brawlers whether they are entertaining or not. I guess that’s why I’ve always easily strayed to other wrestling federations.

What drew me to TNA was their X Division. They had a group of highly talented cruiserweight wrestlers (plus Samoa Joe) who did things in the ring that you’d never see in a WWE ring. AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Chris Saban, Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal and others drew people to TNA who wanted to see great action in the ring. It helps that TNA hasn’t tried to produce a G rated product like the WWE does these days. The WWE would never allow anything along the lines of a finisher called the Flying Firecrotch Guillotine. Heck, they changed the name of John Cena’s finisher from the F.U. to the Attitude Adjuster. Lame.

That’s it for the wrestling history. I’m sure that people aren’t coming here for that. You’re here for sports cards and here are some sports entertainment cards for your viewing pleasure. I had a bit of a brain fart on Black Friday and ended up ordering one of each type of TNA Impact box from BlowoutCards. That means that I’ve got a whopping 10 hits to present to you. Things will start off a little slow, but I promise that they’ll pick up at the end.

Each box contains one glitter parallel numbered to 20. I got Christopher Daniels and family. Daniels himself hadn’t appeared on TNA programming for a while after getting fired in a story line, but he wrestled as both Curry Man and Suicide during the time that he was away. When he came back, he was turned heel and is now feuding with longtime friend and TNA Champion AJ Styles.

I’m not sure what these numbered cards go for, but I’m willing to guess that this might be one of the cheapest low numbered paralleled sets to put together. No one is looking for these cards when they bust these boxes and I don’t think that the demand for them is very high.

Doug Williams autograph numbered to 60. Imagine if a sports card company came out with a set where you got three autographs per box and each one was numbered to 60 or less. That would be the most popular set ever don’t you think? Do the autographs on-card and collectors would flip. Scrub autographs wouldn’t look so bad if they were numbered to 60. Speaking of scrub autographs, I present to you this here Doug Williams card.

Daffney autograph numbered to 60. I’ve been a fan of Daffney’s ever since she was in WCW as David Flair’s girlfriend.

TriStar has made these sets fun. They’ve had the wrestlers put a lot of inscriptions on the cards. Again, this is something that’s a huge deal when it comes to mainstream sports cards. Heck, you have to pay more for inscriptions these days when you get an autograph at a card show. Daffney is known for the screams that she unleashes during matches and added the inscription “Scream Queen” to this card.

ODB/Cody Deaner dual autograph numbered to 60. Deaner was brought into TNA as the “winner” of a contest to go on a date with ODB. They were a couple for a while with Deaner managing ODB until they got into a feud over who was the true TNA Knockouts Champion. Yeah… It’s probably for the best that Deaner hasn’t been seen on TNA programming for a while now. Dual autographs. Something else that’s huge in mainstream cards.
Next up is what I pulled out of the Maximum box numbered 9/600 (The regular box was 1012/1800). My parallel card from this box was a little disappointing. It looks exactly like the base version of the card. Not that I’m a huge fan of the glitter that’s all over the inserts, but I want there to be something different if it is going to be a parallel.

This caricature of Mick Foley (Tweak) and Jeremy Borash (Tweet) came from a segment where Foley was talking about how he tweaked matches and Borash Tweeted about it. Yeah, the writing and backstage stuff in TNA isn’t all that great, but the in-ring action more than makes up for it.

Madison Rayne autograph numbered to 60. I now have autographs from two members of The Beautiful People (the other being Velvet Sky). This card shows one of the many bad things about sticker autographs. Stickers are small and autographs can run off of them. That happens at the bottom of this sticker, but don’t worry because at the top of the sticker you’ll find run-off from the sticker above. Another cool inscription can be found on this card.

Matt Morgan autograph numbered to 60. TNA has done a great job building up Matt Morgan into a main event superstar. He’s the type of wrestler that you’d expect to see Vince McMahon drooling over, but WWE passed up on him. If he decides to stick with TNA, “The Blue Print” will be one of their top stars for years to come. Again I’ll mention what if any mainstream sports set had this many inscriptions in it.

ODB Kiss Card numbered to 99. Maximum boxes guarantee one kiss card per box. There are plain kiss cards as well as cards with both lip prints and an autograph. I think there are also dual kiss cards. The card gods decided that this would be an ODB box break since I now have an autograph and lip print from her. ODB started off as more of a comical wrestler which made her popular with the fans. She’s a multiple time TNA Knockout Champion and is entertaining to watch.

Jeff Jarrett/Mick Foley dual autograph numbered to 25. Talent wise, this was the best card in the box. Both of these guys are wrestling legends. Jeff Jarrett was a star in both WWF/E and WCW before founding TNA. Foley and his various personalities have won titles all over the world and have made multiple appearances on the New York Times Best Sellers list. I don’t think there are many cards better than this one available to pull.

Danny Bonaduce autograph numbered to 10. I put this card last mostly due to the fact that it is numbered to just 10 copies. I’m not sure how much of a market there is out there for autographs of this former Partridge Family star. It looks like there were autographed buybacks included in Topps American Pie.

TriStar seems to have a bit of a problem with collation. While I did get a full set out of the regular box, I was 8 cards short of a set from the Maximum box. This is the second time in three boxes that I didn’t get a full set from a TriStar product. Good luck finding singles of stuff like this. Ripping open a box and ending up short of a set really can take the fun out of opening a box such as this due to the lack of available singles.

The design and quality of pictures on these cards are a huge improvement over the last TNA set that I opened, Cross The Line. One or two insert sets would break things up a little bit, but might increase the collation issues. It would be great if TriStar were able to get some on-card autos. It wouldn’t be difficult at all since TNA is headquartered at Universal Studios in Florida. Just send an employee or two there with some cards to be signed and get it done. These inscriptions were look even better if they weren’t crowded onto a small sticker along with the autograph. I don’t mind the absence of relic cards. I don’t feel like they add a whole lot to the WWE sets especially since they started putting a ton of mats pieces into cards. Yawn.

I would give this set a B overall. I would give my regular box a C and the Maximum box an A-.

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