WWF Wrestlemania marks Fleer’s first attempt at producing a wrestling set and it’s got as mixed a reaction as any match between William Regal and Chris Jehrico. The set has its merits, but its also got some major problems.
In Fleer’s attempt to capture the loud WWF attitude, it created a very loud and not very attractive base card. While the focused photography is particularly strong for a wrestling set, all the logos and graphics are a little much. The names are too big and many of the colors clash. It kind of reminds me of 1990 Score baseball.
The 100-card base set is broken down into four sections: 60 superstars, 10 divas, 10 tag teams and 20 Wrestlemania rewind cards taking highlights from the first 16 pay-per-view spectaculars. The WWF roster is covers the locker room, featuring big names like the Rock, HHH and Kurt Angle, to such jabronis as Gangrel, Pete Gas and Mae Young. The divas showoff their pretty smiles and other assets, while the tag team subset highlights the best of the federation’s pairings. The best cards come from Wrestlemania rewind. Maybe I’m a little partial because there is not only one, but two card featuring one of my favorites, Mr.T. Wrestlemania rewind recreates many of the moments that made it the pay-per-view of the year.
The insert sets are a mixture of good, bad and utterly bizarre. Championship Gold represents your standard parallel set with a little gold logo in the top corner marking the only difference from the base card. The Rock is given a 15-card ego trip with the People’s Champ set. Current champion Stone Cold Steve Austin gives his take on 15 federation superstars in Stone Cold Said So. Signature Moves showcases 15 of the best finishers, with a autographed parallel set serial numbered out of 500 is also offered. Foreign Objects is an event-used set with swatches from clothing featured stars won on their way to the ring for an actual match. WWF Wrestlemania features the most bizarre set ever made. Lip Service is a small take on autograph cards. Each card has been kissed by a WWF diva, bringing every fanboy a little bit closer to his wildest dreams.
I was happy to get a complete set out of the box I opened, even though I expected it with such a relatively small set. I fared pretty well with inserts, although I got nothing fancy. I pulled an extra Championship Gold. Each pack has either a Stone Cold Said So or People’s Champ card. They ran somewhat accordingly with one extra Rock card, and one Stone Cold card short. What really bothered me was that each and every Rock card had heavy chipping along the edges and many also had indents and scratches on the cards surface. I did luck out and get an extra Signature Moves card, even if it was Billy Gunn. It would have been nice to pull a Foreign Objects or auto. To break the tradition of Trader Crack’s, had I pulled a Lip Service it would have gone directly onto a certain auction site. I think you would too if you saw how much they go for.
Fleer does have some major improvements to make for future sets. A cleaner design would be a definite plus. Easier odds on the decent inserts would be nice as well, although that already has been taken care of as I have heard of a couple upcoming projects. While my box yielded nothing major, it did go according to the stated odds with a couple of minor bonuses. Overall, not bad but could definitely be better.
2001 Fleer WWF Wrestlemania Box Breakdown:
Packs per box: 28
Cards per pack: 7
Total cards: 199
Cards in set: 100
Singles: 100
Doubles: 61
Triples+: 0
Inserts: 38
- Championship Gold (1:4): 8 (17, 26, 28, 37, 50, 73, 86, 99)
- The People’s Champion ( 1:2): 15
- Stone Cold Said So (1:2): 13
- Signature Moves (1:24): 2 (13. Eddie Guerrero, 14. ‘The One’ Billy Gunn)
- Signature Moves Autographs (#/500): 0
- Foreign Objects (1:63): 0
- Lip Service (#/50): 0
