Lee Sanders of The RCWR Show recently interviewed WWE artist Rob Schamberger, and the highlights below have been issued.
The RCWR Show with Lee Sanders airs every Tuesday night at 10pm ET after WWE Smackdown Live on Spreaker.com/TheRCWRshow and you can follow the show on Facebook and Twitter @TheRCWRshow.
Does the fan in you still come out now that you’re a living such an awesome dream right now? Are you able to find a balance or are you still getting the butterflies?
“No, I’ve been with them for 4 years now. The butterfly part is pretty much gone. Occasionally there will be, like I was working on some stuff behind the scenes and I met Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy. My first time meeting them, and I was taken back to when I first became a fan back in 1999. They were among my favorites. I was saying to myself, ‘I hope they are not jerks’. That was my only real worry cause I was such big fan of them. Turns out not to be the case at all. Jeff and I ended up spending time talking about painting techniques, and Matt was great too! Turns out Jeff watches the Canvas 2 Canvas videos I do for WWE. It was pretty surreal.”
You just touched upon the Hardy Boyz, how was it seeing the Hardy Boyz at this past WrestleMania? Did it take you by surprise? Cause we heard all the reports leading up to it and were like it’s not happening but it did. Did you mark out?
“I gotta say, it was a good thing there was no roof on that building cause the crowd reaction would have blow that right off! Also, I was there with my wife and best friend who I treated to the show. My best friend is a lawyer and with all the stuff revolving around the Hardyz he was like, ‘ok I’m really interested in this match.’ It was fun, really cool. He was really surprised, you know? New Day came out in their ring gear so people didn’t know how it was going down. Them possibly announcing they were gonna join in and then there were the Hardyz, and yeah! Again if there were a roof it would have been blown off!”
We saw one of the greatest moments occur with Roman Reigns. Looked as though Roman Reigns retired the Undertaker. I’m just curious how were your emotions when you saw it in real time seeing Taker lose?
“My wife especially took it really, really hard. She was sobbing almost like a family member had just passed. When she and I first started dating, there was a Royal Rumble 2007 event. I invited her over to my friend’s place as we were having a watching party. She was like, ‘urg wrestling, whatever.’ She wanted to be the good girlfriend and she came over. First Ric Flair came out she was like, “wait! I’ve seen Ric Flair as a kid!” Then Undertaker came out and she was like, “is this the same Undertaker?” I said “yeah, same guy!”
“It turned out her dad loved wrestling grow up. He was a notorious cheapskate as back then with the cable box, you could turn the tv to the pay per view channel. You could hear ( the action ) it but otherwise there was no one on your TV. And so my wife’s favorite wrestler as a kid was the Undertaker. She had never actually seen him. She had only had heard of him. So he ended up winning that Rumble when she came over and over time through this common love in wrestling. I’ve become very close to my now father-in-law, and it actually strengthened our relationship. So to seen him potentially retire in front of us like at Wrestlemania 24 for Ric Flair’s retirement match… It was one of those moments when you realize how much this things directly affects you.”
There was so many people sobbing, It was almost kind of equivalent to the Death of Superman. Everybody was like no, not the Undertaker. Including myself, I kind of felt like I sincerely lost a loved one. I think that is just the power of really the man behind the character of Undertaker. So a lot of credit goes to Mark. Just over the decades the different incarnations we’ve seen of the Undertaker right and just how he’s been able to stay relevant all these years, playing into some really good stories. Just combine all these things and that’s the stuff dreams are made of right?
“Pure speculation… For the record, I stay as far away from the creation planning or talent relations ’cause I wanna be a fan too. Just pure speculation. On the day that Undertaker goes into the Hall of Fame, we want him to give us a speech right? It wouldn’t be right for the Dead man to give us a speech. However, maybe American Badass can give us a speech. Maybe what we saw at Mania with him putting down his jacket and hat was the end of the Dead man but… there could be one Last Ride left.”
Interesting, I like that theory!
“I think he has a last big boot, chokeslam or Last Ride in him.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
