The rookie case
2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23
The card the hobby calls the Gable Steveson rookie, and the earliest Steveson card that two independent sources agree on. It comes from Panini's 6 April 2022 Prizm WWE release, a 200-card base set split 100 horizontal / 100 vertical, with Steveson on a horizontal Raw card. It also carries the deepest parallel rainbow he has, topping out at Black 1/1.
Only in the weak sense that three different 2022 Panini WWE cards get sold as 'RC' and the databases disagree about which carry the flag — Collectibles.com flags both Prizm #23 and Revolution #96, SportsCardsPro flags only Prizm #23. The release dates settle it in Prizm's favour. The unresolved wildcard is the undated 2022 Panini Instant WWE #15.
Sellers sometimes describe Steveson as having an 'Olympic rookie card' from 2021. No such card was found. Also note his cards are wrestling (WWE) cards, not MMA cards — an MMA collector buying a 'Gable Steveson rookie' is buying a Panini WWE card.
Key Steveson cards
9 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.
Card history
Steveson won 125 kg freestyle gold in Tokyo on 6 August 2021 and got nothing out of it on cardboard. Topps' Olympic product for the cycle, 2021 Topps US Olympic & Paralympic Team Hopefuls, had already shipped on 14 July with a 76-card checklist whose wrestlers are Jordan Burroughs, J'den Cox and Kyle Snyder; Steveson is not in it, and no other 2021 card of him has been catalogued. His card history therefore begins nine months late and in another sport entirely - every card he has is a Panini WWE card.
The rookie is 2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23, from Panini's 6 April 2022 release - a 200-card base set split 100 horizontal and 100 vertical, with Steveson on a horizontal Raw card. It carries much the deepest parallel run he has, from Silver and Ice through Red /299, Purple /149, Orange /99 and Teal /49 up to Gold /10, Lucky Envelopes /8 and Black 1/1. The flag itself is not unanimous: SportsCardsPro answers 'Is Rookie Card: Yes' only for this card, while Collectibles.com also marks Revolution WWE #96 an RC, and there is an undated 2022 Panini Instant WWE #15 listed by a single catalogue that could in principle predate it - though print-to-order Instant cards are not rookie material.
The rest of 2022 is the whole of his ordinary card run. Revolution WWE #96 followed on 3 June with the foilboard parallels that make up the numbered end of his catalogue after Prizm - Sunburst /99, Cubic /49, Lava /10 - and Select WWE arrived on 12 August with #208, a card whose tier is disputed: Cardboard Connection's checklist puts him in Premier Level, while the set's own #201-300 boundary and seller descriptions say Ringside. Chronicles WWE closed the year on 30 December with #29 in the Chronicles block and Elite #251, both running the product's Bronze-to-Platinum 1/1 ladder.
His signed cards all sit inside one short window, and even their starting point is contested. Cardboard Connection puts his first certified autograph in the 12 August 2022 Select WWE product, at Ringside Action Signatures #90, and states he is not in that set's Signature Selections; Collectibles.com instead lists a 2022 Select Signature Selections Gold Prizms #SN-GSV; SportsCardsPro carries no 2022 Select Steveson autograph at all and starts him at 2023 Chronicles WWE Phoenix Autographs #27. The high-end signatures are all from 2023 - the Phoenix auto with its Red, Mojo, Gold and Gold Vinyl versions, Impeccable WWE Extravagance Autographs #EA-GBS in Silver, Gold and Platinum, and Donruss Elite WWE Pen Pals #PL-GSV - issued at a point when he was barely appearing on WWE television.
After that the absence is the history. WWE released him on 3 May 2024, the Buffalo Bills signed and cut him over the same summer, and neither produced a card; his September 2025 professional MMA debut at LFA 217 produced none either. He signed with the UFC on 11 April 2026, too late for the 2026 Topps Chrome UFC checklist released 8 May and absent again from 2026 Topps Knockout UFC on 26 June, so his UFC 329 debut win over Elisha Ellison went uncarded. When Topps did announce a card of the 19 September 2026 UFC 331 finish, it was as Sean Sharaf's first card. Anyone buying a 'Gable Steveson rookie' is buying a Panini WWE card, because no UFC- or MMA-licensed card of him exists.
