Jake Roberts Shoots

[Lil' Bitch 0]

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

Guest: Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts

Date: 21st October 2003

Your Hosts: Daniel Edler & James Walsh

Recap by: James Walsh

 

Already submitted to our local radio station for candidate of ‘best interview of 2003‘, Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts is back for part two of this three parter interview.

 

Part of the submission to the station states we can only air 2/3 of the interview (for station official voting purposes), until after the judging has ended. So with that, we‘ve decided to hold back this section… nothing against posting the transcript though, so here it is, Jake Roberts Part 2!

 

Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts Interview Part 2

 

-- Jake went to the WWF after having a problem with Bill Watts. He was wrestling the third or fourth match on every show when a lot of the fans showed up just to see him and because of his card placing, he was also getting third or fourth match on the card money when he knew he should've been getting what the other guys did. So, Terry Taylor, who was Bill Watts' "GM" at the time, took him aside and told him he was the company's fifth babyface. Ted DiBiase, Jim Duggan, Steve Williams, and someone else who he cannot recall went over him. So, after that conversation Jake called Vince McMahon's office. Vince was on vacation for four weeks. So, Jake felt "Great. I just quit a job and now I can't get a call back for a month." Fifteen minutes later, Vince calls Jake directly and has Jake come up for a meeting.

 

-- Vince wow'd you with his genius. He went into Vince's office for the first time and saw all psychology books everywhere. When Vince told him of the strategy for Jake's character, he was told to wear lace up boots and lime green tights. Jake refused feeling that his character wore the karate pants. Vince said "That's a shame because the person that plays this character will be getting $2,000,000 a year" to which Jake instantly thought "Well, I could wear tights."

 

-- Vince also wanted Jake to carry the Snake. Jake wanted to do that for a long period of time while working for Watts but Watts felt that would be a carnival act. Jake then talks about his boots. He says if you wrestle for ten years, you spend six weeks of your life just lacing up your boots. So, he figures if a wrestler wears lace up boots, St. Peter laughs at you at the gates of Heaven for wasting so much time. So, Jake wore pull on boots.

 

-- Jake thinks that one day Vince will run for President, and WIN. James asks if that’s why Jake moved to England, but Jake explains that he moved over here to get away from the “sh*tty” indy scene in America, and come across for the architecture in England as he always wanted to be an architect as a child.

 

-- The production of the WWF was amazing. When you go there, they give you a tour of the place and all the production equipment they have, "and this floor is for creative" and so forth. He says working for other companies, there was one office for it with a guy writing checks in the corner. With this company, you had an incredible amount of organization.

 

-- When Jake was doing the Snakepit, Hulk Hogan was a guest. They did a thing where Hogan said his pythons were bigger than Jake's. Jake laughed at how little of thought went into that. So, he'd tape the snake then tape Hogan’s' arm, the tape was rigged to make Hogan's arm look 24 inches which he says was bullshit, after doing this, Jake threw the chalk in Hogan's face and gave him the DDT. Jake walked through the curtain and talked with Vince as they felt it was working. Vince said to wait for Hogan to come back, Jake said okay but he thinks Hogan's out. Jake explains by saying that you can't do the DDT the right way without it taking it's toll. Hogan was to stand up as the crowd chanted Hogan's name but instead, the crowd chanted "DDT." So, Vince said "that's the end of that." Jake insisted that it was working but Vince felt that the fans being split would hurt his marketing plan.

 

So, they turned Jake face to set guys up for Hogan to feud with. When Hogan was fighting a guy in one city, Jake would be putting somebody over somewhere else so that when their locations switched, the guy Jake put over would be fighting Hogan and so forth.

 

-- Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat was a great talent, quite possibly the best guy Jake has ever worked with. The injury Ricky suffered in a match with Jake was an accident but not one Jake didn't expect. Jake says that George Scott was then one of the bookers and felt that Ricky had gotten a break from George in another territory. So, George saw this as giving back. According to Jake, Ricky wasn't very against the idea but Jake warned that the DT done the way it's supposed to be done can hurt you if done anywhere but in the ring. They did it on the concrete and Jake says that Ricky's head swelled by four inches. It took weeks before Ricky's eyes could turn black. He says that was a serious injury that shouldn't have happened. He then goes on to say that as good of a wrestler as Ricky was, he was a better man.

 

-- There were some guys like Roddy Piper and S. D. Jones that were afraid of the snake. Some guys would come from the ring after having the snake on them and thank God for getting them through it. They would tell the lord that they would never cheat on their wives again and would go to Church on Sunday from now on.

