Legends Now and Then

 When it comes to AEW and stars with the company, MJF is likely the biggest home grown star they have. It would be interesting to see if he would have his legs cut out from under him if he were to end up with WWE, but I would expect that likely isn't going to happen any time soon.

He has a great presence, and I though that his work in Happy Gilmore 2 was solid enough, I could see him doing more in the acting realm, though I would suspect his focus will be mainly wrestling for a period to come. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's a good second career if he would want it to be when done with wrestling (see the transition a la John Cena or maybe Rock, though I think Rock started leaving a bit sooner).

Paul Wight would be a legend and did a fair bit of acting as well, though not nearly to the same level as a Rock or Cena. I will say, his one season show under his name was a nice sitcom, and is well worth the watch. Our family enjoyed it.

We end with a Sting gold parallel Main Features which is a great card, and highlights another legend. I have talked about how his WWE run wasn't anything near what he deserved, but at least he was able to wrap up decently in AEW. May not have been the biggest stage, but with his participation in Wrestlemania already done - whether considered good/bad/ugly, he had the experience, so I don't think Sting has much complaints about his career. I'd hope not - it was a pretty awesome one up and down.

Different Times

On to the next pack of 2022 Upper Deck AEW cards, and we continue the amazing streak of all new base cards - would love that trend to continue through the whole box as I'd get to over 70 cards of the base set in that case.

Just goes to show again, the importance to the individual wrestlers for having another option

 than WWE. It' good to have other employers out there to make for a better job market as we have seen Rey now move to WWE, Black went from WWE and now has gone back, Justin and Taz both had time in WWE.

Wonder where they would be if not for this option - maybe TNA, maybe indies, but AEW is a solid second right now (as WWE tried to help it become TNA instead by the looks of it).

The all new inserts:

 Wish Ruby was able to go the way that Liv did in WWE. If I were to have picked who would be most successful from Riot Squad, I would have hoped it to by Ruby, but Liv has definitely won in that regard as she tore it up the last couple years in WWE. Not a knock on her, or on Ruby, Ruby has been fine, just didn't catch fire the way Liv did.

Another really great pack out of this box - love it!

A Bit More Normal

We get into the second pack of 2022 AEW Upper Deck cards from the blaster today, and another good sign to start as all of these...

Are new base card additions for me. These get me to 41 of 100 - yay, and include Adam Cole Bay-Bay. A shame for the time needed to step away for medical reasons in 2025, but I'd rather see him step away and take care of himself than put him in harm's way in the ring.

Funny to also see Miro and Andrade who have both since made their way back to WWE since these cards came out in 2022.

Inserts, well, we have three of those as we are back to the 8 cards per pack since yesterday had just the seven due to the slightly thicker Powerhouse card in that pack.

Another gold parallel which is new to me, an Outside The Ring insert which fall every 10 packs, so that's likely the one for this box, and the UD Canvas Keith Lee is actually a short print, though the Canvas cards fall every 5 packs in general.

Still wish Keith had a better go in WWE, but it is what it is - I gather he has been happy with his run in AEW.

Definitely a solid second pack here, just hope to keep the momentum!

A Powerhouse Start

This is my second blaster box to open of 2022 AEW Upper Deck and I am hoping we will be able to continue on with the base set build and maybe get a few additional sweet inserts on the way. In the first box, picked up about 1/3 of the 100 card base set, so hopefully over the halfway mark when this one is done.

I must say, the box and pack are very good for the product, I like them, and hopefully will like what's inside as well!

We start with all new for me base cards - a great start, and specifically Powerhouse Hobbs. After spending about a decade on the independents, he came to AEW in 2020, and by 2022 he was a mainstay in the company and his powerhouse style was doing him well. Fast forward to 2025, and he is still with the company and continues to make an impact.

I'd normally focus on the gold Jericho parallel or the MJF Main Features cards as these are both great, new for me inserts, but the Powerhouse Breakouts card is likely the big hit from the box. With the odds for these cards being one per 72 packs, likely not going to top this one. There are some shorter print ones, like CM Punk, which are more rare to pick up, but I'm good with this one - awesome pull and a great first pack from the blaster!

Is Current Better?

Though I still have a couple of the older Dollarama hockey card surprise bags, here is one of the more recent ones.

As you can see, the price is up to $3 when the old bags were $2. Does an increase in price mean an increase in quality? Probably not, but let's see.

Won't complain about the plastic container, but no score for it. As for the cards, let's see...

Nice to see an SP Authentic card, but at least Miller is a base card add.

Here is where we have everything no so good with these products. First, the math isn't matching as there were only 4 cards, not the 5 promised. Put with this the fact that these packs will be where all the high production year cards will show up - it's why the price is high for the cards.

Well, this pack makes it all worthwhile. Not only do I get another base card add, not only do I get a Leaf card with Cujo, we get an on card autograph of Larry Murphy!

It's a great auto, and the gold parallel auto cards in 1998-99 Be A Player is even more rare as they were "randomly inserted" though no specific pack odds. You did get an auto in every pack in the product, and golds were likely one per box or so - every 8 packs, but it was definitely a product I never opened at the price point of almost $10 a pack. Yeah, that use to be expensive.

I don't think I have ever pulled an auto from any version of these packs before so - a great way to end, and that one card at least makes the surprise bag worth the purchase.

Hard to go by any other odds than p[ack odds for the signature card, so suffers a bit being from a higher end product, but a fair score all around and a nice surprise for what it was.

A Trade With Coachnfisher

 As the name suggests, we have a quick PWE trade with TCDB member coachnfisher. He was working on completing 2020 and 2021 Topps flagship sets so we did a flagship Trade and I got these:

They don't all have to be big or flashy trades. This one gets me 3 cards closer on the 2021 set, and that works awesomely for me!

No surprise they were three more missing rookie cards as the last card lot purchase provided almost all the base set save for the Rookies which were generally all plucked out.

A Better End

 Last two packs of 2018 Topps Opening Day baseball for today...

A solid enough first pack with a nice Bellinger insert.

Second pack...

We end up with 5 more base cards to get to about 30 left in the base set.

The blue and dated Opening Day parallel Banda have a 2018 print run, and fall one every 9 packs, so one in this blaster tracks well.

Still some work to get through this base set, but this box brought me a bit closer, just a shame I didn't get the Ohtani rookie.

A fair ending place for the box compared to the rest of the openings this year.