Why this is the rookie
2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23 holds up. Two independent databases flag it as a rookie — SportsCardsPro answers 'Is Rookie Card: Yes' and Collectibles.com lists it '#23 RC' — and Cardboard Connection confirms the card and dates the product to 6 April 2022, ahead of Revolution on 3 June and Select on 12 August. The check that mattered most came back clean: he has no 2021 Olympic card at all, because the 76-card Topps U.S. Olympics & Paralympics Team Hopefuls set shipped on 14 July 2021, three weeks before he won gold, and does not include him. It is held at high rather than verified because Cardboard Connection's checklist does not record a printed RC logo on the Prizm base set, and because the undated Panini Instant WrestleMania card could in principle have been ordered a few days earlier.
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.
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.
Identifying it
- Card #23, horizontal layout, branded 'Raw' per the Cardboard Connection checklist
- Base version is unnumbered with no coloured Prizm finish — the numbered parallels carry the serial on the front or back
- Verify against the 200-card base checklist; #23 is well inside the base run, not an insert
Parallels
Card milestones
Five separate questions, kept separate. How these are defined.
- Earliest licensed card2022 Panini Instant WWE #15 Uncertain
- First MMA cardNone documented High confidence
- First UFC cardNone documented High confidence
- First certified autograph2022 Panini Select WWE — Ringside Action Signatures #90 Uncertain
- Recognized rookie card2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23 High confidence
The evidence behind each
- 2022Earliest licensed card — A marketplace listing identifies the card as a WrestleMania short print numbered /908, which ties it to WrestleMania 38 on 2-3 April 2022 — three days before 2022 Panini Prizm WWE reached shelves on 6 April. Panini Instant is a print-to-order line and no source publishes an issue date for #15, so whether it or the Prizm card came first is unresolved. Collectibles.com is the only database carrying it, and then only in Versicolor and Black parallels.
- —First MMA card — Every Steveson card located in Collectibles.com, SportsCardsPro and Cardboard Connection's checklists is a Panini WWE wrestling card. He signed with the UFC in April 2026 and debuted at UFC 329, after the 2026 Topps UFC releases had already shipped.
- —First UFC card — He is absent from the 2026 Topps Chrome UFC and 2026 Topps UFC Knockout checklists, both of which were published before his UFC debut.
- 2022First certified autograph — Cardboard Connection's Select checklist places him in Ringside Action Signatures at #90 and states he is not in the 100-card Signature Selections checklist, while Collectibles.com instead lists a '2022 Panini Select WWE Signature Selections Gold Prizms #SN-GSV' for him. SportsCardsPro also carries a 2022 Panini Immaculate WWE Memorabilia Autograph #110, whose release date relative to Select has not been established. The sources do not agree on which 2022 signature is his first.
- 2022Recognized rookie card — SportsCardsPro's product page answers 'Is Rookie Card: Yes' and Collectibles.com lists it as '#23 RC'; Cardboard Connection independently confirms the card ('Gable Steveson - Raw', #23, horizontal) in a 200-card base set released 6 April 2022, the earliest documented release date among his rookie-year products.
Grading & population
Population figures will be taken directly from the grading companies and dated when they are. None are shown yet.
Sources & research Verified×1High confidence×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.
2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23 — Gable Steveson.
Copies available
Nothing from the archive is currently available.
Go deeper
- The card record2022 Panini Prizm WWE #23
- Gable Steveson archiveKey cards and eras