okay before we get going here on the podcast i wanna talk briefly about the john cena wrestlemania patch autograph and all the controversy that is surrounding it we're not gonna cover this super far in-depth it is not in a position right now where there's facts on the table right now it's just accusations it's done so on instagram between two people thd sports cards and mma shark the breaker the bottom line here is that john cena's wrestlemania patch autograph was accused of being pulled at or around release date by mma shark who then proceeded in brian's accusations to continue to sell the cena slots even though his ideas were that the mma shark had the card in hand we have not had any confirmation from either side that this is the facts and this is the evidence and here's hard line stuff all we know is that accusations have been shared and i would encourage you guys to go see both sides of this from brian thd sports cards on instagram and mma shark to get the full picture and make up your own mind but i don't this isn't really a podcast where i think we've gotten into speculation and rumors and innuendo before there's a ton of stuff flying around social media it is catching fire on every podcast and stuff like that i'm gonna be on hobby nonsense this week please go check out we we jesse and and ray asked me a bunch of questions that i guess we'll just have to speculate on as we hear but for this podcast i think it's best that we kind of just hey we're gonna kinda stay out of this for now if something comes up or something changes between now and the end of the auction or eventually in the future we can come back to it but i just wanted to say if if you're coming to this podcast this week to hear us break this down in detail that is really not the plan for this week at all ryan is there anything quickly that you wanted to add before we we move on just from your own perspective without getting into further details or anything like that i'm just gonna shut my mouth because i will probably go on a tangent and i'm gonna hold back until we got more concrete evidence per adam so i'm going to leave it adam said it best as much as i would love to dwell on this and give my thoughts we're just gonna move on with the show yeah yeah it's it's regardless if the allegations are true it's a tough situation it's not a good situation but we're gonna leave it at that so because we have a special guest on who is awesome and has a card in the same auction as the scene darius bly is gonna be joining us later in the podcast if you were at wrestling card takeover he was the star of the show and taking around the rhea ripley wrestlemania patch auto love talking to darius can't wait to have him on so happy he was able to join us on short notice we said last week that tim benito was gonna be able to join us from card vault by tom brady unfortunately he is ill so we're gonna have him on next week and we're gonna keep going with the show here just getting into the opening pyro because what the hell happened on smackdown they had a three way match and it went to a no contest for for everybody's understanding and situation here triple threats in wwe are no d q so you can have all the the the shenanigans you want and there's no disqualifications and this still went to a no contest watching that match if you've ever if you had a chance to to watch it back because there really wasn't much else to to watch except for tatum paxley's debut like dan randy orton and cody cody rhodes trading barbs about their family what was your feedback on this match because i was absolutely floored that they went this direction i'm so confused i don't know what the play is i guess we're having what are we having a four way a four way match is that what we're setting up to i guess i i mean i don't know man it's it's smack down just when i think they're getting it right they just go the other direction so i don't really have a i don't know what to think i was kind of very confused by it i'm like okay we're gonna go with this i was yeah i i didn't watch the whole show just because it friday night of this past week was a lot there we were getting ready for school and everything so i just kinda caught that match because i saw what happened and i'd read the results because it was pre taped have tape shows ever worked in wwe like it seems like when you have a tape show you're automatically at a disadvantage so they they they taped it ahead of time yep very interesting overall by the way there were two debut patches that were worn on smackdown one of them was worn by tatum paxley in her debut match thought she did a great job wrestling against meechan meechan and i don't think meechan is likely the the type of person that's gonna go in and beat the up and coming tatum paxley given the way that they've booked her that way there was never a question who was gonna win that match but i think she's like tatum's a great worker so you know it just kind of solidified her position on the roster and wearing the debut patch will add to the the the attraction of topps chrome next year i can't wait to see how many people they've got in that list and then right after that they had shinsuke nakamura's partner who he's been hinting at now named kiyoki i believe takahashi from njpw if you're a japanese wrestling fan he had on his debut patch as well so we've got two more to add to the list but what was your feedback did you get a chance to watch tatum's debut i i've just seen bits and pieces of it fridays are really really hard right now for us you know with the sports and everything so i mean netflix is kind of a convenient for raw to go back and watch and stuff like that it's a little hard for me to go back so i had to go online and and read the dirt sheets and all that stuff just kidding but no i have to get on and do it the old school way of doing things but i i've watched dana paxley enough in nxt to know that she was not gonna squander and that she's gonna be a talent up on the main roster and i'm i'm happy to see what direction to go with her awesome last thing on smackdown what is going on with blake monroe so they obviously had the debut match with her and julia go to a no contest then she gets attacked on the smackdown i i don't know why they're going this direction why don't they just have her wrestle have it sort of go to a feud i don't know what they're gonna do with this it's very unusual julia we mentioned last week very unusual for her as well like man like i i just i feel bad because i think blake monroe has a ton of potential and i don't think she's getting the same treatment i can't tell if it's injury related or just she's not ready yet i don't know i mean she put on amazing matches in aw especially with tony storm they had such a great storyline i just don't know what are we waiting for like she's been up for how many months now i mean i was watching her i saw her wrestle her last match of stand to deliver when it was here she put on a great match then she gets called up and she hasn't wrestled i don't know what they're trying to do with her i know they have big plans for her there's no question they went out to get her from aw like they got jade cargill now blake monroe is a much better position to wrestle than jade was coming over let's be honest but i still she still is yeah she yes yes she still is but i don't really know what the play is here right now i i don't i i i'm confused on a lot of things could be injury i don't know either moving on to raw i thought raw was started off hot and then ended in unusual fashion i think like the whole broadcast felt a little weird because the way they started off and i i'll i'm gonna start with the way they ended and then we'll go back because the match between penta and ray phoenix was banger ridiculous banger we knew that was gonna be though we knew that was gonna happen i started really weird like they start they tried to do this we're gonna start slow and build up and people just weren't into it and like then they started to do their usual shtick and people got into it just let them do it shocking yeah shocking do what you do best maybe on camera it might work out but those guys they're brothers they've they've wrestled together their entire lives i doubt they had any lack of chemistry that was preventing them from having a great match i just think this was the wrong opportunity for that to happen even though the outcome is something i definitely wanna see happen which is penta versus roman reigns sorry if you haven't seen it yet you're gonna be getting that in two weeks so there