Pro wrestling in general has long used real life problems and drama as fodder for their storylines, with the WWE being among the best.
Nothing was off the table, as shown when they had Hawk, Animal, and Droz of the Legon of Doom play out Hawk’s real life substance abuse problem on live television and with Droz shoving a “stumbling” Hawk off the top of the titantron.
But that was in front of the camera for fans to see. Jake “The Snake” Roberts has had his own share of abuse problems and he’s addressed those over the years.
Crossing a line
On a recent DDP Snake Pit he talked about the WWE using his substance abuse problems during his return to the company in the mid 1990s.
His new persona was based on his real life changes he’d undergone battling alcoholism and becoming a born again Christian in the build up for the Royal Rumble that would go down in history as Steve Austin’s start as the company’s top star.
During their feud, Jerry Lawler regularly mocked Roberts’ new found faith and his addiction issues, and even went so far as to pour whiskey on his face and down his throat.
Roberts opened up about it with Diamond Dallas Page and Conrad Thompson. Special thanks to Inside the Ropes for the transcript.
“He wound up pouring a bottle of whiskey down my face, burned the sh*t out of my eyes.”
“Ask Jerry he’ll tell you the same damn thing,” Roberts continued, “because whenever it came time for me to pour it on him he goes ‘you can’t pour that on me,’ and I go ‘what do you mean? You poured it on me.’ He goes ‘well Vince wanted it poured on you.’ That motherf***er, you know?
“I can’t say ‘boys will be boys’ because boys will be assholes. They were constantly putting things in my bag that shouldn’t have been there, taking chances with my damn well-being because they were putting drugs in my damn suitcase that I didn’t know were there, and I’d find sh*t in there y’know? Paraphernalia and stuff. It was just horrible, man.”
Understandably, Roberts held a grudge against Lawler for years for those segments, but as it turned out Lawler didn’t want to take part in those segments.
“Even Lawler didn’t want to do it. I didn’t know it at the time that Lawler didn’t want to do it, I thought he was enjoying it too much. I had some harsh feelings for Jerry until we sat down and talked about it. Now we’re good.”
This isn’t a surprise given some of the stories that have come out about Vince McMahon and what he pushed his talent to do. Despite that, it’s good to know Roberts is in a better place now and he and Lawler have buried the hatchet.
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