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Roberts derived his nickname from one of the most unusual gimmick in wrestling history. Throughout his career, Roberts would bring a huge, live python (though various snakes were used over the years, each was invariably named "Damien") to ringside in a canvas bag. After stunning or DDT'ing his opponent (usually a jobber ), Roberts would coil the constrictor around the opponent's neck, with the snake then appearing to strangle the victim senseless. It was a masterful show of kayfabe , as the wrestler lay flailing and foaming at the mouth with the monstrous snake squeezing the life out of him.
Roberts would later become a face , engaging in a long feud with André the Giant ; in this storyline, Roberts used his snake to gain a psychological edge over the ophidiophobic André, to nullify the Giant's overwhelming size and strength advantage. However, Roberts' fame diminished throughout the 1990s as drug addictions and depression increasingly dominated his life. His storied career was documented in the 1999 documentary Beyond the Mat and again in the WWE-produced, 2005 DVD set Pick Your Poison.
Jake Roberts is credited for training Diamond Dallas Page and Raven . Roberts and fellow wrestler Vader appeared on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World for one episode.
Roberts started his career in 1975 in the Georgia area and made his name in the NWA as part of Paul Ellering 's heel stable , The Legion of Doom . He feuded with Ron Garvin in the 1980s over the NWA World Television Championship .
One of the more memorable moments in his career was when he had Alice Cooper in his corner during WrestleMania III at 1987 . Jake's WrestleMania III opponent, The Honky Tonk Man , brutally attacked Jake with a guitar on Jake's interview segment, The Snake Pit . In reality, the Honkytonk Man's guitar shot to Jake's head legitimately injured Jake's neck. In response, Jake started consuming pain killers in order to continue wrestling.
Roberts had an extremely intense feud with "Macho Man" Randy Savage (around 1991 ) and later with The Undertaker . Jake's feud with Randy Savage ignited after Jake crashed Savage's wedding to Miss Elizabeth at SummerSlam . Savage, who couldn't wrestle due to him losing a retirement match to the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII started petitioning to the fans to get his job back (so he can get revenge on Roberts). The fued reached a boiling point when on an edition of Superstars of Wrestling , Roberts beat down Savage (after Jake challenged Savage, who was doing commentatary with Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper ), tied Savage to the ropes, and had a cobra bite Savage’s arm. Due to the incident, WWF president Jack Tunney suspended Roberts for Survivor Series and banned any reptiles from ringside. Ultimately, Tunney decided to reinstate Savage and set up a match between Roberts and Savage for a special pay-per-view called, Tuesday In Texas . Even though, Savage won the match, Jake got the upper hand by assaulting Savage’s wife, Miss Elizabeth. Savage got even when he eliminated Roberts from 1992 Royal Rumble . On Saturday Night's Main Event , Savage defeated Roberts to end the feud once and for all. Roberts was not done though. As the Macho Man and Elizabeth were heading to the backstage area, Roberts was waiting behind the curtain, ready to attack the Macho Man and/or Elizabeth with a chair. As Jake was ready to swing the chair, the Undertaker was behind him and prevented the attack, thus setting up their match at WrestleMania VIII.
Perhaps his best-known feud was against "Ravishing" Rick Rude . In one incident the self-loving Rude took liberties with Roberts's wife (who would sometimes accompany Roberts to the ring); later Rude appeared at a match wearing a pair of tights emblazoned with a visage of Mrs. Roberts. An irate Jake turned up and tore off Rude's tights, sending him running apparently naked from the ring. To the TV audience the footage was censored, but to the live crowd it was apparent he was wearing a thong.
Jake also began a brief feud with Hulk Hogan , but the angle was dropped when Roberts started receiving cheers from the crowd (even though Jake was initially intended to be a heel). This was seen as bad for business considering that Hogan was the top box officedraw for the WWF. Jake was also supposed to wrestle the Ultimate Warrior after the 1991 SummerSlam. But due to a fiancial dispute that the Warrior had with the WWF around this same period, nothing was fully materialized.
Jake left the WWF after WrestleMania VIII in 1992 . Jake was upset that WWF chariman Vince McMahon didn't offer him a position on the writing staff despite being promised previously. After Pat Patterson stepped down from his the writing staff, Vince decided that out of respect for Patterson, the spot would be left vacant. Jake felt that he was not only lied to but also betrayed. In response, Jake threatened to no-show WrestleMania VIII if he wasn't given a release from his contract.