is gonna be a little bit of a build next week on raw which is good i know you were concerned about that last week but meanwhile roman reigns and his bloodline crew are getting attacks and ransacked by royce keys and bronco niemann lucian pryce new call ups for whatever reason they decided we're gonna start the broadcast with them getting attacked and not only that they started like pixelating the blood which i i can go on netflix and watch you know basic pornography if i wanted to and like i don't know why they're pixelating this but it's like it doesn't make any sense maybe wwe wants to remain accessible to children which i get they're a business that caters to families in a way that i don't think aew ever could and so maybe they don't want kids watching that and it was a lot of blood from what the pixelation looked like but it was weird it was really really weird i don't i i didn't understand it maybe it's some new thing they're doing i don't really know it's but it's never pinnered before why are we doing this now i think it's i think it's unfortunate but it's what it is i i don't know they they definitely took a different approach to start at the show like you said and i don't know like how is proko neva and them relevant to just go up against the bloodline like i do i have no idea make it make sense to me because like i do like me some royce keys he's a badass he's a beast but like you're talking about two guys in nxt that were never top guys that just come up because they're big dudes that are just now manhandled they look a certain way i'm like this is ridiculous like i i'm not believing this this needs to be squashed before it goes on because this is just not believable to me and unfortunately i think wwe is gonna keep pushing it and let's be honest jacob fatou is just gonna take over and kick some ass it's gonna happen i really hope that's what happens yeah like that would be like he's gonna go kick some ass so i want jacob fatou to kick some ass i like they look a certain way and they they they look menacing like i i i give them that royce keys' faction looks pretty good is it wwe's way to protect the blue line to still be a semi face is that why yes is that is that makes it that makes more sense to do that to make them look just gonna ask you that question yeah that's my fear my thinking is just when we saw we thought roman was turning back to old roman we get this new faction that now goes okay well they're the bad guys including the bloodlines not the bad guys or they're the borderline bad guys whatever and then la knight who is a mega face like comes out like i don't get it man i don't know i this this seems like i like i can tell that they're building up the mexico city show like it's almost a pay per view they're building up sunday night main event or sunday night heat as i would have called it and both of those shows need like matches so this probably puts them in a tough position in that respect and you have money in the bank qualifiers starting next week i mean i think they just have too much on their plate they're they're struggling to fit it all in again i said last week it felt like wrestling was at its weakest point in a long time i think this week was even weaker despite the awesome penta and phoenix match but yeah man it's just tough i wanna keep moving on because i wanna make sure we have we can cover everything before we get to darius do you have any predictions for sunday night's main events i think there's four matches on the card oba and braun cody and randy corbin versus yachty in like a five minute challenge stupid thing and then team bliss and charlotte versus team jade and the catering superstars crew which if you had to guess i think the most important two are the oban braun and cody and randy yeah ideally i would think that oban would win this match however and the only reason i say is because like are you really gonna have him beat brock lesnar than go lose to bron breakker however this could be where bronson reed returns yes yes that's caused an interference that braun could win but it's kinda tainted so then we could i don't know we could build upon i think we're gonna get more than just one match between oba and braun i think we're gonna build up i do too and and i'm okay with that because i i i'm gonna love watching these two go at it they're gonna put on a much much longer match than oba and brock lesnar could do so ideally you would think oba would win but this is where i think you see the return so there there's my prediction i think randy wins and i think it's because just even the score and i think they need to get on with the storyline randy needs to go on to fight for the belt cody needs to go on to promote streetfighter is probably gonna bomb the theaters but i still wanna go see it because i grew up playing streetfighters so i i wanna see randy win i i you're gonna build randy up to be two thousand nine randy you gotta have him win and it doesn't have to be clean you can go dirty whatever he's gotta do this is why randy was so dominant back then as a heel because he's arguably one of the greatest heels in history however he was dirty he was he would took a a page out of ric flair's book and that's how we won matches so i think rainey's gonna have to dive deep and then obviously corbin's gonna be lil yachty that's just ridiculous and then i don't really care about team bliss the other two yeah i don't really care yeah i think i think tatum paxley and bliss and charlotte are gonna wipe the floor yeah alright i would think so let's get onto some card market high spots because i agree with your picks there there's i don't think that there's any difference things that i could add there first things first topps universe is gonna be released here shortly they pushed it and didn't push it and stuff like that but they have previewed a number of cards over the last couple of weeks you can follow along with sam wwe steve does a great job sort of doing all this stuff while i've been crazy busy he's covered it all on main event wrestling cards so if you need any sort of guide to universe we'll we'll cover it there and on twitter follow steve w sam wwe steve is a great guy topps universe is bringing the heat in a way that i surely did not expect so historically for topps we didn't even get relic cards until earlier this year with the release of twenty twenty five tops universe and that is a major problem because we have twenty twenty six tops universe now coming some three four months later the reason is topps universe originally was supposed to be out in twenty twenty five very early on and for whatever reason got pushed very far into twenty twenty five or twenty twenty six i mean so now we've got two sets of the same product in the same year which i don't think has ever happened before across wrestling and maybe not even across sports so this is a a first but they're bringing in number one they've previewed wwe logos which are back huge cards lots of fake patches these john cena the becky lynch like all these have wwe logo patches if you're a basketball or football collector these cards are the top of the the the cream of the crop as macho man likes to say can't do a macho impression but that's what wwe logos represent in terms of logo men and shields and all the other stuff does this type of hit change your outlook on the product at all yeah a little bit i mean i i mean let's be honest we're in a different point now when this one's coming out i think we were itching and aching for a release when this finally came out i think that's why it was so popular i think this is gonna be a great product to have in hobby shops or make excuse for retail i i like it i i i could tell you right now i don't think i'm gonna go ham on breaks i'm gonna go just with the exclusive people i like to break with on this one it's not one that i'm you know overly excited about i will rip a case or two with my family but it it's i don't think my perception goes oh i wanna rip ten cases now you know i like the added to it i love what the inserts and the case hits look like they did some really banger stuff i know we haven't talked about that but adding the logo sure it adds an extra element i just don't know being that universe is it's only the second you know release of universe and it's an affordable sku i don't know how much it brings to the added value because it's not a household name yet yeah i i think the case hits the the ones that have their like nicknames on it the alias cards are absolutely awesome there's one we haven't seen yet it's coming you'll see