Jake “The Snake” Roberts is one of the greatest wrestling characters in the history of professional wrestling. His dynamic yet subtle charisma, along with the snake he brought to the ring, made him a household name. He was a master at ring psychology and that went much further than maneuvers in the ring. He played mind games and didn’t have to yell to get his point across. He spoke softly so people had to pay attention. In his personal life, he’s had many ups and downs, with more downs unfortunately. He battled his demons and still does to this day. Many even credit Diamond Dallas Page for Jake even being alive. Today, I’d like to discuss his character, specifically him as a heel, and how he started in the WWF until the end of his first run in 1992.
Jake debuted in the WWF in late 1985 as a heel. The evil de displayed was that of a snake, a huge python named Damian, that he would use to intimidate and terrorize his opponents with. After his matches, ending with his devastating DDT finisher, he would take the snake out of its bag and put it on his fallen opponent. While this was indeed scary for the audience, it want until WrestleMania 2 that the evil of this character was brought to life. He took on enhancement talent George Wells. It was business as usual after Jake handily defeated Wells and brought out Damian. However, here’s the kicker, and apparently this was Wells’ idea. Wells started foaming at the mouth from the fear he felt. That visual helped people look at Jake as a huge threat. If true, we need to acknowledge Wells for really putting Jake over, not just in the sense of an in-ring win for Jake, but for the character as a whole.
Shortly after this in the early Spring of 1986, he entered into a feud with resident wrestling babyface, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat. Jake had to up the ante a bit to come across as more sinister. He did just that by attaching Steamboat at ringside. He then pulled the padding off the floor, revealing concrete. Then then proceeded to deliver the DDT to Steamboat head first to the concrete floor. The two had a tremendous feud. While Jake had his snake, Steamboat needed an equalizer, so for their penultimate match, he brought out a Komodo Dragon.
Jake was so good and got over so well that fans started rally behind him. Most of that reasoning had to do with the WWF wanting him to work with Hulk Hogan in a Championship feud. Whether it was Hogan or not, the plan was cancelled, as there was a fear Jake’s growing popularity might overshadow Hogan’s. Even if Hogan had politicked, it was ultimately the right move as this might have affected the upcoming Hogan/Andre the Giant feud. Seeing how popular he was getting, the WWF decided to ride with Roberts’ popularity and turn him babyface, which was started by the Honky Tonk Man.
After taking on the Honky Tonk Man at WrestleMania III, he go into a rivalry with Ravishing Rick Rude which lasted throughout most of 1988. In my opinion, thus begins the seeds that would slowly grow the next few years eventually back into his heel persona, several times as sinister as before. In order to get that way, he needed to go through some things. This was step one. Rude made things personal by going after Jake’s wife Cheryl, between hitting on her to wearing her face on his tights. This got under Jake’s skin big time.
It took a couple of years and a various feuds before step 2 came along. Jake’s next feud was with Andre the Giant. While Jake clearly couldn’t match Andre in size and strength, he had the psychological advantage. Andre was deathly afraid of snakes, which Jake exploited. It’s interesting how the use of something that made him hated as a heel caused him to be loved as a babyface and for him it was his opponents’ fear of snakes. Andre was once so visibly scared that he deliberately eliminated himself from the 1989 Royal Rumble. Jake moved on to feud with “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, which, incidentally, was part of the babyface turn of the Big. Bossman. He briefly feuded with Bad News Brown in the Summer of 1990. Shortly after that, step two came around in the form of Rick Martel.
On the set of the Brother Love Show, Rick Martel, now being in the middle of his model gimmick, attacked Roberts. He then blinded him by spraying him with his new cologne he called “Arrogance.” This led to a feud that would last all the way through WrestleMania 7the following year. The Snake and The Model captained opposing teams at the Survivor Series. Martel’s entire team survived. Slowly, Jake’s eyesight got better but he wasn’t done with Martel by long shot. When they finally did face each other at WrestleMania, it was contested in a blindfold match. Jake won after a DDT. Being blinded for a few months took its toll on him, though.
