One can count Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins as NXT alumni who have made an impact in the WWE.
Unfortunately, Panini’s NXT 2.0 set misses the mark in its debut like an errant dropkick.
At least that’s the impression I had after buying a blaster box.
The design is nice enough, and there are some familiar names. Where the blaster comes up short is in the amount of duplicate cards. Way too many. At least that was my experience. Perhaps other collectors had better luck.
That did not happen in my case.
all it bad luck, but I pulled 42 base cards and 31 duplicates. That is slightly more than two packs worth of doubles, and that is unacceptable.
On the plus side, I did pull 24 rookie cards in the base set.
I was also disappointed that I did not pull card No. 31, of Tony D’Angelo, but that’s a personal preference. I like the name.
The set focuses on current stars in the NXT 2.0 and the NXT UK promotions.
There are parallels too, of course. Panini advertised 12 inserts or parallels, and that goal was satisfied.
There were seven cards from the 25-card NXT Alumni short-printed subset. Cards I pulled from the blaster included Bliss, Reigns, Rollins and Bayley.
Inserts featured an All-Time NXT Highlights card of Rollins. This insert focuses on the promotion’s history.
Meanwhile, I pulled two cards from a 50-card insert set called 2021 NXT Highlights, and both cards were of Kushida.
ifferent cards and different highlights.
The 2021 NXT Highlights subset reviews some of the top moments in television and pay-per-view matches from last year.
The cards’ design appears to be mostly vertical on the front and varies between tight solo photographs and action shots involving the main subject competing against other wrestlers. Some of the action shots are quite good.
The WWE logo is anchored in the top left-hand corner of the card, while the promotion name (NXT 2.0 or NXT UK) is featured in the lower right-hand corner of the card.
The card backs feature a horizontally cropped version of the photo on the card front. Seven lines of type document career highlights and other trivia. The logo of NXT 2.0 and NXT UK is positioned beneath the biography.
The bottom corners of the card backs are anchored with the WWE and Panini logos.
I am not trying to be harsh, but you can only go by what you get after opening packs. And this blaster was disappointing.