previews for it shortly it's just as good and we have the one with the chance from the crowd that's the i think you call it echoes which is cool yes and i i mean like overall i think the the the the main for an afford what's designed to be an affordable product right because tops released this at a hundred and fifty bucks a box like that's cool man like i think we need this i think we need a set that has this level of hit and doesn't cost three hundred bucks a box i think presale at blowout in da somewhere like two hundred two twenty five which isn't a ton yeah and i think that's gonna maintain that way i don't think this is gonna be something that just goes crazy hot i think it's just gonna be great for the average wrestling card collector this is your affordable product to finally rip that has great potential this is a great job by tops i've used the word great four times but this is a great job overall that they did and i could see the mind behind it with the things they're doing in the inserts they're really putting into the wrestling inside thoughts of this product this is getting the right type of parallels for this product now we haven't seen top's flagship wwe yet i have a feeling it might come in the future but if it doesn't does this sort of serve as like the base set i would rather have this over i would too three of the top goals i think i love the first release i even though it was more hype because we we were waiting i this is a fun rip this is a great rip it really is for the price point you're not dropping five hundred dollars we're talking what two hundred bucks yeah i mean three hits still three hits right two autographs one relic yeah what else can you score in this in twenty twenty six the hobby you know yep i mean this isn't like it was twelve years ago when it was forty dollars a box you know we're we're at different times so so yes no i i love it i'm in for it i will do at least one if not two cases and i'll join some breaks and i'm sure you will as well but hey at least we know we're not breaking the bank to join breaks it should be an affordable break to rip speaking of breaking the bank we got our first look at topps royalty from twenty twenty six these are cards that they get signed very much ahead of time correct they want these things to be ready to go i don't blame them but the superstars sort of spoil the surprise there's new designs there's insane relics across the board i think like i saw the blake monroe cards that that she signed and they're an evolution themed set so is that ple focused pay per view focused or is that a set devoted to the evolution pay per view either way i'm all for it i think it's gonna these cards look absolutely awesome i would say and before i i give you a chance to weigh in here the finn balor booklet relic the different flat autographs that we've seen from the from the from shiloh hill and tatanka and fred ottman like these look better by a significant margin than last year's and i think because it has the marble background which you have white high end sets with a you know like a white dominated design or a light scale in terms of a color design for a high end set is standard in sports cards and i think that this aligns a lot better to that i think these will perform better but is this gonna be the chase that it was in twenty twenty five with the wrestlemania patch autographs theoretically coming back and all that other stuff yeah i love the fan i know neil would love to have that in his collection but this i ripped a lot of the tennis royalty when it came out it was just such a fun rip and it was it was actually undervalued for a while these have the similar looks to that royalty and i love the look of the background of these so i like that that they're doing that so and i love the evolution it just doesn't look like it goes to the products it's really gonna stand out in the product and it the cards are great i mean so again i'm excited for it obviously there's gonna be you're gonna get a different twist i think on this royalty than you did the last one sure we're gonna have the mania patch on us that's what everybody's searching for but i i'm hoping that there's a little added more value to this one for the price point i get that the market's going to dictate what it is but it was so rinse and repeat obvious what you were getting in the box i hope that there's added because let's be honest i'm i'm gonna use the word flawless because you know we love the flaws around here those flawless cases were never the same thing like you whenever the boxes were different sometimes they were just loaded royalty we didn't see as many loaded type boxes in case it you kinda knew once you got your a hit you're probably done and your b hit might have been obafemi at the time who knows when it was created but i'm hoping that we get more value and better better potential overall hopefully maybe again this is to do more of the wrestler name thing and i know i'm talking off the way of a cliff here i hope that we get some of the better names live and not redemptions i know the rock's a challenge i think that was something that i have so many redemption up for royalty i know you do as i'm sure as well obviously seth and randy were all redemptions the rock redemptions triple h redemptions now granted triple h's got them done quick i would hope that you can limit those and if they're starting this early which i know they do let's get this try to get the snips in the butt because i know ruben does not like redemptions we know that so let's try to get this one if you're gonna have redemptions have it be some of the lower tier people so people don't really care in my opinion yeah i would say you're you've nailed it in that respect i wanna say the acid so like the acetate cards kind of fit the same mold as the evolution preview that we're seeing here for blake monroe they look different right and i don't know if that's on purpose or what but those acetate cards whether it's the royal decrees the ring royalty or whatever it is the coronation cards they're gorgeous they're absolutely they're the best looking cards in the product that aren't wrestlemania patch autographs and i love them i've picked up the becky lynch i i got in a break i bought roman reigns i'm chasing down rhea ripley like those cards are so good looking and i can't wait even the dual looks like they're what the dual acetate autos were good looking too i think they did good job sorry to interrupt that's just going on no you're right i'm glad you called that out yeah the the the undertaker and triple the undertaker and shawn michaels have shipped and those came in looking awesome mhmm trish stratus and lita man what a great looking card i mean royalty has cards that are going to fit that chase mold and i think can it be the main product for wrestling i don't know i think dynasty is probably going to take that take that home they bring definitive collection or transcendent or something who knows i will say we are going to have as of right now we are planning to have tops back on the podcast here very shortly so hopefully tim and everybody can help us sort of make sense on how they're looking at universe versus how they're looking at a set like royalty has performed twenty twenty five and stuff so really excited to have them back on the podcast but either way let's let's bring more stuff like this because it looks great i wanna have a very very quick conversation about trust and the reason that i think we wanna do this is not because of what is going on with john cena but because this industry this space wrestling cards in general has gotten so much bigger over the last five to ten five to ten months and i think it's it's really important for everybody to have a very clear understanding of trust trust in buying trust in selling trust in breaking buying into breaks whatever we're gonna cover it very quickly here because i think this is a time to cover this more than any my approach and i've said this on the podcast well ahead of all the controversy this week is i am stone cold steve austin and i am don't trust anybody and unless you have a business address that i can go to and knock down your door knowing that you're gonna be there because it's your business it's very hard for me to trust you as an individual unless i know you and have met you personally i know where you live all that stuff if you are a breaker if you are a buyer if you are a seller my i would love to say i'm a very trustworthy person i am not i've been burned way too many times and i think that people afford