Autographs
3 certified autographs in the archive.
Card eras
Steveson won 125 kg freestyle gold in Tokyo on 6 August 2021, but Topps' Olympic product that year — 2021 Topps US Olympic & Paralympic Team Hopefuls, released 14 July 2021 — covers only 76 athletes and its wrestlers are Jordan Burroughs, J'den Cox and Kyle Snyder. No Steveson card from 2021 could be confirmed from any checklist source, so the Olympic run produced nothing collectable under his name.
Panini's WWE products carry his first cards. 2022 Panini Prizm WWE (6 April 2022) has him at #23 in the 200-card base set, flagged RC by the hobby databases, and Revolution WWE #96 follows on 3 June 2022.
2022 Panini Select WWE (12 August 2022) adds a base card at #208 and his first signed card — Cardboard Connection's checklist puts him in Ringside Action Signatures at #90. Chronicles WWE closes the year on 30 December 2022 with Chronicles #29 and Elite #251.
His only non-2022 cards. Chronicles WWE Phoenix Autograph #27, Impeccable WWE Extravagance Autographs #EA-GBS and Donruss Elite WWE Pen Pals #PL-GSV are all signed, all short-printed, and all from a period when he was barely wrestling on WWE television.
WWE released him on 3 May 2024; the Buffalo Bills signed and cut him the same summer. No cards were issued in either period, and his September 2025 pro MMA debut at LFA 217 produced none either.
Signed by the UFC on 11 April 2026 and knocked out Elisha Ellison at UFC 329 on 11 July. He missed the 2026 Topps Chrome UFC checklist (released 8 May 2026) and the 2026 Topps Knockout UFC checklist (26 June 2026). After Sean Sharaf knocked him out in 12 seconds at UFC 331 on 19 September 2026, Topps announced a card of that finish — as Sharaf's first card, not Steveson's.
Rookie parallels
Sets
Where Steveson's key cards come from.
- 20222022 Panini Prizm WWE1 key card
- 20222022 Panini Instant WWE1 key card
- 20222022 Panini Revolution WWE1 key card
- 20222022 Panini Select WWE2 key cards
- 20222022 Panini Chronicles WWE2 key cards
- 20232023 Panini Chronicles WWE — Phoenix Autographs1 key card
- 20232023 Panini Impeccable WWE1 key card
Buying & wanted
- 012022 Panini Prizm WWE #23 Gold Prizm /10 and Black 1/1 — the top of the rookie rainbow
- 022022 Panini Prizm WWE #23 Lucky Envelopes Prizm /8, the scarcest catalogued version of the RC
- 032022 Panini Select WWE Ringside Action Signatures #90 — the earliest certified Steveson autograph anyone has checklisted
- 042023 Panini Impeccable WWE Extravagance Autographs #EA-GBS in Platinum or Gold
Nothing from this archive in the vault right now. Selling one?
Sources & research Verified×1High confidence×11Probable×2Uncertain×1
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
Gable Steveson's rookie card: 2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23 — Gable Steveson.
2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23 is the card collectors treat as the Steveson rookie. SportsCardsPro's product page for it answers 'Is Rookie Card: Yes', Collectibles.com lists it as '#23 RC', and eBay listings consistently title it 'Rookie RC 1st Prizm Base Card'. Cardboard Connection's checklist independently confirms the set (200-card base, released 6 April 2022) and the card number (#23, Raw, horizontal layout). Nothing earlier could be verified: the 2021 Topps US Olympic & Paralympic Team Hopefuls checklist does not include him, and no 2021 Topps Now Olympic card of him surfaced in any checklist or marketplace source. Prizm is also the flagship Panini WWE brand, which is why it wins over the other 2022 issues even where a database flags those RC too.