 

-- Jake feels wrestling Junkyard Dog was like getting your teeth pulled without being medicated. He wrestled JYD a lot back in Stampede for Stu Hart, when he was Sylvester Ritter .

 

-- Jake told Vince that he didn't have to get paid, being with Alice Cooper was a cool enough deal. Jake was an Alice Cooper fan and Alice was the hottest thing there was in 1973 when Jake graduated high school. So, he was thrilled. When Jake went to the photo shot, he saw Alice in full make up and Jake said "Woah, who's this dude?" When he figured out it was Alice, he loved it. Alice introduced himself and said he is a big fan of Jake's character.

 

-- Working with Rick Rude was okay. Rick lived with Jake in the early days as did Joe (Animal) from the Road Warriors. Jake liked to smoke back then and Rick was a big health nut. So, he got on Jake's nerves. A promoter called Jake about finding a guy to work as a Road Warrior style wrestler and he sent Rick to the guy just to get him "the hell out of my house".

 

-- Ted DiBiase was a great wrestler he says there are guys that you can work with that can do anything you want them to do as long as you tell them what to do. Ted was one of those guys. He could do anything you asked him to do as long as you told him what to do.

 

-- Badnews Allan (Brown) was a treat to work with. In the WWF, he was abused. He says you should never expose a weakness in a guy. With Andre, if you knocked him on his back he'd take a while to get up. So, if you knock Andre down, do it by the ropes and he'd pull himself up with the ropes. Badnews had horrible knees. It took him about ten seconds to stand up. So, you obviously don't knock him down. Well, they set Badnews up for a feud with Hogan. Badnews wrestled Bret Hart, they knew what to do to make Badnews look good and then it was time for the "long run" that was promised for Badnews with Hogan. Well, Hogan insisted on knocking Badnews down. So, they had their match on a Saturday Night's Main Event, and that was about the last of it because it was horrible.

 

-- The blindfold match is the match that everyone asks him about. It was the easiest match in his career. They went out on a WrestleMania, where you're supposed to give your all, and pointed their fingers at each other for a while with the crowd telling them where the other was. He says he could see right through the mask. So, all you had to do was stop, point, and let the crowd go crazy. Felt that was lovely.

 

-- The greatest thing Jake has seen for the business in a long time was that the Ultimate Warrior announced his return to the business. He then saw that it was in a video game. He feels sorry for people who buy the game because it will suck. He took months off doing the backstage clips of himself and the Warrior and they were headed towards a big push for Jake. SummerSlam 1991 comes about and the Warrior refuses to go out to the ring that night unless Vince gave him a million dollars cash. Vince paid the Warrior, Warrior went to the ring and had his tag match with Hogan, and when he walked through the curtain he was fired. Vince then said to Jake, "You have the worst luck".

 

-- Randy Savage was okay to work with if you could just calm him down. He tells a story about having Liz on her knees in the ring begging for mercy and Randy says, and Jake does a FANTASTIC Randy Savage impression, "What do you want her to do." and then, well, you can draw your conclusions of what it looks like with a woman on her knees in front of a man. Jake had to assure Savage that it was just begging. But, that's how Randy was. He was very intense.

 

-- Jake has not heard Randy's rap album nor does he want to. He figures it has to be insane. He says Randy used to blow dry his hair, now he just oils it down. But, he can't imagine Randy's voice singing or rapping of any kind. He talks about Randy's favorite singer being a country singer and says that's not even remotely rap.

 

-- Jake again did an impression of Randy Savage backstage the night of the snake bite incident. It has to be heard to hear how good it was. So, Jake talks about the incident saying that Randy was okay with the snake bite until his paranoia kicked in and said "What if Vince and the snake man want to take the Macho Man out of the wrestling business, uh huh." Jake says that Randy was convinced the snake was poisoned so he insisted that Jake allow the snake to bite Jake himself first. Macho then sat there glaring at Jake saying, in a real low and crazy sounding voice, "Lets just watch you now." An hour later, Randy saw that Jake was okay and said okay to the snake bite.

 

-- So, it came time for Randy to get bit and the snake dug in. The snake chewed on Randy for about a minute and a half. What they showed on TV was cut because it was longer than expected. Jake would try to take the snake off of Randy and it would hold on. They sent Piper to the ring to tell Jake to get it off but Piper was too afraid to touch it. They then sent Liz to the ring to scream to get it off and Jake told her he was trying but when he'd pull it, it'd snap right back like pulling a bungee chord. When the snake let go, Jake remembered what Randy said about going straight back to him with it and Randy screamed "Keep it away from me!". So, working with Randy was okay except for the first five minutes of every match being a legitimate fist fight.