individuals a lot of trust because they've built a persona or a reputation not realizing that if that person has nothing to lose or has very little to lose overall they're more likely to feed into things just by human nature that most people with a lot to lose a business a house a a family whatever might have so very important to keep that in mind now you likely have a different approach because you own a business you are one of these people what when you look at trust on platforms like whatnot and ebay and fanatics live and you name it how is i i put your approach down as like we must protect this house because your business comes likely before anything other than your family so i'm curious what you would say your approach is yeah obviously approach from how we run our business is you know first thing we do when it comes to product cases we get it directly from the manufacturer or we get through a distributor we don't try to go out and get it for a lot of outside sources unless they're reputable shop again when it comes to supporting people in this industry i look at around who's been around the longest you know you know late in sports cards buzz you know people that have really built their reputation and how long they've done it and how they control and you know hold themselves you know i think the biggest thing is it's you wanna break with somebody that's a entertaining but the most important thing like you said is trust and i feel the people that i choose to break with i trust i'm not saying this in a not to whatnot because i don't go to one anymore but fanatics on fanatics live does a pretty darn good job vetting who they let on and i feel safer on there with the people that they have on because of the people that they trust to represent them and products on there so that's kinda another reason why i go directly to them also when it comes to breaking with somebody like blaise they have like three cameras oh they have like three cameras going there's so much we'll save it late dude there's so many angles to protect that to know that i know that i'm okay with what i'm seeing and honestly it's like hey i'm not gonna always watch a break but i know i'm gonna get all the stuff that i pulled in that break so you know i think to me it's who is reputable you know i i i wanna give everybody the benefit of that everybody started somewhere everybody started small we all did we all built it up especially had been around here for a long time we started breaking you know we started breaking on youtube in two thousand seven two thousand seven is when we formed rba crew seven almost twenty years here you know i think the ones that have been around the longest time i'm not saying that you always can you know trust them because you just don't know but i i think their integrity for how they condone their business and what they're doing really matters and again you know there's there's enough out there now with technology a way to i don't know find things out that you you gotta know that the people you're dealing with are have the right intentions for you and again there's just so many ways to look at it but again i i love this i love this conversation i think trust is very important because people trust us when they come to sell us stuff when we sell them cards vice versa they trust that all the product that we brought in is a hundred percent not tampered with and is a hundred percent legit and that's our goal you know we're we're we're very big on that we wanna make sure nothing gets messed with and we wanna make sure we're getting our customers what came directly from the manufacturer at one point and and listen i've said this before like you and i connected over trust and you and i connected on deals and stuff like that prior to becoming friends and i've come to your store and i've i've been you know a a loyal customer of rbi even after getting kicking the nuts all those years ripping football yes that's true but i think like it's it's really hard like when you say everybody's gotta start somewhere yes but there's a reason why companies do it professionally and have you know and why fanatics live has the security protocols in place they do they vet their sellers you have to be a professional breaker that for me personally means that i can give them a little bit more leash than i would for the guy who's breaking on whatnot without any kyc without any stuff like that where it's like hey the like i have a i can sell on whatnot i have a seller profile and whatnot i never do it but i've gotten one because anybody can and that's not saying you can build an audience that way and it's in that stuff but somebody in a chat today said like they've cultivated a following and i'm just like you know being available and being there and just doing the thing that you're supposed to do which is open the cases and ship the cards accurately and timely just doesn't scream to me that that's something that that that is worthy of my trust now if you have a business license you have an llc you have an address for your business you have multinational corporation like blesses they have stuff in japan and so or in asia and they have all sorts of stuff leighton's been around for twenty years but has a brick and mortar shop like all of these types of things like mojo break you can go to their store in san francisco and talk to doug and the guys like they are man shout out yeah like they they're there like they are there and they are front and center they are not hiding behind the camera not saying that anybody is because i know like people like alex breaker mayfield who i've i've talked to numerous times is is somebody that i would trust personally but only because i've had such experience with him as a as a customer and as a friend but i know where alex lives i know how to get to alex like if something goes wrong like but for somebody else who's on whatnot as a new guy you're talking about getting started i think it's much tougher now to get started and not dedicate the level of security that you need showing the transparency that you have with multiple camera angles and a face camera and all this other stuff like you have to have a setup you have to have everything look legit and i think that's what fanatics live really requires and that's why they have direct allocation aligned to it as well as because tops trust these individuals as well but outside of just breaking there are i do a ton of deals on social media i was asked at the national by focus group if you know how we do deals in wrestling cards and how those deals are usually consolidated across multiple platforms and i said it's a lot of trust everybody has to trust each other and that's why i never send friends and family payments to anybody like i never do that because there's no protection i never take on risk that i'm not comfortable losing that money or losing that card like i've run into becky lynch one of ones with other sellers that have gone places and disappeared and like it's just bad it's bad overall and in my opinion this is me speaking as a collector and a buyer trust is really hard to come by and once you lose it it's really hard to regain it yeah it's funny we're talking about this and i know we're talking for a breaking aspect i was having a conversation this morning with josh from sports cards who you've met you've been to a shop and he was saying you know he was talking about how years ago how he got out you know direct allocation and this was five years ago or so let's go five four or five years ago whatever it was and he was asking me do you think nowadays it's easy you know do you think it's possibly even get you know allocation anymore and i said well that's why topps is vetted in this prospect program to where it takes years they have to build trust and know who you are i mean they're just not gaining accounts out anymore i mean right that goes to distributors too but like i think for topps is their biggest thing is you're representing our brand now we have to know who we're aligning our business with and trust and this goes to poppy shops too i mean which i think it's even harder to get into breaking i mean they're yeah this there there's only so much product go around but i think to tops they're looking at trusting who they're going along with because if you're just popping out of nowhere and you're like hey i'm such and such unless you're i don't know cooper flagg who's now opening a store some big time and there's celebrity who hamilton yeah yeah who they have relationships with and i mean i think that's a big thing i think topps