Throwback Thursday: WWF Trading Cards

Part of my WWF Trading Cards collection

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

For about 30 years now I have watched professional wrestling.  I started at age nine and have been hooked ever since.  Most kids at that age are collecting baseball cards and trading them with one another.  Not me.  I had a few growing up, but sports was never really of any interest to me.

In the mid to late 80's when the WWF introduced their own line of trading cards, I was all in.  I bought as many as I could, looking forward to which superstars I'd be adding to my collection.  Each pack including a handful of cards, a sticker, and that rock hard piece of pink bubble gum.

Some of the sillier cards

I believe the cards debuted around the time of Wrestlemania III, so many of the cards feature shots from that event.  There were cards with superstars posing and their bio on the back, very similar to baseball and football cards.  Some of the cards featured what I thought at the time were funny little captions, but reading them today I didn't really even crack a smile.  For example, on the Jimmy Hart and Honky Tonk Man card Honky is saying "I think the fans are mad at me."  And Hart responds with "I told you, when they boo, they like you."  *Groan*

Looking through my collection brings back a lot of memories.  There's Randy Savage and Elizabeth, Dynamite Kid, and even Koko B. Ware's bird Frankie.  My sticker collection includes Outback Jack, Kamala, and George "the Animal" Steele.

How many of you collected the cards?  I've still got mine, but remember, I'm a pack rat.  Thanks for reading.