7 Non-WWE Projects That Do WWE BETTER Than WWE
The Outsiders
Have you watched a full episode of Monday Night Raw recently? A full, three hours-plus-overrun edition of the flagship show? "No" isn't the guilty response.
There was a time when - with the show at spry one or slim two hours in length - Raw was as essential as a Sopranos, wild as The Wire or as brilliant as a Breaking Bad. When the stories and characters didn't match the magnificence of those televisual feasts, the events were short enough to digest and delight in. The move to serve television networks and advertisers over their audience in 2012 was the first of many made to secure the company's presence at the expense of narrative conventions that once dictated the television output.
Wrestlers' motivations were no longer solely constructed based on their next pay-per-view match or programme, but on how they slotted into a 'Universe' that included the fans. The phrase "WWE Universe' itself remains an intentionally vague way of classifying why we're all actually here in the first place. Some used to come for the sports, some for the entertainment, but it's impossible to parse what Sports Entertainment actually is in 2018 if 180 Monday minutes are your only frame of reference.
There are other ways to engage.
This list pays loving tribute to the content creators that pay loving tribute to WWE in a way the company itself no longer can or will. Want to believe the superstars are still actual Superstars? Here are some Great Men and Women that make it so...
7. The Art Of Rob Schamberger
Rob Schamberger has worked with WWE for five years, but his vivid and evocative replications of Superstars past and present often pack a punch as potent as the high definition visuals used by the company on Raw and Smackdown Live.
Welcoming him onto the Network and their official YouTube channel as a way to co-promote sales of his work and merchandise at major shows and conventions, the company have established him as their ultra-talented in-house illustrator.
Under their employ, the Kansas City-born artist has done what others on this list have also managed - made the company's brightest and best feel more contemporary than WWE do on Monday Nights. The walls of company headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut are now adorned with his work alongside the usual rotation of posters and prints.
His work is available to enjoy at robschamberger.com, whilst aforementioned purchases of his wares can be made via his personal corner of WWEShop.com.