Original subtitles

My name is Aurelian Smith Jr., but I haven't been called that in years.

My name is Jake the Snake Roberts.

The people have grown to love this man. He's got such a great fighting heart.

I'm the kind of man that walks and talks and do as I please.

I've spent my life in the ring.

Some people are imitators and some are innovators. And I am an innovator.

I'll drop you so fast that DDT, your whole family will fall down.

That's my hole.

It's in my blood.

This is the bad guy that everybody loves.

I am the snake, and when I bite, it's going to be nasty.

It's a strange thing that happens.

You play a villain.

Day after day, night after night. The bad guy.

I

don't

know if you have to come up with very many villains that were as good as Jake

Robertson.

Fans start to hate you.

Oh, God.

They love to hate you.

Me and Satan walk side by side for a long time. Little by little, piece by

piece. You stack it up and you give them a nice pile.

A thing's just to hate you for.

I gave wrestling every damn thing I had.

And what little bit that I didn't give up, wrestling took that too.

He's got to get over into the corner. I don't think Jake knows where he is.

I'd do anything for my kids.

And I can't imagine a father not doing that for your own kids.

Knowing the hurt you've caused.

Everybody makes mistakes.

Jake has made probably more than his share.

Anger. That's your jewel.

Full of hate.

You could see it getting out of control.

He smoked crack the entire drive.

From Texas to Georgia.

He pulled back that curtain. The real story.

People don't want to see that, hear that, smell that.

They damn sure don't want to live that.

There's probably a lot of shame about who his dad was.

I can't imagine going through what he went through and thinking that he had a

way out.

William Smith Jr., he's gone.

And there ain't no damn way back.

You're not.

Giving me the same respect, man.

Shut the F up!

How many did

you get?

Well, you haven't caught any either.

But I had a good... It doesn't matter how many you missed. I had one on.

I had one on. It rimmed out. It rimmed out.

It didn't rim out. It did not rim out. It did not rim out.

You weren't even close. It was on the pole for 10 seconds. If it ain't in the

boat, you didn't have a fish.

You didn't even make it to half court.

It's not my fault he has an undersized pole. If I'd had a bigger pole, I would

have probably... Oh, my God.

The pole's fault.

This is what life's supposed to be about, man, when you're out with your

and just looking up at the sky and enjoy the water.

And just breathe.

Because you got to have this.

You just work, work, work, work, work, man.

That's not much of a life.

This is living here.

Nice breeze in your face.

You know, the last 10 years have been wonderful.

You know, when he was in his prime, you know, in his career, time was going

fast, you know.

It's hard to get those moments.

Our relationship is kind of like building a house.

Ten years ago, you started building a foundation.

Yeah. Putting a slab in, and we started framing the walls, and now we have a

house. Now we do have a house, man.

That's why we come fishing. Now we have something to build to.

There you go.

Yeah.

Let's go, baby!

Let's go, baby!

Gainesville, Texas.

It was almost like you were on the farm. We had a little, probably a couple

acres there that for a while I had a horse.

My grandmother had chickens and stuff, and she raised chickens to sell the eggs

and to feed us.

There

was no

hustle and bustle.

You knew everyone. Everyone knew whose kids you were and, you know, would

just look after you as if you were their own.

I played a little football.

Wasn't that good.

Wanted to be an architect, man. I dug buildings, man.

He was actually known to us as Buster.

He was the big brother that, he was our Greg Brady.

Everything he did was cool.

You know, if he picked up a guitar and even if he couldn't play it, he was

He played the guitar.

So you kind of looked at him and he was that role model,

that big brother.

My mother loved me in her own way. She had a special way of loving people that

was deep.

And what I learned in life is this.

You don't get to choose the way somebody loves you.

They love you in their own way, right or wrong.

And you don't get to pick your parents.

Because if I could have picked my parents, I would have kept my mother.

father, go to hell.

was a little over seven feet tall and 350 pounds.

You know, huge, huge.

Probably the biggest person, you know, any of us would ever see.

This is not somebody you're going to talk back to.

And not just kids, but, you know, anyone.

So he could be pretty overbearing.

My father.

There was a man that really knew how to mold a person.

And he molded me. He did it the right way.

He would give you a whipping for lying to him.

He'd give you a whipping whenever he thought you needed it.

He'd give you a whipping for making a mistake.

And believe me, I made my share of mistakes.

Growing up, I hated wrestling.

Hated it with a passion.

Because I felt like wrestling had cheated me out of the father that I

But the truth was, it wasn't wrestling that did it, it was my father that did

it.

I count on one hand how many times my dad took me fishing.

Oh, here, let me... Here we go.

Okay.

I count on one hand how many times my dad took me hunting.

I don't need to raise that hand up because he didn't.

That's little boy things that you miss.

I was the first one in my family to ever graduate high school.

I went to see my father because he wasn't there for graduation, which did

upset me because he was never there for anything anyway.

He didn't come to ball games. He didn't do that stuff.

I informed him that I'd graduated from high school with honors and I wanted to

go on to college and become an architect. That was my dream.

And what I wanted from him at that time was just for him to love me and say,

that's great, son.

But instead what he said was, well, I hope you don't want anything from me.

I'm like, what do you mean?

He goes, money or anything, I don't have it to give to you.

I'm like, you've never given me anything. Why would I expect it now?

And he still wouldn't say he was proud of me.

And I remember being so upset about that.

You know, why didn't he just give me a big hug and say, I'm proud of you, son.

