YAHOO! SPORTS: 'It hasn’t even scratched the surface': Inside Topps and WWE's new trading card partnership

Weeks after shaking up the streaming landscape with its debut of "Monday Night Raw" on Netflix, WWE is altering the collectibles marketplace as it releases its first set of new trading cards in four years.

2025 Topps Chrome WWE, Friday's first release for the trading card and wrestling behemoths in their new licensing agreement, comes at a time where the world of collectibles — trading cards in particular — has exploded, with record-setting sales and statistics across all sports and interests.

Spurred in part by the pandemic in 2020, the majority of growth within the hobby has come from more traditional sports — MLB, NBA, NFL, etc. — but the combat sports cards niche (which includes wrestling) has grown immensely over the past few years. From 2020 to its peak in 2022, PSA saw a 1092% increase in combat cards submitted for grading. Even as sets dwindled and submissions slowed, 2024 still saw 25,436 cards graded — a higher total than any pre-2021 year on record…