WCW CHAMPIONSHIP MARKETING
TRADING CARDS
In 1991, there were two major sets of trading cards bearing the license of World Championship Wrestling. One such series, known as The Stomp Collection, was advertised prominently in wrestling magazines and even on television, and featured the stars of WCW in a variety of 90's-riffic pastel colors.
Then there was the other collection.
I'll be honest - I've never heard of Championship Marketing Inc. outside of this trading card set. It sounds like such a.... corporate name for a company that manufactures sportscards. A quick Google search confirms that I'm not crazy (at least on this count) - Championship Marketing Inc. didn't seem to produce much before or after this particular endeavor.
Whereas The Stomp Collection was colorful and in your face, this set was much more refined (corporate?). The cards are printed on a glossier, thicker paper, all with the same black background and gold star border. Now if only they could have persuaded Rick Steiner to keep his eyes open when they took the photo, everything would have been perfect.
Having their card collection out at the same time as The Stomp Collection, the folks at Championship Marketing were likely to have most of the same wrestlers and personalities in both sets.
But where they deviated from the more popular collection was by taking better looks at some of the slightly more obscure WCW characters, including but not limited to: Paul E. Dangerously (with mouth open), Ron Simmons, Dirty Dutch Mantel and The Fabulous Freebirds.
Oh, and that "with mouth open" caption wasn't a one off. This sat has "Arn Anderson with Title Belt," "Tony Schiavone in Front Of Building," and more.
Even though the Championship Marketing Inc. collection didn't have, like, 20 cards for each wrestler the way The Stomp Collection did, it's clear to me they had their favorites.
The Four Horsemen, for example. Not only do they have the traditional Horsemen pose (see here), but they also have various in-ring pictures, promotional shots and different incarnations of the faction broken up into pieces (one card simply declares "Three out of four" without answering: four what?)
Other Championship Marketing Inc. favorites include Sting, Lex Luger, El Gigante, Missy Hyatt, and The Fabulous Freebirds..... for some reason.
Is it just me, or is the back of Missy Hyatt's card waaaaaaay more detailed than Sting's?
I get that they can't really give her a best match/best feud/favorite holds, etc. Fine. But the folks at Championship Marketing Inc. seem to have gone the extra mile, talking about her hobbies, magazine awards, prize show dogs, etc. Oh yeah, and TONS of helpful information such "having legs that stretch from the ground to heaven", "goddess-like body", "hourglass figure" and "fits her as snugly as, well as one of her sweaters."
I dunno -- if I were Missy Hyatt and I were suing WCW in the mid-1990's for sexual harassment (which I believe she did), I would have just used this one trading card as evidence.
Okay.... so we probably didn't need another Paul E. Dangerously card to show off this collection, but I'm always a sucker for a good (read: bad) caption, and this one takes the cake.
TELEPHONE
Um... there's more than just a telephone here, no? Seems like an insult to Heyman that he's little more than eye candy for a trading card about a white cordless phone from Radio Shack.
Apart from that, this is a cool collection. And not everyone under the sun has it, either, which is kind of a cool bonus.