Jake Roberts Regrets Alcohol Infused Storyline w/ Jerry Lawler, Takes Exception To Recent Jim Neidhart Angle, Talks ‘Macho Man’ Cobra Bite

WWE Hall of Famer Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts was a recent guest on the Grind City Wrestling Podcast and opened up about the SummerSlam 1996 alcohol infused storyline with Jerry Lawler, the recent Jim Neidhart Angle in WWE, the time his cobra bit ‘Macho Man’ and more. Highlights appear below. 

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone) 

Comparing DDP’s Diamond Cutter To The DDT:

Whenever he hit that, the first time that I’d seen it, he finally put some of that teaching that I had in his head and put it to work. To have a finishing maneuver that you can hit at anytime out of the blue, that’s what you want. That’s how you get that unbelievable pop from the people because they’re not expecting it. It’s just magic, man. When he came up with that, it’s a hold you can do on anybody. That’s very important because sometimes these finishing holds don’t work on everyone. You’re not gonna pick Andre The Giant up and drop him with the Razor’s Edge. That’s not happening, or a Tombstone, but you can do it with a DDT or a Diamond Cutter.

On In-Ring Psychology:

Your matches are the whole thing. A smart guy wouldn’t go out and do his finishing maneuver first. It would sort of be like having sex and popping is the first thing you do. You don’t want to pop first. You want to build up to that, trust me. I’ve done both and the second one doesn’t work. It’s all part of it, man. A match is a wonderful thing, if you take care of it and have fun with it and tell it like a story instead of going out and emptying your gun in all sorts of places and not aiming at anything: What are you doing man? You’re just scatter shooting. You’re just taking a handful of crap and throwing it against the wall and seeing what sticks. That doesn’t work for me. I want to go out there and take those people on the ride and the biggest and hardest thing about doing that is learning to read your audience. You’ve got to go out and read the audience because they might not be ready to do what you want to do, so you may have to adjust. You may have to change it and go a different direction, but if you don’t go out and read the audience and see what they’re asking for, then you’re going to be taken off on a road that nobody’s even watching, so reading the audience is probably the most important thing.

On His 1996 SummerSlam Match W/ Jerry Lawler:

That was ridiculous. That’s one of the things I wished I’d never done. The whole idea behind that was really cheap, I thought. I thought it was disgusting, actually. After everything I’ve been through, you’re going to go out there and bring that out to the front and that’s gonna be your idea? That’s the best the writers can come up with? Come on, give me a break. It was ridiculous. Not many times in my career that I said no, but that’s one time I should have said, ‘No. To hell with you all. I’m not doing this ridiculous stuff. This is very personal. My God, come on.’ Let’s just get off of that.

More On Jerry Lawler & Working In Memphis:

[I don’t have a lot of stories] about working with The King. The King was smart. He kept away from everybody. He hid. One thing I can tell you about Memphis is back in the day when I was first starting, I was green out of the box and I didn’t have a clue what was going on, I came up to Memphis and the Memphis territory at the time was down and not bringing in a whole lot of fans, so that meant even less money for the talent. I was there for about two months and I went to Jarrett and he was running the show at the time and telling him that I had to leave. He said, ‘Why you leaving? You just got here.’ I told him I didn’t bring enough money because I’m digging out of my pockets to see. What the hell am I doing? That wasn’t a good experience for me.

On The Recent Jim Neidhart Angle:

They’re doing something with Neidhart’s daughter, too. Pictures of her dad and stuff. Are you serious? How ridiculous is that?

On His Cobra & Snake Bite Angle W/ ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage:

It was wonderful. I hate dealing with snakes. I’m scared of them just like everybody else, but I put that mask on because I’m a whore. I go out there and do my job and carry it out pretty damn well, just to pat on my own back, but yeah, I can’t stand snakes. If you go out and give it to somebody else, it’s always a fresh idea and watch the reaction. It’s wonderful. [Roberts alleges that Savage made him take the snake bite first] He wanted to make sure I didn’t take his title. If you know Randy, you know that’s what he’s like. He thinks the whole world is out to get him and whatever. It was pretty ridiculous, ‘Let the snake bite you first, brother.’ ‘Are you serious?’ I had to pull my damn pant leg up, let the snake bite me and then he wouldn’t let me move, wouldn’t let me walk off, ‘You ain’t taking no antidotes, no elixirs, no nothing brother. I want to see, if you die.’

Readers may listen to the Grind City Wrestling Podcast in its entirety below:

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