is looking at not only for a perspective they don't have the allocation but also hey we trust these people we don't know you you're gonna need to show us for the next three years who you are yeah darius has joined us here so i'm gonna bring him in in a second and then we'll forward through to his part and then come back to the to the other stuff we were gonna talk about but i gotta say man like this is more important than ever there's more breakers than ever there's more buyers and sellers than ever wrestling is becoming bigger than ever and all that does is invite more people who wanna take advantage of the situation but it also lends more credence to those that have established their their roles and personalities and personas within the hobby ryan's shop has one of the best reputations of anybody in this hobby for a lot of reasons neil ryan do a tremendous job with their staff and their and everything i trust them implicitly because of my experience with them but it's one of the things that like even when you know we'll talk about what happened with darius here and how we met like that's all came together because of the trust that i have in ryan's shop and our relationship you have to build those don't collect on an island you gotta have those people that you surround yourself with so i'm gonna bring darius on darius give me a thumbs up if you're ready to go here alright the man of the hour the man of the hour i'm gonna fast forward through some of the other stuff we were gonna talk about darius how the heck are you man good how y'all doing good man good great man thanks for coming on last minute impromptu when i called you about an hour and a half ago and said can you come on today and and hang on he said yeah i gotta call my supervisor and let him know i'm gonna be doing this so thanks for making time for us today brother i appreciate it so darius and i connected a while ago and you know he's been one of those guys that i think has really shown the type of person he is just by getting to be a viral sensation not only at for the polls that he's had but at wrestling card takeover man you were the star of the show for a lot of reasons and i got to talk to you for a while i was really happy that you were able to make it and bring the rhea ripley card talk about the experience of pulling that rhea ripley card first and then we'll get into some of the story time of how we met and got together because that you are the owner you are the consignor you are the person behind the rhea ripley wrestlemania patch autograph no question no questions currently up for auction on golden right now as part of the summer one hundred i think it's at about fifty thousand dollars last time i checked so congratulations there yeah i appreciate it and let's hear about it man first first thing i wanna say is is appreciate you guys appreciate the work that you guys put into this you know there's a lot of times i go back and look at y'all's videos and get a lot of my information to pass on to other people is from you guys so i just wanna tell you thank you for that absolutely thank you thank you for this opportunity so with the ria just to pass on other people if i can hit it anybody can hit it because like i said i'm just i'm just one of those simple you know nine to five workers who was in a break and happened to hit this reel with rgl and run good life and shout out end up hitting it i was driving down the road remembered that i was in a break and i was like man i need to go back and look and check it and got on there and everybody's like you need to go back and and see the beginning and so i went back and looked and i was like oh my gosh i went home my wife was outside i'm honking the horn and the kids is outside and i pull up there and she thought i was having a heart attack and and she's like what's going on i'm like i just hit a big card i just hit a big card and so they they've seen me do breaks and so they understood once i once i finally settled down and was able to explain to them what happened that's that's incredible shout out rgl and jml the the three initial mafia here those guys are great we break with i break with him all the time too james is a great guy i'm glad he hit it and i'm glad and you've you've posted like your whole journey of like you flew out there to meet him and get the car that had to be surreal yeah it was it was pretty cool you know i wanted people to see like where i come from you know i come from southern illinois background just old country town so i had pictures of the corn and driving to nashville and then getting on the plane and showing the seattle going to seattle because that's the first time i i had never planned on going to seattle but went out there and met up with the guys and picked up the card flew back man it was just a so so real experience you know and i try to take a page out of ryan's book he always says you know just just enjoy the moment you know so this whole time i just been trying to enjoy this moment because it's it's been a very good one i gotta say yeah you don't get many wins like that in life sometime but this but when you do you gotta save them yeah go ahead ryan no i was gonna say one thing i was saying i've said this before yeah anybody could pull anything but i believe in good karma and and getting to know darius this past year i i you're one of the most stand up amazing guys we love having you here in store you become a you know a member of our team here kind of a family member to us all and i believe good things happen to great people and and i mean this is meant to be it's crazy to hear it was crazy you called me that night to tell me you hit the rio one zero one and at that time i knew what it was i was watching i i was i was the dutton ranch of my wife i'm like hey i'm watching dutton ranch can i call you back ryan i hit the rio one zero one as the text said i told my wife i paused it it said give me fifteen minutes this is important i stepped out back and we talked on the phone and i don't think i finished the show that night i was just going on living on his high moment for him and and just glad to be a part of the journey you know of of this moment and it's just honored to call you a friend and get to know you more the past year like we've had and and i truly believe that great things happen to great people and this was meant to be for you my friend likewise i appreciate that likewise ma'am so darius and i go back here a while i i got a message on instagram a number of months ago i think it was probably a year at this point saying you know because darius is on instagram i hit big too go follow him sent me a message saying hey gelman i hear you're the becky lynch guy i think i got one for you and i and listen i get messages like this all the time but immediately once he showed me the card then it was like okay this guy's for real this guy's for real two and so i think darius and i connected we did the deal and ryan bannister ended up being our middleman because luckily darius only lives a few hours from his shop i was shocked to hear that because you know it rarely works out so perfectly and i was really happy to get this you you had the one of one gold vinyl from chronicles that i had been hunting for a very long time and immediately wanted to talk on the phone because i i you know he said you said to me very early on i i'm an old school guy i like to talk to people and and i think it shows and that was great but thank you for that deal that sort of got this all started and then you've sort of like gone on to bigger and better things and and being a an awesome part of our community talked about sort of that experience of meeting ryan and and sort of doing this deal but more importantly like what drew you to wrestling cards in general like what's your origin story here if you will a a lot of it stems from everybody was going after the same thing in in sports and me and my little girl started watching wrestling again and i said you know what i'm gonna i'm gonna do something totally different i'm gonna go a whole another direction and i just started focusing on wrestling cards and start breaking with shai city pool before he he went over to a different different group and then jml or rgl then jml come online and so i just went that route and and just kinda took off that way and then was watching a youtube video and seeing that you needed the the one on one becky lynch and a buddy of mine he had like a lot of wrestling and i bought his collection knowing that that was in there and i said i'm gonna try to get ahold of this guy