Steveson won 125 kg freestyle gold in Tokyo on 6 August 2021 and got nothing out of it on cardboard. Topps' Olympic product for the cycle, 2021 Topps US Olympic & Paralympic Team Hopefuls, had already shipped on 14 July with a 76-card checklist whose wrestlers are Jordan Burroughs, J'den Cox and Kyle Snyder; Steveson is not in it, and no other 2021 card of him has been catalogued. His card history therefore begins nine months late and in another sport entirely - every card he has is a Panini WWE card.
The rookie is 2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23, from Panini's 6 April 2022 release - a 200-card base set split 100 horizontal and 100 vertical, with Steveson on a horizontal Raw card. It carries much the deepest parallel run he has, from Silver and Ice through Red /299, Purple /149, Orange /99 and Teal /49 up to Gold /10, Lucky Envelopes /8 and Black 1/1. The flag itself is not unanimous: SportsCardsPro answers 'Is Rookie Card: Yes' only for this card, while Collectibles.com also marks Revolution WWE #96 an RC, and there is an undated 2022 Panini Instant WWE #15 listed by a single catalogue that could in principle predate it - though print-to-order Instant cards are not rookie material.
The rest of 2022 is the whole of his ordinary card run. Revolution WWE #96 followed on 3 June with the foilboard parallels that make up the numbered end of his catalogue after Prizm - Sunburst /99, Cubic /49, Lava /10 - and Select WWE arrived on 12 August with #208, a card whose tier is disputed: Cardboard Connection's checklist puts him in Premier Level, while the set's own #201-300 boundary and seller descriptions say Ringside. Chronicles WWE closed the year on 30 December with #29 in the Chronicles block and Elite #251, both running the product's Bronze-to-Platinum 1/1 ladder.
His signed cards all sit inside one short window, and even their starting point is contested. Cardboard Connection puts his first certified autograph in the 12 August 2022 Select WWE product, at Ringside Action Signatures #90, and states he is not in that set's Signature Selections; Collectibles.com instead lists a 2022 Select Signature Selections Gold Prizms #SN-GSV; SportsCardsPro carries no 2022 Select Steveson autograph at all and starts him at 2023 Chronicles WWE Phoenix Autographs #27. The high-end signatures are all from 2023 - the Phoenix auto with its Red, Mojo, Gold and Gold Vinyl versions, Impeccable WWE Extravagance Autographs #EA-GBS in Silver, Gold and Platinum, and Donruss Elite WWE Pen Pals #PL-GSV - issued at a point when he was barely appearing on WWE television.
After that the absence is the history. WWE released him on 3 May 2024, the Buffalo Bills signed and cut him over the same summer, and neither produced a card; his September 2025 professional MMA debut at LFA 217 produced none either. He signed with the UFC on 11 April 2026, too late for the 2026 Topps Chrome UFC checklist released 8 May and absent again from 2026 Topps Knockout UFC on 26 June, so his UFC 329 debut win over Elisha Ellison went uncarded. When Topps did announce a card of the 19 September 2026 UFC 331 finish, it was as Sean Sharaf's first card. Anyone buying a 'Gable Steveson rookie' is buying a Panini WWE card, because no UFC- or MMA-licensed card of him exists.
2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23 — Gable Steveson.
2022 Panini Instant WWE #15 — Gable Steveson.
2022 Panini Revolution WWE #96 — Gable Steveson.
2022 Panini Select WWE #208 — Gable Steveson.
2022 Panini Select WWE #90 — Gable Steveson.
2022 Panini Chronicles WWE #29 — Gable Steveson.
2022 Panini Chronicles WWE #251 — Gable Steveson.
2023 Panini Chronicles WWE #27 — Gable Steveson.
2023 Panini Impeccable WWE #EA-GBS — Gable Steveson.