And what is this architect thing? Ask me a question about what I want to be.

But nothing. I got nothing.

Sometimes parents just don't measure up, man. I mean.

Sometimes they just can't give you what you need, whether they want to or not.

My father, he was the worst kind of monster there

is.

His victims were little girls, even his own.

There's a tree in Texas called the iron oak.

Tangled limbs, broken, goes wherever it wants.

Doesn't give a damn what gets in its way.

Iron oaks, though, they rot from the inside out.

Just like my damn father.

The story I got from my grandmother, ma 'am, was pretty ugly.

Because I remember asking her if she had any regrets in her life.

And she said she only had one.

I said, well, what was that?

She goes, I should have killed your father when I had the chance.

I'm like, wow.

Why?

I'm trying to make a family tree, if that's possible.

I'm starting out with my dad.

Matt had originally hooked up with my grandmother, and they were dating, so to

speak.

She's had a little too much to drink and passes out. He gets it with my mother,

who's about 12 years old.

So he just went into another room and

raped my mother.

12 -year -old girl, Matt.

He was conceived by rape, that our father

somehow had that opportunity and, you know, forced himself on

her, and that's when Jake was conceived, I guess. And then

they got married. I don't even know.

I don't even know how all that, you know, went down.

Tiny is what people call his death. Right? Because he's seven

foot plus.

I mean, I came up to his elbow.

His elbow.

Whatever you want to call this man.

My grandfather.

I mean, he's a pedophile, clearly.

He stopped being interested when...

People got too old.

After Paula has Jake, Jolynn, and Richard, they divorce, and then

Grizz comes over here to my mom, who is Marsha,

who at the time was probably no more than

14 or 15, had to be.

and Mom has Mike and me.

What makes me sick in my stomach, man, is that he did the same thing to my

sisters.

He started abusing me.

The memory of that that I have is I was about eight years old, and

there's no doubt in my mind that the same thing happened to JoLynn.

One day, my mother was out on an errand at the store, and he happened to be home

and told me to just come sit on his lap, and from there, that was the first time

he put his hands on me.

I didn't think I'd get upset.

And so that happened, and that

continued for a few years.

And that was the, wow, I think it was the first time I got really upset

just talking about that.

I don't even know if I've told that whole story.

So many girls had their event taken.

When I grew up, it was real different because I

had some issues.

First of all, I lived with my grandparents.

Jake wasn't...

primarily raised by his mother.

You know, she didn't have the skills to raise a child.

No, my grandfather was a good man, but he was an alcoholic.

I dug a hole.

I built a wall.

And I learned to lie.

You know?

I stayed with my grandparents until I was 12.

That's when I chose to go with my father.

It didn't start right away, but within two or three months, it began.

This was all done by my stepmother.

I started being molested by her.

We'd have sex.

And then afterwards,

She would beat my ass, man. She would beat me with clothes hangers,

You know, if your father finds out about this, he's going to kill you.

And I was scared to death that my dad would kill me.

There was only about a five -year difference between my mother and Jake.

If something happened there, I have to think that it would have had to have

at the request of Jake's dad, our father.

I can't see my mother being an abuser.

But it's very likely that, you know, that's something that father might have

wanted.

Where does he go to get help?

A small town.

Had to try to figure out all on his own.

You know, I think most of us in that situation would have crumbled in one way

another.

As a kid, I don't think he ever thought he had a chance.

You can take an axe to an iron home.

Waste of time.

The roots run too deep.

They go every direction.

Never let go.

I still remember that night like it was yesterday.

I went down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to see him and tell him that I was going

to go to college and become an architect.

That's when my young brain, with the help of some alcohol, come up with the

of if you want your father to be proud, you've got to get in that ring.

Beat up a wrestler.

You know what?

You're 18 and you're bad and you can kick ass, man. I mean, I was a big kid.

I remember getting in the ring, man, and hearing the fans for the first time

cheering for me.

Wow. What a rush that was, man. That was, man, I felt like the king of the

world. Come on, I'm going to kick your ass, old man.

He was a short little dumpy guy, man.

He humiliated the piss out of me, man. He twisted me up in different ways. My

body's never been in since.

Damn, man, it was horrible.

I got to the locker room and my father, you know, he's standing there and looks

down at me and he goes, I am ashamed of you.

You're gutless and you'll never amount to a damn thing.

Jake told him, he said, I will do it.

I went and got another side of the room because I figured them two was fixing to

go at it. It was just the tension was so tight.

I remember praying to the devil.

You help me become the biggest, baddest wrestler devil.

I'll do anything you want.

But I want to be bigger and better than he is.

I want to make you meet those words.

And that's the night that I gave up on being an architect.

You know what's on my birth certificate as his profession?

Wrestling referee.

I joke you not.

That is on my birth certificate from 1975.

I was so bad they made me become a referee.

That's how bad I was.

I didn't go and do it the smart way of, you know, going to a wrestling school or

having someone train me.

I went the most foolish way there is, the trial and error method.

Let's get us some action, shall we?

Look out here to watch Jake Roberts, the long, lean, and lanky Louisiana Lara

Pearl. Jake Roberts is finding out right now this is a rough and tough sport.

This is a man's sport.

He looks like a little boy out there right now.

I had no business in the ring. I was absolutely horrible.

Oh, he's in trouble now.

Those reps over the trap, and that's a lot of beef to go air freight.