and see if he wants his card and that's what started a lot of it and then of course you you led me to ryan then then me and ryan met and then he's been been too kind to me and invites me to a lot of their shindigs up there with the family and i enjoy it and appreciate it and just glad that he includes me because it's it's the best time that i've had in this hobby whenever i get around those guys thank you man we we enjoy you coming up we had you at smackdown this past year alright you came out smackdown with us we got the suite and hung out it was a good time and yeah it's it's great for you it was great for you to get to meet my kids and stuff obviously came up for orton hung out there and he came right back like three weeks later i think this deal was done in january or february it was what i think it might was yeah it was right before the orton and then you decided i'm driving back up to come hang out with orton since you announced that so yeah darius you know we great guy man i'm i'm so glad that we we've connected because of this becky lynch card it's crazy what cards can do especially blessing cards just brings i i just never forget adesley hey i got this guy named darius he's got this becky can you be the middle man for us can i know you money in this rock auto he's gonna drive up well then you met tyson and you sold us all this stuff and then you wanted to leave with a jordan fleer rookie i think at the time you wanted a five or a six and you got my eight which that thing went up like crazy and i was happy for you and and you're like this is my dream card i want a jordan fleer rookie and then you got my eight from me and man those things went on a a crazy wild ride but no it was it was awesome it was a whole day too i think he came up to do a quick deal and you were here all day on that day you know friday it was it was awesome yeah any anytime my time that i try to stay all the time and hang out that's awesome dude tell me tell me a little bit about the process with golden like what made you decide to to go that direction with rhea ripley i know you had a number of offers from people in the community wanting just to buy the card straight out what made you wanna sort of test the auction waters with golden and and sort of use that that platform that they've built especially with the cena in the in the same auction to to to get the most out of that card well i i actually got to meet sammy and you know he was he was a big help and you know i had found out how big of a real collector he was and so initially i wanted the card to really go to to him and there were some reasons why he he couldn't make the pulls or what whatnot and i said man what should i do with it and he said he said man you gotta auction it i said well who would you go with sam and he said i will go with golden and he actually i said do you care to help me he said oh no i i would i would be honored to you know so we go over to golden and he actually helped me through the process you know and sat down there with me and answered answered some of the questions because i would look at him and and he would like i i would probably do this or i would do that you know so i have to take my hat off to him being a big rick he's a good guy rick yeah he was a good guy and for him to do that that's that's big you know because if he would have said heritage or if he would've said fanatics then it would probably be a different story right now it would've been one of them so he's one of the big big reasons why you know i will end up going with gold yeah steve brought all of his rhea ripley cards to the national as well so like you got to see a preview of all those super factors and and black one zero ones that he had and you know if there's somebody who knows a lot about rhea it's definitely steve so glad you were able to connect with him and you know glad that's again we talk about the community all the time people helping people and you know it seems like when you saw what's what the sam wwe account is capable of and sort of all the information that he has trusting there is is trusting steve to handle that with you is is great so the auction ends in in probably about two or three weeks at this point by the time you're listening to this what what are your expectation now are you gonna have like a watch party to to to watch it finish like is the family gonna be sitting around commute computer screen what's what's the deal yeah we we we actually joked around about that you know because i just built a big old shop and we actually joked around but i'm not for sure man i'm just like i said i'm just enjoying this you know i'm just enjoying getting on golden and ryan's been messing me back and forth because i would have some questions and he would answer them you know actually talked to sam yesterday you know so there's been different times i've called different people or they messaged me to because you know i have a lot of questions i don't have big cards like that you know or haven't hit big cards like that do i and neither do i you know i have to i have to call ryan sometimes and say hey man what about this or what about that because you know this is this is a whole another step for me as far as into the into the hobby and and it's just it's just been a good good experience you know and i hope that hope it happens again but i hope that i can help somebody else that hits a big card like this in the near future love that man it's what it's what it's about man and that's one thing that i think that the the hobby is great and there's a lot of amazing people in it but i mean we still stand by the rusty card community as just bar bar none i mean they're the best there is the best there was the best ever will be yeah bret hartline i gotta give him credit but no it's just it it there's just so many people looking out for one another in so many ways and just helping is key and just giving advice i mean we've done this a long time but i like what you said best and you were doing other sports i mean clearly you're wearing your your basketball shirt you dialed up which is awesome love this shirt that you have and but you said hey i wanted to dive into something else and you found the wrestling car community have you enjoyed it just as much as all of us have since you've been a part of it more more than yeah yeah awesome yeah i'm i'm i'm in it for life i love it i like it for life you talked about sort of like you wanted to pay it forward to other people like i i think you're in a position that a a lot of us dream of being in right we pull the life changing hit and like you know for a lot of people out there listening to this podcast or just engaging in sports cards like pulling a potential hundred thousand dollar plus card has gotta be you know something that only a very select few are gonna experience in this hobby and you're one of the people that gets to experience that and and like you said hey i haven't had this experience before and so i think we always talk about sort of the way to use your relationships and be able to lean on the right people to give you the information that you can use and i think you you've talked about a little bit about the importance of you know how steven helped you with with finding golden and how ryan here helped you sort of with some of the questions you had early on but you know as you get into sort of deeper waters with this car than most of us will ever swim in have you run into sort of some of the the pitfalls that you were expecting or was it a completely different experience than you expected there's it was completely different experience you know but it's been good you know i mean like like i said been been talked to before and people told me you know different things to keep an eye on this that you know so it's been good and and like i said i'm yeah september nineteenth is when this all ends and people was asking me and said man you know what are you gonna do with this that or how do you feel i mean i feel good with even if it's sold for to get my money back you know what i mean so like right right it's just it just it's just so big did did you did you consider keeping the card did you did you consider keeping the card at all for a little bit and then i thought about you know my family and all the stuff that you know i got a kid here to go to college next year and there's a lot of things that that's that's going out beyond me that i have to focus on so that's that's this i think that's the same call i would have made too i got a kid going to college next next year too and we're starting to see