 

-- He doesn't feel the Undertaker feud was much of a feud. He says that he is responsible for Undertaker no longer wearing make up. He says that after he spent time with Jake, he had the black circles under his eyes anyway. But, he wasn't too crazy about the feud. But, it was his idea to do things like slamming his hand in the casket and such.

 

-- The reason Jake left the WWF was because of the whole situation with Pat Patterson. Pat resigned from the WWF and Jake felt that it was time for him to get the booking job he was promised. Vince walked up to Jake and said "Out of respect to Pat, we're not going to do that." Jake said "What?" - just because a doctor resigns before open heart surgery, they don't send a gynecologist instead. So, because he was lied to, he quit.

 

-- He immediately went to WCW and negotiated a massive contract with a man named Kip Fry. The deal would give him 50 percent of all merchandise sold as opposed to the eight cents you got per shirt sold in the WWF. He says his half sister worked for the WWF as a vender and would tell Jake that his shirts sold out every night. They brought 100 shirts with them every night. But, when Jake was given the merchandise sheet, it said 6 sold in this town, 8 in the other, 7 in the other. It became a joke. Because of that, it became policy that the wrestlers not talk to the venders and the guy his half sister was dating lost his job over it.

 

-- He didn't enjoy working with Sting at all. Sting was probably in the worst ten percent of the guys that Jake worked with. He feels the best thing they did to him was giving him the crow character but feels they then messed it up by allowing him to speak again. "Sting is very overrated."

 

-- Bill Watts came into power at WCW. Jake showed up at a television taping and they said that the snake was banned. Basically, they were trying to kill his character. He feels Bill Watts figured that if you killed the star, you'd get more out of him. Jake said it's like a race horse. You should put your colors on him and ride it until it drops. "Yeah, he's with WCW now." But, they didn't and he left. Also, Watts cut his 4 million dollar contract down to a half million. Quite a difference, don't you think?

 

-- Smokey Mountain was okay. He had fun but it was short lived. There isn't a lot to say about it except it was fun.

 

-- He worked with AAA for a long time. It was a fun place to work even though he feels once the name "promoter" is put on someone, they become hard to deal with. He went there because "I'm a prostitute". He says, "Pay me and I'll do anything".

 

-- Jake had absolutely no reservations about his hair VS hair match with Konnan. He got paid $75,000 for that. He says at the end of the day, the hair grows back. The only thing that cannot be taken from you, and it isn't sanity, body parts, or anything like that, is your word. He never sold his word.

 

-- Jake tells a story about wrestling a show where it was nothing but impostors There was a fake Undertaker that stood 6'2. There was a Stone Cold that weighed 125 pounds, and then there was the real Jake. After the show, everyone said that Jake was a fake and Jake had to say that he was the only "real" guy there.

 

-- Jake's school isn't like Shawn Michaels' or others because you don't get a Royal Rumble appearance at the end of his and act like that's a big deal. What you do get is trained how to actually wrestle and in the end, it will pay off. Jake also adds that his is the cheapest because he isn't doing it for money, but for this reason. When he turns 80, he wants to be able to pinch a young nurse on the ass and be sent to his room. While in the room, he wants to be able to watch some wrestling he likes. So, he is trying to teach the kids today to learn how to work.

[Downhome 0]

-- Jake's school isn't like Shawn Michaels' or others because you don't get a Royal Rumble appearance at the end of his and act like that's a big deal. What you do get is trained how to actually wrestle and in the end, it will pay off. Jake also adds that his is the cheapest because he isn't doing it for money, but for this reason. When he turns 80, he wants to be able to pinch a young nurse on the ass and be sent to his room. While in the room, he wants to be able to watch some wrestling he likes. So, he is trying to teach the kids today to learn how to work. [/i]

I truly wish the man would get his shit in order, and become totally straight. I'm sure the man is/could be a hell of a teacher.

 

I'll always be a fan of his, always.

[1234-5678 0]

Jake and Raven are the two guys who I always make sure to listen to or read a recap of their interviews. Utterly fantastic every time. Does anyone else remember when Jake HATED Jericho? Hilarious stuff.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

"What if Vince and the snake man want to take the Macho Man out of the wrestling business, uh huh."

 

LMFAO!! I could SO hear Savage saying that.

 

Good read. Jake atleast seems honest unlike most.

[JJMc 0]

Jake rules. Unquestionably my favorite of all time. The drug thing doesn't really bother me. At least he's honest about it.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

always a good read