Jake Roberts Talks His Biggest Pet Peeves With Promos Today, Wanting To Help Younger Talent
Jake The Snake Roberts is one of the most iconic performers in pro wresting history and was known for his cerebral promos. He was asked about the mic work in AEW when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"It's better than what we have been getting. I'm excited a little bit about it but there's just a few things I can't stand. One of those is the invisible wall during these talk fests," said Roberts. "If you're really thinking about all of that with a guy that's in the ring with you ? I guess guys are stuck between an invisible wall and you can't get to the guy.
"I guess that's the business now and in my day you wouldn't have two guys in the ring with mics. It just wouldn't happen. If it was the real world, are you gonna sit and talk about this BS or are you gonna whoop his ass?"
Roberts says he was always pretty straight forward in his interviews. He wants to teach guys how to cut better promos and for whatever reason it's not happening either because promotions don't think they need help or they don't think Roberts could help them.
"I've pretty much done everything I tried to do and I can say that now that I've gotten sober. My ring work was damn good and not many people could touch it," stated Roberts. "What's to say I can't teach somebody? I've taught a lot of people whether it was Steve Austin or Diamond Dallas Page or the Road Warriors. I taught them well evidently and then to get kudos from Undertaker on his thing with Steve Austin was cool."
He said that the business is supposed to be helping the people you are around. There were a lot of people that would not help others or would purposefully screw people up so they could take their spot.
"To me, I would fire that jerk. We should all pull together. You should do anything to make the product better. If that means helping a guy who can't tie his boots then go over and tie his freaking boots and teach him how. It really pisses me off when I see guys taking short cuts in the ring and I tell them about it," stated Roberts.
Roberts has also appeared in vignettes for AEW and he discussed how that all came about.
"I hang out with DDP a lot and he just thought it was a good thing. They were trying to get different faces to stick on their show and it doesn't hurt to bring out somebody that means something. Evidently, I still make people stand up and notice and now people are expecting me to do something else," revealed Roberts. "Well, guess what folks? I ain't moving until they call me so they need to call me. I would love to do something else and help AEW with their product as I know that I can."
He said that he always took things too personally in the past and that the right way to do business these days is watered down. Roberts said he was never willing to sell out to what he believes but he's not so hard nosed and vocal anymore.
"I would tell people to shut the F up and tell them they don't know what they're talking about, especially TV people. Vince would tell me, 'Jake, your perception is that the TV people are complete idiots.' I was like, 'Yeah, what's your point, Vince?' That's the way I felt. How can these people tell me how to wrestle? I won't tell them how to do their TV job. They had an opinion and we were supposed to shrink down and listen to them and I had a hard time doing that," admitted Roberts.
Roberts' relationship with WWE goes back nearly 35 years and he was asked how they reacted to him appearing on AEW.
"I never heard from them but sometimes you piss em off and you don't hear about it," stated Roberts. "But why wouldn't I do it? They asked me to. If you wanna keep me from doing that, then have something for me to do. I would love to go down and talk to those kids. Maybe they'll hear this interview and call me about it."
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.