Just when we thought he was doing better, he got into a dispute with Earthquake. They were set for a match but Earthquake, because of his fear of snakes, refused to enter the ring until the snake was put under the ring. Moments later, Earthquake attacked Jake from behind, pushed him into the ring, and tied his arms in the ropes, all while manager Jimmy Hart supported Earthquake. The big man then grabbed the snake in the bag from beneath the ring. Roberts looked on horror as the big man used his Earthquake Splash on Damian. He did it again and left. When officials finally got Roberts untangled, he took a look in the bag as the inevitable happened. Damian was dead. He was so distraught and brought to tears that his companion of many years was gone.
As if the feud wasn’t intense enough, Earthquake entered the set of Prime Time Wrestling, adorned in chef hat and apron. He approached Mean Gene Okerland and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan with a large plate of hamburgers that he called Quake Burgers. Soon after, it was revealed that he made the burgers out of the remains of Damian. Jake eventually got his match and win over Earthquake, but it’s pretty clear that it destroyed his psyche. This was step 3 and when you put these incidents together, it makes sense how Jake ended up going back to his evil ways in the Summer of 1991. Between someone messing with his wife, someone blinding him, and another killing his beloved pet as he watched, something was about to give. Another hint is that when he got a new snake, it had an even more demonic name; Lucifer!
The Ultimate Warrior was embroiled in a feud with the Undertaker and needed help connecting to the dark side in order to conquer the dead man. The Warrior turned to Jake for guidance. Jake had Warrior go through various tests to prepare for the Undertaker, even going so far as to bury him up to his neck in a cemetery. But this wasn’t the worst of it! The last test was when Jake really took things too far. He locked the Warrior in a room with a bunch of venomous snakes. That sealed the deal and Jake was back to being his evil self. Jake then aligned with the Undertaker and his manager Paul Bearer. The Warrior soon moved on to continue to help Hulk Hogan against Sgt. Slaughter and company.
SummerSlam 1991 was dubbed “The Match Made In Heaven/The Match Made In Hell. The later was Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior in a handicap match against the Triangle of Terror. The Match Made in Heaven was the long awaited wedding of “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth, which took place after the show ended. After the beautiful ceremony, it was time for the party. They received many gifts from people and were very happy. A mysterious box appeared and when the couple opened it, a cobra was in the box, scaring everyone. Suddenly, Jake “The Snake” Roberts and the Undertaker appeared, terrorizing the guests. Savage was incredibly angry while trying to consume a very frightened and distraught Elizabeth, vowing revenge. Little did we know, this was just the beginning.
One fateful night on Superstars in November, 1991, Jake attacked the Macho Man again. He tied him into the ropes and brought a snake from his bag, which was revealed to be a king cobra. It latches into Savage’s arm and bit. I had just turned 11 weeks ago and can tell you that I, among many young fans, was traumatized. It was an intense sight to see. Elizabeth was at ringside frightened and being berated by Roberts. Rowdy Roddy Piper was on commentary with Savage before Jake lured him out of the booth. Piper tried to help, consoled Elizabeth, and made sure a stretcher was brought out for Savage. It was a scary site and Jake was now the ultimate heel, evil as can be.
Jake was to lead a team going into Survivor Series, which oddly enough would include former opponent Earthquake. They were to take on a team captained by Sid Justice. When Sid got injured, they instead took Jake out of the match to even the odds. They should have just reinstated Randy Savage at that point instead of waiting a few days later for “This Tuesday In Texas.” Savage had retired at WrestleMania earlier that year after a loss to the Ultimate Warrior. Roberts lost to Savage at the latter show but the attacks continued.
It lead to another rematch on Saturday Night’s Main Event in February, 1992, which Savage won. A week later on Superstars, a video was shown if what went down after the match. After Jake left the ring following the loss, he waited in the back for Savage and Elizabeth to come through the curtain, wielding a steel chair. He was prepared to hit either. So, just went we thought he couldn’t get anymore evil, he was prepared to hit a defenseless woman with a chair. Fortunately for the couple, something stopped Jake from hitting them. That something, surprisingly, was the Undertaker. This lead to the dead man becoming a good guy, at least in terms of wrestlers. Jake’s fate was now sealed as the Undertaker defeated him at WrestleMania 8, even after Jake hit him with a DDT on the exposed concrete.
Since this was the end of Jake’s first run in the company, it all came full circle, as he started and ended with the most evil intentions. He proved time and time again that you cannot trust a snake, which is ironic considering Jake’s theme by the point had him sinisterly using the words “trust me” just before the opening chords.
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