When we look back on September 20th, 2023 years from now, it will absolutely stand out as a red letter date in wrestling card history. Pending the outcome of some litigation, it might actually be a date that has implications across the entire trading card world. For someone like me, it has direct impact as a wrestling card collector since 2017, but for others, it could be a bellwether for many other trading card licenses that Fanatics is set to acquire in the coming years.

On Wednesday, Darren Rovell announced that at the end of August, WWE had effectively terminated Panini’s WWE trading card license, the second licensor to do so in as many months. Previously, the NFLPA had also terminated their Panini trading card license. Unlike the NFLPA, WWE immediately went on the offensive, filing an injunction in the southern district of NY with a temporary restraining order to prevent Panini from releasing any further product under said terminated license.

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As expected, Panini immediately sued WWE for breach of contract, to which WWE countersued. We have the public filing of Panini’s suit, WWEs was filed under seal. According to Panini’s suit, it looks like WWE had used financial benchmarks to terminate the license claiming the license had fallen short of delivery on minimum guaranteed performance. Given that trading cards is in one of its biggest boom periods in the history of the hobby, this is a tall order to prove, and Panini promptly claimed in its filing that it had over-performed across every quarter of its WWE license tracker.

This begs the question – what happens now?

Well, a few things need to be decided before we get to the litigation. First, a judge needs to rule on the temporary restraining order, and determine if Panini needs to stop all product releases while they determine whether a breach of contract happened. If the TRO is granted, Panini is basically dead in the water until the termination is held up or dismissed. We also dont know the full details of the termination, because most of what WWE has filed is not public information. There could be other details leading to why the contract was terminated, and we just dont have them yet.

Similarly, once two parties get to litigation like this, I think its very unlikely they come back to a situation where both are going to be working together in a cohesive way. A judge could force the issue, uphold Panini’s suit and say to reinstate their contract, but even then, what does that relationship look like? Can Panini continue to work with WWE to get card designs approved, autographs for their products, access to superstars for relics? I think its hard to believe that wont be contentious.

We also found out through the filings that Panini was set to have the license through October of 2025, which effectively puts them in control of WWE through the end of that year with the typical 90 day grace period to clear out inventory. We were set to get another 2 years of Prizm, Select, and the like, and now we are left with less than half of that amount. Its going to be interesting to see how the litigation rules for this time period, because WWE has demanded $5.6M in royalties due for the contract over the remaining years. That isn’t a small amount of money.

If that isn’t enough, Panini has already sued Fanatics under an Antitrust (monopoly) statute, which is what kicked all of this off this past July. This means its entirely possible that the SEC and FTC could get involved in sorting this out through some sort of litigation coordination to ensure that filings in multiple districts dont deliver conflicting results. At some point, Michael Rubin and the Fanatics conglomerate will have to be judged for their process, and this is one domino in a long line of dominos to fall.

Here is where this gets interesting. If the restraining order is granted, it basically signals to other licensors that this process now has precedent, and can be replicated. Its unlikely that the NBA, NBAPA, NFL and other pending licenses wait until 2026 to move over to Fanatics, especially given their equity stake in the company. Ultimately, this is a losing battle for Panini, its just how long they have before the guillotine blade comes slicing down through their neck.

For WWE collectors, this could be a long road without much on the market, even if the restraining order fails. If Elite is not complete, getting WWE to cooperate with filling outstanding holes in the autograph checklist could be a non-starter. If it is done, its already been pushed back quite a bit, likely to accommodate for the challenges in the courts. If the judge sides with WWE, then its basically a waiting game. Topps might not be able to jump right in either. The understanding is that Fanatics will effectively take over, but even so, it could take 4-6 months before we see any new WWE sets. It would have to be a simplified set, likely a port from baseball with sticker autographs and a smaller checklist. Sets like Chrome and Finest with on card autographs could take a year plus to get back to their previous successful states due to production timelines. This is all if everything goes perfectly.

For everyone else, this is likely the beginning of a long 3 years before 2026 and the true beginning of the Michael Rubin as Thanos inevitability plan. If he finds that his playbook is successful and the licenses can be terminated early, the courts could tie up that plan for months and months. If its unsuccessful, who knows what the implications could be?

There are also numerous questions about things like redemptions, which are a bane for many collectors currently waiting on signatures from people like Roman Reigns and the Undertaker on the WWE side of things. Again, I have to believe those areas of the battle are the ones with the most question marks, and probably ones I would tag for pieces of a settlement if Panini indeed sees that there is no path forward.

My opinion is this – regardless of how people feel about Panini, I think this whole situation is bad for the hobby. Competition is good. Exclusives are bad. Ive lived by that platform on this blog for almost 15 years. Fanatics swinging their big dick around to ensure that every aspect of the hobby is under their control doesnt benefit collectors – no matter how much they say it will. By 2026, they will own all the major sports licenses, an auction house, a vault, a breaking platform, all the distributors, the card printers, among other things. Aspects of the hobby like what COMC and PSA provide are likely on the target list. It might not serve as a monopoly enough to get the government to shut them down, but in a functional aspect, it is a monopoly for the layperson. That’s just a bad situation where few will have accountability for any real issues. If you have been around this hobby long enough, you know how many issues there are.

Looking at the WWE, we all need to pay close attention to what is going on, because it could be a clear indicator as to what could be going down with all the other licenses. Get ready people, this is about to get pretty fucking nuts.