Jake the Snake is physically not who you would picture as a pro wrestler.

Roberts is in trouble now. Yes, he is.

I'm afraid this is a mismatch.

Still a place up for two years.

Jake, he's trying to come out. Jake was a second -generation wrestler.

And I think that says a lot right there is when you grow up in the business.

You watch it all your life. You have a better grasp of what works, what

and how you want to do it.

Bit by bit, I learned things.

I picked up things.

I used to find myself going to little bitty towns, man.

You know, they run once a year.

Of course, guys today would never go to those towns, but back then, you know,

small promotions did their thing.

It was really a traveling

act constantly.

People would jump in a car after the matches, three or four guys get in the

very often, you know, a case of beer in the back seat.

Drinking the back feet while telling stories and making the towns, as they

He's got Roberts down and it may be over.

You're in Chicago tonight and you're in Milwaukee the next night, Green Bay the

next night, then you drive all the way back to Chicago.

He can strike with the swiftness of a rattler, there's no question about that.

I would wake up some mornings and I'd have to look at the nameplate on the

to remember what.

City I was in.

Because it was go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Night after night after night,

spending more time with your coworkers than you would ever possibly get to

with your family.

You reach a point in wrestling that you get it.

It finally clicks up here, what you're doing.

And once you figure it out, you realize how beautiful it is.

It is art.

Big Daddy Ritter, Jake Roberts.

Wrestlers are the greatest actors of all time.

Because we do it every night and we do it absolutely perfect. If

we don't, the band won't buy it.

I could argue that Jake the Snake's DDT is the greatest finishing

move of all time.

Oh! DDT!

DDT right there!

The DDT is number one with a bullet.

Wow, DDT! A brain buster!

Drives that head hard to the mat.

You just can't get up from that. It's not easy to think up a new move in

wrestling. And especially even back then, like, I mean, there was guys like

going, geez, I wish I could think up a new move.

Well,

I was wrestling a guy called the Grappler, this masked devil.

And we had these little things that we'd do to each other. And one of those

things was I would have his head stuck in here and I'd just be wrenching his

neck, you know.

So it's 90.

goes to push me into the corner, and he steps on my left foot.

And when he did, that caused me to fall flat on my ass.

When we fell and his head hit that mat, people just popped. When I say popped,

that means jump out of their seats up and down. They're screaming, yeah, man,

that's the greatest move ever.

And they're absolutely right. It was the greatest move ever.

If you'd seen that.

Now here's the hard part. I've got to come up with a cool name.

I mean, if it's not a cool name, the whole is worthless, okay?

And I went to breakfast one morning in Tampa, Florida, and picked up a USA

newspaper in the front page, big letters, DDT'd, outlawed by U .S.

I looked at that and I went...

This is the most vicious hole I think I've ever seen.

Get back there playing cowboys and Indians.

I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm dealing with 1984. When you put that DDT

them, Jordan, it's just like nuclear holocaust coming down, man, because it's

over.

The crowd's calling for the DDT.

They would start the DDT, DDT, and then he'd get ready and use the finger like

he did.

It was more of a communication to make sure the crowd was really locked in and

involved with what he did.

Nobody gets up from there. What?

Oh, yeah.

Jake the Snake with the DDT and the victory. Look at this crowd.

There you see the man with the DDT.

In 1986, he signed with the WWE.

Now Jake the Snake arrives.

And I think for most people, This is when Jake the Snake became a household

name.

Wrestling's not rocket science.

Come on.

It doesn't matter if they love you or they hate you.

As long as they remember you.

I was wrestling in Mid -South Sports in Louisiana and Oklahoma, Texas.

And the phone rang, and I picked it up, and it was Vince McMahon.

And he said, can you get on a plane and come up here? We need to talk.

Damn right.

Who's paying for the trip? Well, we'll pay for it. Okay, no problem. I've never

had a promoter offer me a flight.

He comes in and he said, well, we're going to dress you up in lime green or

royal purple tights, spandex.

I didn't say anything yet.

And he said, we want to put you in lace -up, knee -high, snakeskin boots.

And right before I throw the flag and say I'm not interested in doing that,

Vince wrote some numbers on a piece of paper and

gingerly slipped them over to me.

And at the same time, he said, and carry a large 12 -foot python.

Me being severely scared of snakes,

that fear went out the window when I seen

the zeros on that piece of paper.

I'd never seen that many zeros on a check towards me.

And I was blown away to the point.

that I immediately took his bad idea and made sense of it.

I mean, if you're going to go with the name Jake the Snake, you've got to

Mr. McMahon is going to put a snake in your hand.

From Stone Mountain, Georgia, Jake the Snake Roberts.

Jake the Snake Roberts making his debut here this week in the World Wrestling

Federation.

We know what's in the bag.

The only time I'm not afraid of those damn snakes is when the bell rings.

Jake the Snake Roberts, newcomer here to the World Wrestling Federation, but

certainly not to the squared circle.

Oh, what a slap. He just drove him into the camera. This man is known worldwide.

Tough competitor.

He is going to be a force to reckon with here at the World Wrestling Federation.

There's that patented move by the snake called the TDP.

Look at him slithering over towards that bag.

The snake was incredible.

It was shocking.

It was memorable.

You couldn't take your eyes off of it.

It's legitimately...

One of the absolute best gimmicks ever in pro wrestling.

If you keep playing with snakes, you got to expect one thing.

You're going to get bit.

Give me a break, referee. Don't let him do that.

