Athletes - Jake "The Snake" Roberts

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	Athletes - Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Aurelian Jake Smith, Jr. (born May 30, 1955 in Gainesville, Texas) better known by his ring name of Jake "The Snake" Roberts, is an American professional wrestler. Roberts played a notorious heel in the World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1980s. He was known for his spellbinding promos and dark charisma, his extensive use of psychology in his matches and for inventing the DDT finishing maneuver.

Roberts derived his nickname from being thin and snake-like. Once he reached the WWF, 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 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 later became a popular face and engaged 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 with training Diamond Dallas Page and Raven. Roberts and fellow wrestler Vader appeared on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World for one episode.

Wrestling career

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 in 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 Honky Tonk Man's guitar shot legitimately injured Jake's neck. Jake admitted in interviews that the shot was prior to the use of breakaway guitars, so when Honky clubbed him, he really got hit hard. Jake started using pain killers following the injury.

Perhaps his best-known feud was against "Ravishing" Rick Rude, who was doing a gimmick where he would select a woman from the audience to kiss after each match. Rude inadvertantly chose Jake's real-life wife Cheryl, who refused the kiss; Jake rescued her before Rude could attack. At another event, Rude wore a pair of tights emblazoned with a visage of Mrs. Roberts, which an irate Jake tore off, sending Rude running apparently naked from the ring.

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 office draw for the WWF. Jake was also supposed to wrestle the Ultimate Warrior after SummerSlam 1991, but due to a financial dispute that the Warrior had with the WWF around this same period, nothing was fully materialized.

Roberts had an extremely intense feud with "Macho Man" Randy Savage (around 1991), in which Jake famously used a cobra to bite the Macho Man's arm. WWF president Jack Tunney reinstated Savage, who had lost a retirement match earlier that year, as an active wrestler to get revenge for the attack, and he and Roberts feuded for the next few months.

Jake feuded with The Undertaker in early 1992, following his run with Savage, but he left the WWF after WrestleMania VIII, upset that WWF chairman 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.

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