My Top 10 Card Acquisitions of 2025

I acquired 314 Bryan Danielson cards in 2025, second most since my earliest recorded purchase in 2012. And I definitely picked up a lot of cool cards.

Although cards from these sets didn't make the list, 2025 Upper Deck AEW Skybox Metal Universe and SP Game Used AEW produced great looking Danielsons. The flagship set had nice inserts, but the base design left a lot to be desired.

I thought it'd be cool to drill down on the Top Ten Danielson cards I acquired this year. These aren't necessarily the best looking or most valuable; mainly the cards that have had the biggest impact on my collection or those with great sentimental value.

Honorable Mention 2024 Upper Deck AEW Allure In Action - Green Quartz, 45/99

This was a completely unexpected gift from a coworker. I chipped in to his honeymoon fund as a wedding gift. When he returned to the office in November, he handed me a Thank You card. I didn't open it immediately. He finished microwaving his breakfast in the kitchenette adjacent to my office, poked his head in, and said, "You probably already have that one but it kept popping up in my eBay." Confused, I opened the envelope and inside the Thank You card was the Green Quartz parallel of the In Action insert. I count every different serial number as a unique card so, while I did already have a copy of this parallel, I technically didn't have this exact card. I considered displaying the card in my office but OCD tendencies creep up on me once in a while and I had to store it with the rest of my collection.

The 2024 Allure set ranks high on my list of favorites. I enjoy the design, and the cards look amazing in person. While the In Action design itself is on the weaker side, the photo is awesome: Danielson kicking Will Ospreay's fucking head in during the main event of Dynasty 2024. Ospreay isn't visible, but referee Bryce Remsburg can be seen looking on in shock. Great match, great photo, great card.

#10 2015 Topps WWE Road to WrestleMania Authentic Mat Relic - Red, 1/1

I scored the Turnbuckle Pad Relic parallel (for lack of a better term) a few years ago, and already owned a couple of the printing plates as well as the base and other parallels, so it was nice to see this card pop up in April.

Topps made an interesting choice with the picture: Daniel Bryan with his arms folded looking menacing, even though he was still in his ultra-smiley "Yes! Yes! Yes!" phase. This photo also made it onto nearly all of his 2014 action figure boxes.

The mat swatch itself is from WrestleMania 31, in which Bryan won the six-man ladder match, claiming the Intercontinental Championship. Four fun facts about that result, if you're into trivia:

1. Bryan completed WWE's Grand Slam (WWE/World, Tag Team, US, and Intercontinental titles) with the victory.
   

2. He became the first wrestler to go from the opener to the main event then back to the opener in consecutive WrestleManias, after having competed in both the first and last matches of WrestleMania XXX in 2014. Bret Hart did the opposite in 1993-94, going from the WrestlMania IX main event to the first and last matches of WrestleMania X. A notable difference: Bryan won all of three of his matches, Hart only won one.
   

3. It was Bryan's fifth WrestleMania, and he competed for a title at each one. Only John Cena has a longer such streak (a title was on the line in his first eight WrestleMania matches.
   

4. Bryan was the third wrestler to compete for the original WWE Triple Crown (WWE, World Tag Team, and Intercontinental Titles) at WrestleMania, joining Hart and Hulk Hogan.
   

Bryan had a few really good matches after winning the Intercotinental Title, most famously against Dolph Ziggler, but injuries forced him to relinquish it a month later. He would retire temporarily the next February.

#9 2024 Upper Deck AEW Black Diamond Exquisite - Black, 1/1

AEW 1/1s go for ridiculous prices. Their collector base seems to consist primarily of people who started collecting during the COVID boom and tried to get in on the ground floor of becoming "super collectors" of the brand itself or various AEW talent. The products are flooded with disappointing hits (referees, announcers, Nyla Rose), so scalpers have to dump a lot of money to get anything noteworthy to resell and try to recoup their "investment". Those two factors cause insane premiums on low-numbered cards. I tend to stay away from Danielson's AEW 1/1s unless I can get them for a relatively decent price, and this one kind of fell into my lap.

I'd like to say I own this rainbow, but I don't. The green /5 was listed for roughly $100 more than the 1/1 until it disappeared a few weeks later.

#8 2011 Topps WWE Classic blank back, 1/1

I love Topps blank backs. Though they had been releasing baseball blank backs since the late 2000s, this is, as far as I know, the first WWE blank back release. I haven't been able to find any 2010 or 2011 flagship copies, at least. Originally released exclusively on eBay under the Topps Vault banner, these are essentially proof cards.

Blank backs have a soft spot in my skull because my first two Bryan 1/1s were blank backs. Additionally, the 2011 Classic Daniel Bryan may be my favorite release in terms of design. More on that later.

#7 2023 Upper Deck AEW 2022 UD Canvas Buyback Auto, 9/10

Just like I love a good blank back, I love a good buyback.

And, no, there isn't a typo in the title.

The 2022 UD Canvas insert depicts Danielson rearing back to punch Dustin Rhodes in their World Title Eliminator Tournament match in the fall of 2021. It was a good match, and Danielson would go on to win the tournament. The card is printed on a canvas texture that, as you can probably assume, feels like a mat canvas.

Ten copies were re-released in December 2024, signed and hand-numbered in gold, as part of the 2023 flagship set's ePack achievements. Collectors who acquired the five-card Champions Achievement set could redeem it for a buyback auto.

#6 2011 Topps WWE Superstar Swatches - Red, 1/1

One seller listed seven or eight Bryan 1/1s in August 2013 and I ended up winning six of them. One that eluded me finally came home twelve years later.

Aside from most of the printing plates, the only cards I'm missing from 2011 are the red 1/1 base and Ringside Relics, both from that year's flagship set.