No wonder they call him Jake the Snake Robert.

He literally would smother people and strangle them with a snake, with a

on national TV.

This thing weighed probably almost 200 pounds.

And Jake would just pick that thing up and sling it and hit you. I mean, it's

like hitting you with a baseball bat with a snake.

The first time he got Ricky the Dragon's theme boat was a big one.

Why do I put the snake across somebody's body and let him crawl?

I get off on it, don't you?

Come on, referee.

This is despicable. He just loves it. Look at the snake going to him.

It becomes a big part of what people want to see. I mean, they would go

They'd go crazy just seeing the bag in the corner.

Oh, my gosh.

Trying to get out of the bag already.

At WrestleMania II, he had a dude foaming at the mouth.

Imagine the constricting of the snake. Oh, my God.

I really tried to stay away from the snake because, you know, Jake would

talk to the snake and kiss the snake.

Andre was scared to death of the snake.

Andre the giant looks like he's terrified of that snake.

No, no snake.

Look at this.

Andre backing off.

Andre had to work with him. It was kind of funny to watch because he was scared

to death of the snake.

Oh, no.

They're calling on the giant.

It's choking Andre the Giant.

Andre going down. And Jake putting Damien all over him.

Andre cutting his chest.

Andre is just terrified.

He's terrified of this thing.

Jake to Jake Roberts.

And Damien has really done a job on Andre the Giant.

And he cut his cheek to Jake Roberts.

What do you think of this matchup here?

What do you think of this matchup? He's the best. Jake's the best.

Jake's the best.

Yeah, I guess he's going to say it all. As you can see, not a bad seat in the

house. Back to you, gorilla.

Everybody hated that snake.

Jake would just dump it on the floor in the shower.

People would go in the shower and the snake would just be there. Guys would

freak out and come running out of the shower naked.

Then Jake would have a heck of a time trying to get the snake in the bag after

that.

Unfortunately, from the locker room, I would have to put it in a bag and put it

in a trunk and then carry it to the car. Then once I got to the hotel, I had to

put it in the bathroom, a little water in the tub, and hope like hell he

break the sink off the wall or the toilet off the floor, which they've

He's lucky he's got Damien, because that's probably the only friend this man

has.

Every good wrestler knows how to walk the walk.

Well, if they didn't, they wouldn't be allowed to get the damn ring.

Great wrestlers.

Well, they answer the real question.

Can you talk the talk?

You want to play something real?

Then you get real close and listen.

Good guys, bad guys.

And wrestling were one or the other.

I was both.

You know, it's kind of like that nursery rhyme, you know, when I was bad, I was

very, very bad.

When I was good, I was still bad.

Very, very bad.

You know, this Jake Roberts is a very cruel man. I doubt if this man even has

any feelings. My goodness, this man causes all kinds of controversy every

he goes.

Jake, listening.

He was a storyteller.

And I think that's so valuable to being a good performer is being a good

storyteller.

And Jake always told stories. And I think he was one of the greatest at it.

Jake was such a master villain.

You know, I always think of the guy tying the girl up on the railroad

think of a guy who looks like something like Jake Roberts.

The dirty little mustache and the creepy little eyebrows.

And I don't know if you could come up with very many villains in history that

were as good as Jake Roberts. And look at that. Oh, can you believe that? You

get Jake to step up. He is vicious.

Man, there is nothing better than getting the reaction you want from the

when you do the simplest of things or you do the meanest of things.

Teasing them.

I don't want to do that. Oh, you son of a bitch.

They get so pissed off at me, man, for not doing it because I teased them.

You know, if you're going to offer it to somebody, you got to give it to them.

So for me to pull it away and not do it was a heel move.

I cheated him.

I robbed him of their moment.

You hate the bad guy.

You love the good guy.

Jake actually redefined that. You know, Jake, he likes to turn it into a fight,

doesn't he? You know, he's got a lot of good natural wrestling ability, but the

guy likes to fight.

Jake is the first anti -hero.

Stone Cold Steve Austin is an anti -hero.

Diamond Dallas Page was an anti -hero.

You know, everybody's got something in their bag from Jake.

I've got numbness in my fingers, but the stiffness and the numbness and the

weakness are nothing compared to the hatred that sits behind these cold eyes,

man, or the fire that spews ashes

out of my brain each and every time I think of you. I don't think anyone ever

has been better at talking on a microphone in pro wrestling than Jake

Roberts.

You're bringing Elizabeth to the ring to watch what you're going to do to me.

Think about this.

When you look down at your wife, after I've done what I'm going to do, what are

you going to do?

Wake her up.

Princess, the glass slipper doesn't fit this time.

It's all his eyes.

It's just the way Jake looks at the camera.

Jake the Snake was the first...

wrestler i ever saw who didn't need to yell i'm not your average local yokel

from kmart no i'm a little bit different yeah i think i see things that people

don't normally see the little things that mean so much you know how to look

camera and glare or smile you see i've got something you can't handle

you or anybody else

It's DDT. So what are you going to do, snowman?

Melt. I learned that as a kid, how to manipulate emotions by your facial

expressions.

Because there were lots of times that I had to spin the wheel to keep from being

abused. So I learned to lie at a very young age.

I know there's only one way to serve up revenge, brother. Everybody's a fine

cook. Mama can make grits and mama can make biscuits and gravy.

But the only way you can serve up revenge is to serve it cold.

I envied him. Like, I really wished I had that ability to turn it off

and on like he did, to become this, morph into this character.