what that's gonna cost even if he ends up sort of playing sports or whatever it's still expensive as hell and life life is expensive these days man so i don't fault you at all for that i think it's man this card is so cool it it had to have been great because i know jml and and and james those guys were so happy for you man and i think we were so happy and and thank you for bringing it to wrestling card takeover because everybody wanted to see that card it was so so cool and thank you for giving me that becky lynch card at the at the event as well i still have it it's awesome so i like how what was your experience like at wrestling card takeover i really haven't had a chance to connect with you long after that did you have a good time with everybody sort of wanting to see your your prized possession yeah i'll be honest i wasn't for sure if i was gonna come to nationals this year and ryan invited me to that and that right there was the only reason why i was ended up coming to nationals even before i hit the ria so i had a couple buddies and they're they're into you know football basketball everything and i was like man i'm not for sure i i've sold my collection i'm not for sure and then boom i hit this ria but i was coming anyway due to you know like i said brian invited me and i told the wife i was like i gotta go this is the first one i have to go and and then the rhea come along and one thing that i appreciated was people sharing with me that they appreciated me letting them hold the rhea and be able to see it because they're like we would never see it if it wasn't for this and man that meant a lot to me you know because i coulda assigned it i coulda consigned it with golden earlier that day and i just said no i'm not i'm gonna wait till after this is over and then i'll go consign it so we consign it the next day you know but it was it was big you know just for people to be able to see a big card like that that is now on on the big golden auction platform you know to me that was that was just something for me to give back while i had it you know sure and for our listeners the first thing i asked darius when he pulled this how many case break was this how much was the spot and what was the break it was it was a hundred and fifteen dollars for rhea and and what's funny is i went back to babyface's page and screenshotted what had been hit and i tried for the scene of the day before and then went back and seen that rhea was available hadn't been hit yet so i end up buying that spot and then next thing you know they only opened one box of one roach roach that's what's so crazy and and if you watch the video rgl jml is opening and rgl was like it's gotta be the scene and come on just one time well one time would be because it's a one on one but he's like it's gotta be the scene and then it was the rhea and it was rhea bloody ripley jml tyler and you know so it was it was awesome yeah it's what is that i mean the fact that you said that you saw baby face post i remember you telling me that on the phone that that by you seeing that is what clicked in your head and you already support run the live jbl so you went back and said i'm gonna get a shot at the rhea in one box it's like yeah it's like doctor strange in avengers yeah exactly one and that's what happened again i i'm telling you man great things happen to amazing people and this was meant to be my friend and everything to go up to there and the story that behind it and the journey that you went on to get this card and the journey of the card up until the moment you got it till you gave it to golden was bar none you were so open to let anybody hold it see the card you you were just the perfect person to pull this and i mean that and we all are so happy i mean there's not one person i talked to that was like oh darius everybody's like yes darius go everybody at the store like guys dare i messaged the shop group that we have that night i'm like you're not gonna believe who hit the ria and they were saying some you know other people and i was like darius like wait are darius i'm like yes are darius hit the ria and they're like go darius let's go and it's just awesome man and again i can't can't think enough for kinda bringing me on and we we jokingly talked about it i told him i was be as advocate as paul heyman on my advice on this for him except i don't have the double chins and the balling here i do i look you do you actually look more like paul heyman you should have been as paul heyman on this point so again man we're we're so happy for you and and again thank you for taking the time to come on today on such short notice adam dropped the ball again i was like darius he's like why didn't i think of that sooner like because i think of everything like that that's why i'm happy script i think that's it so he's he's well i'll tell you of this i was talking to my supervisor and i said hey i i gotta take this he said man you jump you go right ahead you know so that's the type of relationship we have here at work as well that he's like don't you worry about it you go right ahead so but no i i appreciate the kind words thank you thank you all i never dreamed i'd be on my first podcast but man i i i just i love it happy to have you on yeah i enjoy it is we've brought your name up multiple times to this podcast before the ria saying how we'd get you on and here we are i think we saved the first time for the for the right opportunity and i i wanna assume i'm gonna go in a hunch and say give adam a thought here at some point after the riosouls we'll probably have you back on to talk a little bit about it because really wanna hear about the moment while it's you know how was that moment watching it sell we're gonna have some type of watching together even though i have a apparently a sleepover slumber party in my house with a bunch of kids for my kids' birthday that night so curious how this is gonna go down but i'm excited to watch it because i'm pulling for you man i we're so pulling for you let's let's go kick some butt let's have riaz sell the scene and that would just be poetic just that would be crazy would be that would be crazy i'm so i do wanna say to to everybody that has bid on it and who is gonna bid on it from the bottom of my heart i just wanna say thank you it means a lot you know and and for this this card to come into my life has made a big big difference and it's it's a it's a blessing so i just wanna say thank you to whoever love it whoever's out there watching you don't you don't usually get to hear the person consigning give this level of of of passion behind the poll and everything and that's what makes it so great very excited to have you on for everybody who is not aware of the rhea ripley please visit golden dot co it is part of their summer one hundred auction it is up for auction right this second you can go bid on it today and it ends on september nineteenth darius let them know where they can find you on instagram and everything in case they have any questions or wanna just say hello what's your instagram handle one more time and where can they find you i hit big two that's where i'm at on instagram and tiktok so yeah if you guys see me just just shoot me a message go over there say hi and go from there alright darius thank you so much for joining us we'll let you get back and again best of luck on this auction i really hope it goes for a ton of money not just because it's an awesome card but because it could go into an awesome person thanks again for joining us thanks brother appreciate it man appreciate it thank you have a good one dude take care you too see you alright it was great to have darius on and i wanna go just briefly touch on that because you know it's really rare like we said to have that level of connection with the individual who owns the card is selling the card darius is a great dude and we said it a lot because i i like there isn't many people who impress upon you their passion for things passion for life and his family and everything the way darius did getting to meet him at wrestling card takeover was awesome but we had had a number of conversations before that really happy for him i don't think that there's anything bad anybody has to say about that and there's no controversy around this card it's hopefully gonna sell for a ton any last thoughts on that piece here darius is just he's like no no other person you ever meet he is the most scaring giving person he has given myself my kids people i know in the hobby so many gifts he just that's just who he is he wants people to appreciate