#5 2016 Topps WWE Heritage - Red, 1/1

I went on a bit of a 1/1 tear last spring purchasing three WWE reds, three printing plates, and one AEW Black between April 14 and May 22. This one arrived a week after the aforementioned Superstar Swatches 1/1.

After his first retirement in February 2016, Bryan was left off that year's main flagship set and relegated to the "WWE Legends" section in the back half of that year's Heritage set.

It was nice to add this to my collection, but slightly jarring to have tracked down the red 1/1 before the gold /10.

#4 Extreme Rules 2019 DVD Promo

Once, maybe twice, a year, just when I thought I knew of every Danielson card in existence, I'll randomly discover another. And it's usually a promo card. These were predominantly packaged with DVDs in the mid-to-late 2010s. While the base version of most promos are widely known among collectors, the parallels tend to fly under the radar of most checklists.

Last year, I discovered a silver version of the 2015 flagship Daniel Bryan promo, as well as an autographed version of the card exclusive to Extreme Rules 2019 DVDs. I was able to snag a copy of the former. The auto still eludes me, but I did track down an unsigned bronze parallel last year, and the blue last month. I was standing inside Target, waiting for my girlfriend, scrolling eBay, when I saw it. I bought it immediately.

This promo isn't for any specific set, just Topps WWE cards in general. Like all promo cards from that year, it does feature the same design as 2019 Road to WrestleMania, despite being released months after.

I suspect there are bronze and blue parallels of the auto as well (I own a blue Miz auto, numbered to 50), but I'm not confident enough to add them to my own checklists.

#3 2024 Upper Deck AEW

Aesthetically, this is an unremarkable card. The photo isn't the worst that Upper Deck has used, but the design itself is boring.

This particular copy, however, has a lot of sentimental value. My girlfriend and I took a road trip down to Arlington, Texas this past July to participate in a pro photo opp with Bryan Danielson. It was my first time meeting him. If I were to split my collection into BCE (before current era of having met Danielson) and AD (after meeting Danielson), this would be the very last BCE card I acquired.

Upper Deck was doing a wrapper redemption program as part of the Starrcast Texas convention: buy a few hobby packs, get a pack of exclusive cards. I bought five hobby packs of 2024 flagship, and I pulled this Danielson. To everyone else, it's just a base card. To me, it's a card that I pulled of my favorite wrestler, a thousand miles from home, while waiting nervously for my first meeting with him.

Because of the sentimental value, I wanted the card slabbed. PSA gave it a grade of Gem Mint 10. To date, it's a pop 1: the only graded copy.

#2 2011 Topps WWE Classic - Gold

I had a hard time trying to decide whether to put this at #1 or #2.

This card had been near the top of my most wanted list ever since I found out it existed.

I've collected wrestling cards most of my life, starting with the 1990 Classic WWF Series II. My parents would take me to the PDQ convenience store a couple blocks away and let me get a pack or two. Some of my duplicates still have staples in them; I'd staple cards to sheets of loose leaf paper to create my own wrestling magazines.

That was the last mainstream WWE card set released domestically until 1998, when I was able to collect passionately again. My main focus switched to baseball in the early 2000s, but I would pick up a wrestling pack here and there, and would get a pack or two for Christmas each year. I switched back to wrestling in early 2012. I still remember the first Bryan card I pulled from a pack of 2011 Classic from the clearance end cap of the toys section at Target.

It's nearly impossible to tell the difference between the base (right) and gold (left) without taking a picture using flash.

The gold parallel isn't numbered, and the odds aren't too crazy (1:24 packs). The problem is, it's so hard to tell the difference between the base and the gold parallel. As difficult as it is in person, it's almost impossible to distinguish the two in photos. I've bought what was listed as a gold parallel on a few occasions, only to be disappointed once I received it. That finally changed on September 2 when I got my grubby little mits on this bad boy. It was my fifth most wanted card at the time.

#1 2020 Topps WWE Undisputed - Red, 1/1

The 2020 Undisputed set is another that holds a special spot in my heart. It was released two weeks after I bought my first home. I probably shouldn't have been buying as many cards after making such a life-changing purchase, but I've been known to drown my anxieties in cards.

Orange is my favorite color. At some point, I decided to try and collect every single orange Daniel Bryan card, beginning with 2020 Undisputed (even though he had orange cards in the two previous Undisputed sets). I have 16 of the 99 copies. Three of the five purple copies joined my collection in a nine-week span in the summer of 2021. So why stop there? I started buying as many green (4/50), blue (5/25), and gold (3/10) copies as I could find.

The red 1/1 didn't just complete a rainbow; it put me closer to achieving my goal of owning every single numbered 2020 Undisputed Daniel Bryan card. Granted, with less than 17% owned (32/190), I still have a long way to go.

But I really just like this design. The picture is nothing special but does remind me of a tweet I made that got a few likes. I mentioned how the shadows on Bryan's midsection make it look like he had a tattoo on his torso, if you squint your eyes a bit, and that if he had such a tattoo, it would probably read "Rad Dad".

Ultimate Custom Prizm Starrcast Meet and Greet 2025

After knocking it out of the park with The Bryan Danielson Merry Christmas Hobby Pack in 2024, Chelsea again got me an incredible, big surprise Danielson card-related Christmas gift.

As mentioned, we made a cross-country trek to participate in a professional photo op with Bryan Danielson. The hosts supplied physical and digital copies of the photo, and Chelsea had it made into a ruby red Prizm card. There are three copies, and I plan to get one signed by Danielson when the next opportunity arrives.

All in all, 2025 was a great year for The Bryan Danielson Super Collection. The Topps cards I need are popping up fewer and farther between. There are a handful listed on eBay for prices that I'm not interested in paying. But we'll see.

Here's to 2026 being another banner year in terms of Chasing the American Dragon.