Good guy or bad guy. Anything that I do is your fault.

Snake in the corner?

Trust me.

Trust me.

We had a different cadence.

You know, it was almost like from the steep to him that he would almost

hypnotize people.

It's pretty simple to me.

Some people claim to be things that they're not.

Me, I've always claimed to be a snake. I never said I could walk on water. I

never said that I could part the sea. I never said I could feed the masses with

a loaf of bread. But then again, I never tried.

I think the biggest thing that came from Jake was just how evil and how sinister

he was.

You know, what a wicked web we can weave when first we labor to deceive. Now,

what I'm telling you is this.

I've always said I was on the other side of the fence. And I ask you, oh, yeah,

it's where you were at, too. You're right with me.

You can't ride the edge, brother, like I can. That razor's too sharp for you.

So you think about this. WrestleMania, I'm going to get what I want.

I was in a room watching Jake Roberts do promos in front of Vince McMahon.

And I can remember Vince.

Just going crazy at how good Jake's promos were.

Million -dollar man, you stood up so proud and you told me, if you want that

million -dollar belt, Jake the Snake Roberts, you've got to come and get it.

Charisma, you can't teach it to anybody.

You either have it or you don't.

He's got that savvy. I don't know how to put it in any other term.

You see, Damien and I don't forget. We remember all the times you made people

grovel for your money.

These were people far less fortunate than you.

People who could use your money for essentials.

He made you feel when he was cutting a promo.

He didn't make you feel like he was talking to Mean Gene.

He made you feel like he was talking to you.

This time, you'll be the one that's humbled. This time, you'll be the one

humiliated. And this time, you will be the one that grovels for the money.

And how appropriate.

that the money you grovel for is your very own.

A victim of your own greed, wallowing in the muck of

avarice.

Longfellow couldn't have said it better.

All the glitters is not gold.

Shakespeare wrote that. Oh, how about that?

He was a smart guy.

I saw my dad more on television than I did in person.

Can you imagine what that's like?

Do you know how mortifying that is?

We knew what our dad did. We knew kind of the career path he chose, but we

didn't really ever know where he was.

I didn't see him for years, and especially when he first started making

for himself.

I don't even know if he knew that I was even training.

It wasn't the typical brother -sister family kumbaya, you know.

We just didn't, there was no family support.

Most people are parents when their children are young. You know, my dad

He didn't parent when I was young. He was not around.

So my parents weren't around each other.

They divorced when I was in the second grade.

See, there's a price you pay for being a wrestler.

But Jake did not see it wasn't a life. I thought I was, I'm this big star

now. I'm going to make my kids happy. Everybody's going to love me.

going to be fine.

How foolish are we?

You see, that dream is beautiful, man, until somebody takes it away from you.

You know, if you haven't got a story, you ain't got it.

Come on, face it. Great rivalry? That makes a great story.

Jake the Snake Roberts and Alice Cooper.

Boy, has this guy got a score to set. He broke his guitar.

We haven't seen the last of this confrontation.

David Goliath?

Apollo Creed Rocky?

You've got to be fighting something.

Ricky Steamboat, you're going to be the first big test for Jake the Snake and

his career tonight.

I've seen too many good wrestlers go down and be humiliated by this man

that snake across the body. I won't tolerate that, Jake Roberts.

Back with more Saturday Night's Main Event, the match we have anticipated

up now. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, scoring up against the undefeated Jake

Snake Roberts.

They came to me and they said, Jake, we want you to DDT Steamboat on the floor.

And I'm like, oh.

I can't do that.

Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, one of the most popular athletes in the World

Wrestling Federation today, saying hello.

Off the rope now.

What a clothesline.

They're like, why not?

I said, because if I do it, I'll kill him.

The Ricky Steamboat match was brutal.

This isn't the modern era outside the ring.

This is a cement floor of an arena.

Do you understand death?

This will kill him.

Well, Steamboat came to me. He's like, Jake, do it to me.

I can protect myself.

I know what to do.

I said, Ricky, you don't.

I was right. He damn near killed him.

It

sounded

like a hand grenade went off in my brain. It exploded.

At the time, I thought he was dead.

It was horrifying, man.

Ricky Steamboat back into the ring.

I think the dragon is out.

Swelled up. Had a bad concussion.

Was taken to the hospital.

The whole side of my face blew up.

Ricky Steamboat still unconscious.

That DDT on the outside of the ring.

was the first time that you really saw just how vicious Jake the Snake could

As cold as a razor blade, as tight as a tourniquet, like the skin on a dying

man. Randy Savage, the last time I seen you, you were flailing like some

helpless child.

You think that you're Shakespeare.

You think that you're so eloquent when you talk.

Snake man, but I don't like anything about you. Look at that snake eyes and

you'll see something so cold and so devilish and so deliberate.

Yes, he takes care of what he has to, does what he has to, just like me.

Mind blown.

I remember before Randy agreed

to do it, that the Cobra bite Jake first.

I let the snake bite me.

But when it is turn came up, boy, did he light him up.

I got really freaked out because it was only supposed to be for a couple

seconds.

And then Jake, I don't know if he didn't want to tear Randy's arm apart or if he

had some problems with the snake. The snake would not release.

Oh, my God.

My favorite time.

This allowed Jake to really thrive as the monster that he could be.

It was pretty powerful TV. And then people started cheering the bad guy.

started cheering the monster, right?

