Jake Roberts Recalls Andre The Giant's Reaction After His Snake Accidentally Bit Him
Jake The Snake Roberts will turn 65 years old in a couple of months. He's suffered numerous health issues since retirement and he discussed his health when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"Well I just worked out and I feel pretty good. I've got some issues with my hands as it seems being hit in the head too much is not good for you. I have a constriction thing in my hands where it's painful and curls my hands up. So, I'll have to have surgery on that where they'll clip the tendons on my fingers and lengthen them out. Hopefully that'll take care of that but I don't know the length of recovery time will be. But I'm not really worried about it as you don't use your hands much while talking so I'll be alright," said Roberts who added that he has an upcoming comedy tour in Australia.
"I'm really gonna have a good time and I'm gonna take my oldest daughter over there with me. We get a chance to spend some father-daughter time and she has an amazing story to tell and needs to get it out there."
In recent years Roberts started doing one-man shows on the road that have since evolved into comedy shows and he discussed doing them.
"They are hilarious. It's crazy how easy it is for me. For a lot of comedians, they have a list of things they wanna talk about, but I don't. I just go out there and say, 'How y'all doing' and we go from there," stated Roberts. "Back in my day you didn't go out with a set plan. You felt the audience and tried to feel what they needed to have a good time and you gave them that. That's what I do with these comedy shows as I see what direction their leaning towards and go from there. Lots of times I don't tell the same thing on two shows in a row."
Roberts said he wrestled for 36 years and had roughly 2-3 stories a year. With that amount of content, he said he could do this for the next 15-20 years and never tell the same story twice.
"I'll probably starting putting them out on different things like Amazon. We'll see," Roberts said before adding it won't be on WWE Network like Mick Foley's comedy shows because his are too X-rated.
One of the most memorable moments from Roberts' career was when he used his pet snake Damien to scare Andre the Giant at the 1989 Royal Rumble. When Roberts threw Damien into the ring, Andre was frightened and eliminated himself from the Rumble.
Roberts was asked if Andre was really as afraid of snakes as he looked on camera.
"Not at all. In fact, one night a snake got him and broke two fangs off in his shoulder and I was afraid to go into the locker room as I thought Andre might kill me! I walk into the locker room and peak around the corner and go, 'Andre are you okay?' He goes, 'Yeah, why?' I go, 'Well the snake bit you' and he goes, 'Oh yeah, the snake was hungry!' and just laughed about it," recalled Roberts.
"Then Rick Rude walks over to Andre who's playing cards and he pulls out one fang and then another fang that's five inches long and puts it on his shoulder and Andre just laughed. I'm like, 'Rick, don't do that. Please don't piss him off' and he just laughed about it. He thought it was funnier than hell. He was a great performer and what an honor it was to be in the ring with him...
"It didn't bother him and he thought it was funny. And I thought it was funny too because he said I could."
Roberts last in-ring segment with WWE came at the Old School Raw in 2014 where he draped his snake over an unconscious Dean Ambrose. Roberts was asked if he considered that to be his biggest wrestling moment of the last decade.
"No, because you've gotta consider getting into the Hall of Fame as my biggest moment," said Roberts. "But it meant a lot to be invited back because drunks and alcoholics have a way of endearing ourselves to people by the things we say when we're drunk and high. I had done plenty of that and I'm sure they hadn't forgotten all of it but they were still big enough to overlook that to invite me into the Hall of Fame and the Old School thing."
He said that the fans' reactions were incredible. He also put over CM Punk for sitting down during his spot at the end and giving him his moment.
"I didn't really expect that out of him because I didn't know what type of guy he was. That was special even if he did cause Ambrose to laugh because he told Ambrose the snake sh*t on you," said Roberts. "Ambrose started laughing which is something you normally wouldn't do when I put the snake on you. It was funny."
Jake "The Snake" Roberts will be hitting the road again in 2020 with his Dirty Details tour. For tickets and more information please visit jakethesnakeroberts.com/. Roberts' full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of today's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. During the interview, Roberts also discusses his reflections on the last decade of his life, his daughter being misdiagnosed with MS, the upcoming surgery he's having on his hands, Andre The Giant laughing off a snake bite, what his biggest promo pet peeve is, doing vignettes for AEW, WWE not calling him with opportunities, his one man shows and more.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.