By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

In Brief: Paul Heyman has been featured on wrestling cards since 1991.

Card Show #42: Paul Heyman

Paul Heyman has been WWE’s MVP over the last several months. He has been responsible for at least one captivating segment on an otherwise dull three-hour Raw week after week. Given his amazing performances on Raw and the popularity of his recent WWE DVD documentary, many longtime fans have put Heyman in the discussion with Bobby Heenan and Jim Cornette for greatest pro wrestling manager of all-time.

Heyman has had a loyal cult-like following for decades, as the leader of the Dangerous Alliance in WCW, the evil genius behind ECW, and the mouthpiece for Brock Lesnar in WWE. While kids who pull a Heyman trading card from a pack of a Topps WWE product may sneer, there are plenty of fans looking to add Heyman’s cardboard to their collections.

Heyman – as Paul E. Dangerously – first appeared on a licensed trading card set in 1991. He was featured on several cards in the WCW Collectible Trading Cards set from Championship Marketing. These cards were released in mid- to late-1991 and are centered around WCW in 1990 and early-’91, such as Sting’s first World Title win at the Great American Bash.




The cards are designed with a black and gold border around a color photo, and some of the worst captions you’ll ever see on a trading card. Card #23, pictured with this column, is labeled “Paul E. With Mouth Open.” Card #71 shows Heyman at ringside with his trusty mobile phone in hand, and reads quite simply, “Telephone.” Heyman is also featured on cards 48 (with Arn Anderson and Ric Flair), 51, and 88.

The 1991 WCW cards from Championship Marketing, like most trading cards from the early-‘90s, were mass produced and therefore carry little value. If you find a guy selling packs of old trading cards at a local flea market, there’s a good chance he probably has a few boxes of these lying around.

Heyman’s cards typically only sell for a dollar or two each. However, as more wrestling collectors are embracing the term “rookie card” and searching for a wrestler’s earliest trading card, there is some interest in graded cards from this set. A Heyman #23 graded PSA 9 recently sold for $29.99 on eBay.

Heyman first popped up on WWE cards from Fleer in 2002. By then the wrestling war was over; WCW and ECW were no more, and Heyman was managing a young Brock Lesnar. He appeared on a handful of Fleer cards through 2004, but then disappeared from WWE trading cards for a decade. Topps began making WWE cards in 2005, but even when WWE re-launched ECW in 2006, Heyman was left out.

Heyman returned to WWE in 2012 as the “advocate” for the returning Brock Lesnar, and by 2013 had made his return to WWE trading cards as well. In fact, Heyman’s two best cards are found in Topps’s WWE products from 2013.




The 2013 Topps WWE: Triple Threats product includes Heyman’s first memorabilia card. WWE cut up one of Heyman’s suit jackets and inserted pieces into the cards. These Heyman cards were hot items when they first hit the secondary market in early 2013, but quickly cooled off when an abundance of them began popping up. Heyman’s 2013 relic card typically sells in the $5-10 range.

Topps released Best of WWE in late-2013, a product that featured the first certified Paul Heyman autograph. Heyman has signed a few plaques for WWE, but his signature certainly isn’t an abundant one. There are usually only a couple of these cards offered on eBay at any given time, usually in the $30-40 range. If you’re patient enough for one to pop up on auction, you might be able to get one for closer to $20.

- Note to readers: Thanks to all of the readers who sent in emails and direct messages over the last couple weeks. I will be responding to those messages as soon as possible.

PWTorch Collectibles Specialist Michael Moore can be reached at michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MMooreWriter .

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