This indestructible force that just changed the way people think about what

guys and bad guys are.

Just who in the hell do you think you are and whose side are you on?

not yours.

I owe you one.

Don't turn your back on me.

Oh, wait a minute.

His hand, his hand is caught in the end of that coffin.

Wait a minute.

He beats the crap out of me

with a chair, but I keep coming, right? I just, Keep going after him.

Jake was so brilliant with his reactions. What have I got myself into

It just set the tone for, wow, what's going

to happen when Undertaker gets his revenge?

WrestleMania 8, Indianapolis, the Hoosier Dome. Let me tell you something,

Undertaker. Claim to be from the dark side, I'm going to show you what the

devil's all about, my man.

Me and Satan walked side by side for a long time.

Shared the same thoughts.

Shared the same souls.

A very cunning, a very dangerous individual.

But he may just have dug his own grave.

The State Rumor!

By the time you get to WrestleMania VIII, Undertaker is truly getting to his

prime as an absolute dominant force.

The fact

that Jake was a viable opponent for Undertaker at

WrestleMania, that says a lot in and of itself.

That was the first time that I had tombstoned, you know, anyone really

of the ring.

It

was

kind of an exclamation point because Jake went away after, you know, after

WrestleMania.

That was actually the end. That was Jake's final story in the WWE for a very

long time.

It was a really hard time for me, the show, because my

life as I knew it was about to end.

You could kind of see it getting out of control.

You know, before he left, you could tell that it was becoming, the outer ring

stuff was becoming a little more important than the in -ring.

I went off the deep end, you know.

Idle hands, the devil's playground.

I spun out of control for the next 15, 20 years.

to talk about people that have reached the pinnacle of success in their own

sports.

But what do they do?

What do they do? A moment's weakness and they take the devil's powder and they

run it up their nose. They call it cocaine, say it's a good time and their

careers are gone.

All addiction is, is when you're able to be satisfied in life

with a drug or a drink and nothing else.

That's all I cared about.

How much coke did I have?

Because when I ran out of dope, everything else was gone.

I was gone.

He'd been wrestling since he was, you know, 20.

So his body was hurting.

And you got to try to kill the pain. And he made a lot of choices that were not

good choices.

And we were out there 25, 26 days a month, man. At least,

at least, when I came off the road, I was so freaking beat up.

I barely had time to wash my clothes and repack them and take off again.

I spent a lot of time with Jake.

And I got to see some of that firsthand.

You know, he would stay up all night and party and do whatever.

At the point where he did become more famous.

Certainly, and more successful than our father.

He was like a tornado. He just spun right out of control.

People want to be around you, and they want you to come to their bars, and they

want you to sell all of these things that were Jake's demon.

People are just presenting it to him.

In 1993, I'd just graduated from high school, and he

was sober, and he was making it work in his second

family.

And I packed everything and moved to Georgia for the first time to go to

college.

He talked to my mom. We packed everything up.

and took the risk because he was my dad.

And so he smoked crack the entire

drive from Texas to Georgia.

I drove.

He smoked crack.

Because when he drove and smoked crack,

I was terrified for my life.

Growing up, I always swore that I would never, ever treat my children the way my

father treated me.

I swore that up and down a million times.

And what did I do?

I wasn't there for my children either.

During the time of our teen years and on towards adulthood,

we didn't see him alive.

He was an absentee father.

He was a dad that everyone wanted to have but didn't know what that meant and

what it looked like.

Those are the darkest moments of my life because of him not being there.

Being an absentee father really has an impact on you when you're trying to

figure out who you are.

You know, as a kid, you still just want your father's love.

Too busy being a star

or a drunk or a drug addict.

Wasn't there.

It's hard.

It's real hard.

Because I do anything for my kids.

And I can't imagine the father not doing that for your own kids.

Knowing the hurt you've caused them.

Some of the pain that they live with.

So for that, you know, I don't understand. I never will.

In 1996, I came back to the WWE briefly. I was actually being given the spot I'd

asked for, that I would be part of the booking committee and writing.

And it was a great thing.

The most important thing to Jake Roberts today is giving glory to God.

Because...

Without the blood of the lamb that was put on me by gift from Jesus of victory

so many years ago, I would not be standing here today.

Jake came back in 1996 as a born -again Christian because he was born again.

And he had found sobriety and he had found God. And he was going around the

country talking about it. And this really was his personality.

No, the snake's not named Damien no more.

This is revelations. This is the truth.

And I will use this serpent to expose the darkness to the true light.

He was willing to include that sort of as part of his character, the recovering

alcoholic who had found God.

I've got it on good authority that poor Jake has fallen off the wagon again.

He missed his AA or his AA meeting. As a matter of fact, with Jake, it's a AAA

meeting. I hammered him pretty hard. I mean, you know, it was all about the

drink and the booze and all of that sort of stuff. I mean, it was constant. It

was hammering him, hammering him. Oh, it's driving him crazy not having it.

There was one time that I poured whiskey down his throat, and it was real

whiskey.

He's not going to do this to Jake. Oh, my goodness.

That's raw.

That's raw booze he's dumping down Jake's.

Look at this.

I'm sorry for it, too. I believe it did have some long lasting effects because

that's something that, you know, sobriety is something that's an ongoing

process.

Oh, my God.

Do you hear what Jake said?

He wants to know if anybody's got a beer for a chaser.

When you think about Jake's return in 1996, what you think about most is King

of the Ring.

And Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The king

of

the ring, Stone Cold Steve Austin, an incredible victory.

Get that piece of crap out of my ring. You ain't got what it takes anymore.

You sit there and you thump your Bible and you say your prayers and it didn't

get you anywhere.

Talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3 .16.

Austin 3 .16 says I just whipped your ass.

And that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so.

If Jake the Snake isn't a born -again Christian,

then he never references John 3 .16.

And if Jake doesn't reference John 3 .16, there's no Austin 3 .16.

You can never forget that the Attitude Era and the future of wrestling

was incredibly affected by Jake's appearance in 1996 and 97.

The disheartening thing about an Attitude is,

He'll do anything.

Lie, cheat, steal, rob, even kill.

Or even lie to himself.

Damn, one more hit.

They say when you hit bottom, it's time to stop digging.

You know, that's real easy to say.

Especially when you're sitting on top looking down at the dumbass that's

his own grave.

Down there, it's real dark.

There's no light.

What do you do?

You just keep digging.

I was at the top of my game in 93, beginning of 96.

May have been anywhere I went.

It soured pretty quick because I couldn't be around wrestlers that were

partying. I wasn't strong enough.

Christian or not, man, you've got to fight the devil every damn day.

The only comfort I

could find was a drink and a drug.

It was the only thing that made pain go away.

But as I turned to it...

It wound up destroying everything, every hope, every dream that I ever had.

My wife was smart. She got away from me.

She gave me a choice.

You can do your drugs, drink, but you can't stay here and do it.

And she stood her ground.

We separated and divorced.

When that happened, all hell broke loose inside of me.

Cocaine speeds me up so fast I can't think about my past.

It speeds me up so fast that I don't have to be responsible.

The Jake of 1998.

He couldn't be in the room with us.

It was painful to be with him.

I'm just getting really up.

Really up inside.

I don't know where to go.

I was grateful when he died away.

I was...

said that out loud.

Thank you, gentlemen. Back here I have a man of legendary proportion, the man

Jake the Snake Roberts.

He is a man that you all recognize. He's a legend.

He was one of the first to come to Casino Magic.

You know, you're in a casino and everybody says, well, gosh, in a casino

should gamble.

Let me tell you something, man. You don't want to play cards with me because

I'll cheat.

Okay?

I cheat.

I don't think Jake knows where he is. I don't think they're going to fight the

way things are going now.

I'm ashamed to tell you the depth of how low I got.

It was horrible.

To go from performing in front of tens of thousands of people on a regular

basis, to go from that level to high

school gyms, And worse, high,

wrestling high, wrestling drunk, asking promoters to find you crack.

It's one of the worst falls we've ever seen in wrestling.

I wonder what goes through my head.

It's not like I set out to do that.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is, you know, I was sitting here

you know, why do you just go off like that? Why do you just keep pushing and

pushing and pushing?

It's hard to watch.

Real hard to watch.

And I worry more now for my kids about what's out there.

Because they have a certain belief of who their Papa Jake is.

It's cool.

That is something you can be proud of.

But I know some of the stuff that's out there, and it won't go away.

Well, guess what? That's bad news for you.

Somebody said kick your ass in about three or four or five minutes.

I'm going to dump my shit on you, and I feel sorry for you.

So, brother, look at them, because you know what?

I've got something for you right here.

For years, everyone expected that that was going to be the next, you know, in

memoriam on WWE,

you know. And, I mean, I thought so, too.

It's just a matter of time.

But you are not giving me the same respect, man.

Shut the F up!

I've tried to commit suicide

a handful of times.

It took like a hundred Valium.

I should have done it.

But the next morning I woke up, I puked all over myself. I guess that's what

saved my life.

The really ugly times were with cocaine.

Begging to die.

Just continually hitting that pipe. It would get so hot that I'd burn my lips.

I hit the pipe and cursed the devil. I hit the pipe and cursed God. I hit the

pipe and cursed God.

Jesus.

Thank you, sweet Jesus, for not letting me die.

For my dad, I worry that he can't break very many more times. Right?

How many times could he break and put himself through? together.

It's like the nine lives.

Certainly you've got to run out at some point.

You know, after a while you get so freaking good at letting people down

just doesn't feel natural doing anything else.

You have to get down so low that you're willing to do anything.

To get clean.

You don't think I wouldn't cut off an arm to throw back the time

to where I didn't walk away from my family?

I'd cut off both legs, man, if I could have a relationship with some of my

Because I hate myself more than they could ever hate me.

For that failure.

All right, I need to stop.

Jake's my brother. He's my...

He's probably one of the three closest people in the world to me.

He finally understood, like, when you get high, you are not a good person,

Like, you don't want to be around. You, straight Jake, would never want to be

around high Jake, ever.

We're going to go over to DDP's house, Diamond Dallas Page, and this is where I

got sober at.

For two and a half years, I worked on Getting Sober, and they turned it into a

movie or a documentary, whatever you want to call it. And it's beyond belief

how many people came to me and thanked me for doing

the movie The Resurrection of Jake Roberts.

When we started filming him down there in Gainesville, Texas,

He literally had gone to rehab a month before, but he went right back.

Coke and crack and, yeah, went right back drinking and pills.

Recently, I've been talking to Jake quite a bit. Known him for quite a

years. He's hit on some really hard times. His body's really beat up. A

over a year ago.

Retired officially.

The only passion I had was wrestling.

Had to give it up.

I had a life.

