There have been plenty of memorable characters in wrestling’s history, this day in history introduced us to one of the greats in Jake “The Snake” Roberts.
On March 3, 1986, Jake Roberts appeared on Jesse Ventura’s Body shop on All Star Wrestling. When he hit the ring, he brought the type of cold, calculating personality we’d expect from a snake.
Like always, there’s more to the story, including Roberts reportedly being afraid of snakes.
Changing on the fly
As good a story as Jake’s career in the WWE is how he got there, especially his ability to think on his feet during negotiations.
Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the excerpt.
“I had been working in Mid South and not really being given a fair shake there. Bill Watts hired a guy to be his administrator. It was Terry Taylor (The Red Rooster) of all people.
“I remember going to talk to Terry and I said, ‘Look, I’m number five on the babyface list yet I’m going on last every night. This is just not going to work.’
“He said, ‘What can I tell you?’
“And I said, ‘Well, I can tell you something. Here’s my two weeks notice and I’ll see you.’ So that’s what I did. I was young, dumb and stupid, not thinking. I didn’t have a job set up. I went home that night saying, ‘I just quit my job and I don’t have a place to go to get some work done.’
“The next morning, I called Vince McMahon and I was told that he was going to be out of town for two weeks and that he would get back with me then. I thought, ‘Oh, my god. Now, I’ve really screwed up.’ About 30 minutes later, the phone rang and it was Vince. He wanted me to fly up and meet with him.
“Basically, we sat down and he said, ‘We have an idea of you wearing lime green or purple tights and having knee high lace up boots and carrying a snake.’
“I quickly told him, ‘Dude, that’s just not me. I wear karate pants and I wear slip on boots because the last thing I want to do when I die is find out I spent 5 years of my life lacing up freaking boots.’
“He just kind of looked at me and said, ‘Well, that’s a shame because there’s somebody who’s going to be wearing purple and lime green with knee high snake skin boots laced up and they’re going to make about a million a year.’
“And I looked at him and I said, ‘You know what? I would look very good in spandex with purple and green and knee high boots. I think I would look just wonderful.’ And that was how I went to work.” – Jake Roberts, WrestlingInc interview August 13, 2012.
We’re glad he changed his mind. We can’t imagine anyone else being “The Snake” and this day in wrestling history gave us a great character and plenty of memories to come.
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