Jake Roberts shoots

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

Show: The Interactive Interview (Courtesy of ProWrestling.com)

Guest: Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts (Part 1)

Date: 28th October

Your Hosts: Daniel Edler & James Walsh

Recap by: Daniel Edler

 

In TII‘s very first ever two (maybe even three…) part interview, Jake Roberts speaks about the early days of his career, pre WWE.

 

One note, if you are reading this recap a long time after the date of the show and want to listen to it, it‘s likely the links for the audio will no longer work, so check out the TII website‘s archives instead.

 

 

-- Jake says that he’s doing miserable… but that it’s a good thing, because if you stay miserable then nobody can screw things up for you.

 

-- He said he grew up around wrestling as his father, Grizzly Smith, was a wrestler. He followed in his dad’s footsteps to try and make him happy, but his father discouraged him at every step of the way.

 

-- Jake wanted the ‘perfect family’ that he saw on television, but he soon realised it doesn’t exist.

 

-- Nobody trained him to wrestle, he did it the worst way possible - trial and error.

 

-- He says that Eddie Graham was the best ‘finish man’ ever, and that Bill Watts stole a lot of his good ideas from Eddie Graham - “[bill] Watts never had an original idea in his life!”.

 

-- Dusty and himself never really spoke when they were in Florida. Jake says he’s not a “hey buddy buddy type of guy”, and he doesn’t like people because they’re good at what they do, he likes people because they’re people. Jake feels that he’d still be in the WWF and be “stinkin rich, filthy rich” if he kissed ass - but he doesn’t feel he should kiss somebody’s BUTT just to have a job.

 

-- Jake then give the analogy that if his job was carrying eggs from a hen house to a grocer, and never broke a single egg, he wouldn’t have to kiss the ass of the boss to keep his job. Vince once called him in to discuss future plans on one of his days off - one of just 3 every 90 days, and that just wasn’t on.

 

-- On the topic of Bill Watts, Jake says that he’s a “horrible, horrible, horrible person” and a “bully”. He also says that Bill abused people physically, mentally and in every other way you could think of. “If so happen to go to hell, and by god he’s not there, I’m gonna be really pissed off”.

 

Watts used to pick on the blacks, with the name Jake mentioned in specific being Ernie Ladd.

 

-- Magnum TA was what Jake called a “good kid”, but he was getting ripped off during his wrestling training. After that experience, Jake feels he turned sour and started to “believe his own hype”, something he thinks happens to too many people.

 

-- Roberts then makes an off the cuff comment about nobody really ‘winning’ the title, and follows it up by saying if it was about the toughest guys it’d be just Haku and Hacksaw Jim Duggan left at the end.

 

-- In an angle where Jake was ‘barred from the building’ (in the angle), he came out during a match in which he helped Kevin Sullivan win, as the heel Santa. Jake said he was in the crowd giving out candy during the event, and just entered for the main event. His worst memory was that he was told to wait for Sullivan after the match, and he did (whilst being pelted by the crowd), but Sullivan ran off. However, he has fond memories of when after the show he heard police saying how they couldn’t believe the crowd were chanting “Kill Santa, Kill Santa” on Christmas night.

 

-- He ended up leaving Florida as himself and Barry Windham were being ‘used’, working long matches and earning little whereas the main eventers were working short matches and getting paid lots, so he felt it was just time.

 

-- On the topic of how he enjoyed working for World Class - he didn’t [enjoy it]! Vince was buying people out, and he could’ve gone with him, but Jake’s loyalty to wrestling as he used to know it, he stayed with the old school. And now, he regrets that ‘stupid’ decision.

 

-- Talk then turns to the Von Erich family, with Jake explaining the real reason that the Von Erich’s were ‘out of control’ - and it isn’t drugs. He speaks at more length about Fritz Von Erich, the father of the family.

 

-- Jake then told a funny story about working with Ronny Garvin. He said they never needed to talk about the match they were having before, during or after. They would just work, and Jake knew how to react to Garvin through a special code - his nipples would become hard!

 

-- Roberts states that out of all the pro wrestlers that have been conditioned today in modern times, he can only name Angle, Guerrero and Benoit as three that would’ve survived the old school style of wrestling.

 

-- Jake and the hosts Daniel & James then stray from their questioning for around 8 minutes in some truly amazing stuff where he really opens up with his un-provoked thoughts on two or three different topics following on from the question above.

 

-- The DDT is the explained, where it came from, a complete accident; he worked a front face lock on an opponent, got tripped and hit the move now known as the DDT. The name came from that toxic chemical the government were outlawing, and was nothing to do with Damien - although Jake said the naming could’ve had something to do with marijuana.

 

-- Roberts then emotionally gives his thoughts on the passing of ‘Road Warrior Hawk’, Michael Hegstrand, and what a great man he was. He then mentions Stu Hart and how he used to (in jest) try and keep away from him as he’d try to ‘stretch’ him.

 

-- His one night confrontation with Mohammed Ali was an interesting one for him. He said he didn’t sell Ali’s punches (which p*ssed off Bill Watts) because the next week he had to return as the top heel and make money.

 

-- When the name Ric Flair is mentioned, Jake says “okay next?”. We do finally get an answer out of him, where he says “as far as the man not having a drug problem… just because he had a prescription for a drug, does not mean you do not have a drug problem”, and also calls him “tremendously over-rated”.

 

-- Jake wraps off part 1 by talking about the wrestling school he's opening up in Gosport, Portsmouth, England. He says it opens its doors for the first time this Friday (31st October, Halloween) @ 6.30 and is just £50 to join, and £25 for every week thereafter.

 

The location of the school is Forton Hall in St. Vincent Leisure Center, Mill Lane, Gosport. Head along to it to find out about it at the above time, or, send in an email to me at [email protected] for more information direct from Jake.

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

Just reading this the title of this thread made me think Jake went further off the deep end and either shot his crack dealer or himself.

Edited October 29, 2003 by frozenblockofpiss

[Guest Choken One]

I'm sure the feds will be monitoring Jake's school very closely.

[nl5xsk1 0]

It cracks me up to hear someone like Roberts saying that someone else has started to believe their own hype ... Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I'm shocked Jake was able to say all that so eliquently.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

-- When the name Ric Flair is mentioned, Jake says “okay next?”. We do finally get an answer out of him, where he says “as far as the man not having a drug problem… just because he had a prescription for a drug, does not mean you do not have a drug problem”, and also calls him “tremendously over-rated”.

 

the irony in this is giving me the shits......