But I poisoned it.

Come up on your knees. I'm going to show you something.

You've not used your toes.

You're like a year or two away from having to go to war.

I know this is my land.

I hated myself.

Truly hated myself. I took the mirrors down in my house because I couldn't

to look at me.

I'm right here.

Now try bending this knee to get down to that.

I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here.

I think DDP yoga is probably what saved my life.

Because I couldn't get around anymore. I couldn't get up. I couldn't get down.

Once he really stayed sober and the fog lifted, now your brain starts

to heal itself and you get sharper again.

You could talk to Jake about anything today. Back then, not so much.

I feel like I'm suffocating.

I still want to drink.

I don't want to use.

Right now, I'm out here pacing.

Because I don't want to do it.

You know, even though I'd fall, you know, I'd go for two or three months and

really good, and then, boom, I'd screw up again.

Or, here's the thing, brother, I had oysters.

Please, please, sell that to someone else. And it was heartbreaking to me to

through that.

Because so badly I wanted sobriety and wasn't able to get it. But by doing it

and letting the people see it.

It gave them the courage to try.

9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,

1. Maybe it was that someone reached out and cared enough

to say, hey, there's worth in you.

Maybe he didn't realize for a long time how many people were rooting for him all

along.

Bye -bye, Papa Jake.

Daddy, I want to do this.

Love you.

During his deepest struggles, we couldn't have ever reached him to the

degree that Dallas was able to.

I don't think my dad would be alive if it wasn't for him.

Jake Roberts today is exactly who he wants to be.

And that's a good person who cares, loves his family, and wants to help

people.

That's powerful.

Don't give up. Don't give up. That's the thing. Don't ever give up.

You may fall and bust your butt and screw up, but dust yourself off, get

up, and go at it again.

And that's what I've done.

Our next inductee for the class of 2014.

Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present the prodigal son, the one, the only,

Jake the Stink!

I don't remember walking to the podium because I'm pretty sure that I was just

six inches off the ground and I was just floating.

To see him inducted into the Hall of Fame, an incredibly beautiful full

moment.

I think that'll be his legacy is he's just a tremendous character and

storyteller.

I'm proud of him.

And I would say to anybody that runs into him, pat him on the back. Tell him

he's doing a great job because he is.

I've got some special people here called family.

When my girls are born, please stand up because you're my heroes.

Those grandkids only know him as Papa J, and he gets to see what a blessing

it is to be around your kids and your grandkids and getting to see them in

moments be a part of their lives.

Just to watch and see the emotions that everybody went through, to see that he

was making progress on rebuilding, that meant a lot.

I love them.

They gave me a second chance.

And God bless the WWE because they gave me one too.

Thank you very much.

He's a different person.

And he wants to help a lot of people.

I'm that guy now.

I'm that guy that got friggin' sober, man.

I'm that guy that's doing the right thing.

I guess whatever it is that drives him to continue to live,

thank God, is stronger than whatever demons were trying to kill him.

Now I've got 10 years under my belt, man. I can't believe that.

Wanting to put this piece out there because I think this piece is going to

some people, too.

There we go. Fish on, baby. Fish on, baby.

Oh, yeah, baby.

Dang, that is a good son.

Yes, sir.

There you go, big boy.

Dang,

that's a hog. That is a hog. How big is that? Striper candy.

17, 18.

Oh.

Dang, that's a good son.

Hey, y 'all can stop now.

If somebody had told me 15 years ago that I would actually be on the lake

my boys and having a great day and not chasing a cracked pipe or a bottle of

wine or whiskey or whatever, I'd have laughed at them.

My siblings and I all have different types of relationships with Dad.

And not everybody is okay with him.

Not everyone thinks he's a great guy.

I've got eight children.

I've got four that still don't want much to do with me, and I understand why,

because I wasn't there.

And all I want to do is try to make up for some of that lost time.

And I want them to know that it wasn't them that was a problem. It was me.

Deep down inside, he's not a bad person at all.

And that's

what's

so hard.

Because I know that...

He never wanted to do the things he did.

It's real life, man. This is not fake. This is not TV. This is not some promo

that he's cutting.

It's things that you have to work on and build over many, many years. It doesn't

happen overnight.

He's got a lot of calluses and a lot of scars from his former life.

He's a very giving and generous person.

Not that different than most Americans.

He's had an addiction.

I hope he's made it to that place where he is okay with himself.

You can't apologize anymore.

It's not necessary.

I heard in an interview one time talking about how he took all the mirrors out

of the house or he broke the mirrors in the house because he couldn't look at

himself. Put the mirrors back up.

I look forward to seeing the relationships that he has and develops

my siblings because this isn't the end of his story.

It's just part of his story.

You know, it's just one more chapter.

My granny sat down and explained our family history to me.

My question to her was, tell me about dad as a kid.

And it was amazing.

He was sensitive, caring, loved animals.

She talked about him being this gentle, tender,

Precocious kid.

And that's who you see in that picture.

Of Aurelian.

You know, I can't put it in stone.

But I will tell you this.

That I'm going to work the rest of my life trying to get it right.

And helping others that want to get it right.

My history will not be my destiny.

My past will not look like my future at all.

You go and meet people that you performed in front of and you see a

glimmer in their eye because they're going back to that moment and they're

reliving it. And I realized that I was such a big part of their life.

There's millions and millions of people out there that remember something about

Jake Roberts.

And if you can't enjoy that, man, you're a damn fool.