Jake Roberts Talks WWE Drug Culture In The 80s, How He Would Smuggle Drugs For Talent Into Canada
As previously noted, WWE Hall Of Famer Jake 'The Snake' Roberts was recently a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Among many other things, Roberts admitted that he would have killed someone to feed his cocaine addiction. Also, Roberts talked about whether he ever wrestled while under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol, how he crossed the border with drugs, and how he obtained illegal drugs while working for WWE.
During the podcast, Roberts credited WWE Chairman Vince McMahon for being able to afford his addiction problem as he would have killed someone for drugs otherwise.
"I'm lucky I didn't get into heroin." Roberts explained, "I probably wouldn't have beat that one. Yeah, I would because this is what I'm meant to be doing. But to go through 25 to 30 years of doing cocaine, I thank Vince McMahon for affording me my addiction because without it, I would be in prison somewhere. I would've killed somebody for my drug. No, without a doubt, I would have knifed him or whatever, man. That guy [has] got an eight ball [of cocaine]. Watch this! [Pretends to stab] Done! Life meant nothing to me, man."
According to Roberts, he never wrestled under the influence though he wrestled while experiencing withdrawal symptoms. 'The Snake' claimed that he he always wanted to make sure he could take care of his opponent in the ring.
"No, I was straight, pretty much." Roberts admitted, "I may have been going through withdrawals at the time, but no, I didn't drink or any of that s–t before a match. And I didn't like it, but I did it that way because it's my duty. And my thing is as a wrestler to take care of my opponent."
On the subject of steroids, Roberts stated that pro wrestlers used to take steroids just to heal up from injuries.
"You just get so beat up, man." Roberts shared, "your body's so hurting so bad. People say, 'steriods', man, we were taking steroids just to try and get healthy, to heal. That's what the s–t was invented for."
When asked whether WWE would help talent get steroids, Roberts responded in the negative, saying that WWE would have a doctor in the locker room who would dispense uppers, downers, and steroids.
"No, I can't say they helped me, but I will tell you this." Roberts continued, "what they would do is, we'd get booked in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Now, when somebody told me this story at first, I was like, 'this is an old wive's tale because s–t like that [does not] really happen.' You get to Allentown/Hershey, you go to the locker room and all-of-a-sudden, somebody says to you, 'hey, they need to see you in locker room three.' 'What the f–k did I do?' Then I'd go in there and there's a doctor there and he [has] got suitcases over here, boxes here, suitcases over here, boxes there, [and he would ask] 'what do you need, kid?' 'Excuse me?' 'What do you need?' Up, down, what?' 'What do you have for sleep? Oh, Halcion, those are good! How many can I get? As many as I want? 300.' 'I've got them right here.' 'Steriods?' 'Yeah, absolutely!' 'I'll take that, I'll take that, I'll take that.' It was grocery shopping!"
On a related note, Roberts divulged that he would smuggle drugs for himself and other pro wrestlers into Canada in his snake bag.
"And it used to be funny, guys would be like, 'hey Jake, will you carry my s–t for me?' when we'd be going over to Canada. And I'd be like, 'sure! It's going to cost you a percentage of your s–t. Give me 10% of what you've got and I'll carry it across the border for you.' So I've got eight of 10 guys and I've got all their s–t." Roberts recalled, "where am I hiding it? In the snake bag for crying out loud!"
Check out the podcast in the video above or click this link. If you use any of the quotations that appear in this article, please credit Joe Rogan Experience with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Joe Rogan Experience