Jake wanted to work for World Championship Wrestling and because his father, Grizzly Smithwas already working three. Jake also wanted to work for WCW because he believed that as long as Kip Allen Frey was running the show, wrestlers were going to get huge pay days. Jake had to wait 90 days before being able to sign a contract with WCW. On the 87 day, Frye left the company and was subseqently replaced by Bill Watts . By the time Jake finally came to WCW, Watts took one look at Jake said "You've got to be kidding", ripped up the contract, and threw it in his face. So Jake went from making $3.5 million a year to making approximately $200,000 a year while at WCW. When Jake wrestled for WCW in 1992 , he aligned himself with The Barbarian and Cactus Jack to feud with Sting and Nikita Koloff . He was bit by his own snake after a PPVmatch against Sting at Halloween Havoc on October 25, 1992 .
Jake attempted to return to the WWF as a Bible -reading face in 1996 . Jake also had a different python with him named “Revelations.” Roberts claimed to be changed man, who told his fans that he regretted doing bad deeds during his career, but his physique was really bad at the time. Despite being having his comeback be pushed as a "Cinderella Story", Jake was ultimately defeated and driven out by Stone Cold Steve Austin . Austin, mocking Roberts' recital of the biblical passage John 3:16told Roberts after a match: "Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!" Further, in a mention to Roberts' alcoholism (see below), he stated of Roberts, "All he needs to do is get himself a cheap bottle of Thunderbird , and try to find some of the courage he had in his prime."
Also during his comeback, Jake was engaged in a fued with Jerry "The King Lawler , who went to great lengths to antagonize Jake's past bouts with alcoholism. Unbeknowest to not only Lawler but to Vince McMahon, Jake hated having to go through that particular angle since it dealt with a "based on fact" problem of his. Lawler even brought a bottle to the ring and imitated Roberts. There was eventually a match between them at at SummerSlam with Lawler ended up winning. After the Royal Rumble in 1997 , Roberts left the WWF once again. Jake was supposedly was fired from the WWF in 1997 after failing to show up for work.
Jake's career was derailed by problems with drugs and alcohol. He still wrestles on the independent circuit , though along with his drug and alcohol abuse (well chronicled in the documentary Beyond the Mat) his career has also been hampered by a series of legal problems. In one notorious 1999 PPV show, Heroes of Wrestling , he cut a rambling, incoherent promo in which he heavily slurred his words. Minutes later, he staggered toward the ring, apparently drunk, for his scheduled match with Jim Neidhart. During the match, when his snake wriggled free from the bag, he waved the snake toward the audience while it was protruding from his crotch.
On October 20 2002 , Jake Roberts became the NWA (UK) Hammerlock Heavyweight Champion in Maidstone, Kent, England by defeating "Vigilante" Johnny Moss . Moss defeated him for the title the next night in Ashford, Kent, England though. In November 2002 , Jake started his own wrestling promotion in the UK , called Real Stars of Wrestling.
He was recently seen on a March 14, 2005 episode of WWE's RAW in Atlanta , as part of a storyline involving Randy Orton facing The Undertaker at WrestleMania (as Roberts lost to The Undertaker at WM8 ). His appearance was greatly received despite the fact he was considerably over-weight and grey. He even got cheered during his in-ring confrontation with Orton which saw the pair trash-talk , as Roberts believed Orton had bitten off more than he could chew. Roberts said to Orton that he was there to "Reintroduce your brain to his mouth, cause you're talkin' out your ass!" This led to a comeback of Orton saying he would make a bigger impact than Jake did his whole career. In response, Roberts said he would show Randy Orton 12-feet of impact, and bent over to pick up the sack (containing a python). At this point Orton grabbed Roberts from behind, but Roberts took Orton down with a stiff short-arm clothesline . The still-cheering crowd called for Roberts to hit the DDT, but as he set up for the DDT, Orton reversed it into an RKO .
Jake is the son of wrestler Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith, with whom he has a strained relationship. He has a half-brother , Michael , and a half-sister , Robin , both of whom also became wrestlers. He has an ex-wife, Cheryl Roberts, who was actually involved in WWF storylines in the late 80s.