things as much as he does and again i i'm fully and just just truly believe that moment was for him and and i stand by that and i'm excited to see what it does and more excited for my friend and his family that's the best part hobby karma is real guys it is real do not forget that so going back to what we were covering here we do have a few big sales i'm gonna make this super quick the and speaking of another group of awesome people in the hobby the the blumenthal's who were selling the yeah john cena and shohei ohtani which we mentioned i think last week on the podcast ended as part of the fanatics collect auction ended at fifty eight thousand eight hundred dollars huge number for this card i don't think any of us were surprised to see it get to this level given who's on the front shohei ohtani in a blank image i did the joke this one time just this one time good joke yeah so i think congrats to them great great sale overall any feedback on this particular number i think it it went about where i expected it had a chance to really do some damage but i think people you know paid a ton of money for this because of shohei ohtani's market and and what it represents but it's cool that john cena gets to share in the moment and wrestling cards gets to share in that spotlight a little bit yeah to me it was a wild card card i didn't know what it was gonna do exactly do i think they had the potential to do a hundred k because of shohei ohtani absolutely i mean getting this number overall for a topps now that was impactful to you know my luck with topps now i wouldn't pull anything close to this so but no i overall i mean i think you've gotta be thrilled about this great number overall i mean there's no autograph to it it's just the moment if they now if they woulda had a dual autograph of these two who who knows who woulda done but for for being what is outstanding sale congratulations to them another humongous sale that happened the alexa bliss twenty twenty two prism black one of one sold via best offer on ebay this card has sold a couple of times i believe but this is by far the biggest price at fifteen thousand dollars alexa bliss is her market is hotter than ever the twenty two blacks are the the one on ones from that set are some of the most coveted cards in all of wrestling in all of sports the prison blacks continue to reign supreme in a lot of different ways that i think tops is hoping to recapture with some of the debut patches the super fractures the inscriptions everything but panini made a legendary type of card when they made these black one of ones the standard of prism and prism being the hobby standard that it is this is the debut card for prism in wwe and a ginormous price for alexa bliss let me ask is that nikki aash there it is okay they're not bringing the ball she's doing the sister abigail to nikki cross who then ends up joining and be a part of the y at six just it's really cool to see that that's awesome it is a horizontal card too which is my least favorite because becky was horizontal yeah becky was horizontal roman was horizontal like i didn't like that they did it was horizontal yeah that's it's really crazy but this card went for a ton it was a best offer and listen he's gotta be motivated to buy when you're buying cards of this type and we talked about this last last week about buying and selling in a hot market this is one of those sets desirable wrestler desirable set mhmm probably one of the most desirable sets there is so insane sale we also had a tops super fracture of the rock sell for ten thousand two hundred dollars via auction on fanatics weekly i saw this sale and i my jaw dropped like this is a cactus jack insert from twenty twenty five so it's not even the base card it's an insert and the rock is selling for ten thousand two hundred dollars on fanatics fanatics weekly i'm shocked it's not even great it's authentic grade yeah but correct me if we're wrong are people kinda high on this festival of fury set i think we've seen some crazy numbers go this is a big number for the rock for being what it is being an insert but i think people are behind this festival of festival of fury i don't i don't know i have the i know of the orton of it thank god so it's a great looking card but it's just that's a big number it's a big number yeah i think the trans tacticians is the case hit that people are chasing this this is probably the best insert of all of them because cactus jack had some stinkers but it also had some cool looking inscriptions and cards so huge number on the rock this one just i don't even know what to say it is a twenty twenty five tops now card that's signed by ishowspeed this is from the moment they had at the royal rumble there is a one of one of this card that is officially signed this is just the signed base card graded gem in ten auto ten on the in person autograph i think the autograph quality i don't know how it got a ten but it's just speed scribbling on the card eighty four hundred dollars it sold for ishowspeed is quickly becoming one of the most influential people in social media which again i'm not i'm way too old to have any impact by ishowspeed but but he's been all over wrestling and this is a big sale i mean i gotta think at some point there's going to be a deal where speed and fanatics link up for he's got autograph cards maybe a beginner or something like that this is a massive number i get it's rare at this point but whoo i mean it probably will stay a pop one i'm a guess so that's big i mean it doesn't do nothing for me but my kids know speed so your kids know speed yeah we're just we're just old heads we're old closing this out we have the jovan evans pink one of one from sapphire in twenty twenty six this is the red brand papa rep never mind mister papa georgio mister papa georgio papadasha papadasha whatever it's called twenty five hundred fifty dollars this was sold via auction this card sort of represents what jovan evans is capable of doing here in this market huge number on the on the on this card great looking autograph it looks really good in the pink too it's one of those cards that i think looks good but psa nine ten i mean javon evans man he had some he's had some great matches lately just hope he doesn't get continued to be jobbed out to big cast which is unfortunate i'll leave it at that so that's it for now thanks again to darius for joining us again just on the stuff we talked about at the opening make sure to do your own research try not to jump to humongous conclusions let it play out we'll be back next week hopefully with tim benito from card vault by tom brady i know he was ill this week he's gonna try and join us next week or the week after we've got tops coming up here we've got universe release i mean man we got the big auctions coming up we got the big auctions that time we got jeez we got you got sunday night heat whatever you wanna call it today but heat not main event we're leaning into money in the bank i mean we got some exciting things coming in september leading into october i know it's a low month of wrestling especially with the nfl and college football coming back i think we got some great things coming up upon us especially with the potential watching of two crazy cards selling and oh yeah we get a w w product again it's been a we went from what getting so many to none so i think we're overdue to get one so we needed this break man we really didn't need this break we did need this break that's a fact needed to to recover some funds and i just sent you a huge package of cards because the baseball fees came in like i i'm i'm holding a bunch of stuff like i i'm like i'm never where you sent me but you trust me that's the keyword you trust me it's good stuff it's good stuff it's not obafemi but it's good stuff i kept all the obafemi's and roman reigns and rhea ripley's but yeah i mean like there's just so much stuff that is that's coming down the pike here and you know stadium club is still coming we've we've heard about dynasty we don't know when that's coming i mean it's just gonna get bigger and bigger and i think that we needed this break to kinda level set and let people recover a little bit from the national and let people cover a little bit from from all the products they released earlier this year can't wait to hear what tops has to say about sort of their outlook for the rest of twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven so lots of lots of stuff yet to come i'm excited yeah same pumped alright and and with that we will see you next week big gulps see you later