Jake Roberts Recalls "Nasty Games" Played With Him Backstage In WWF

In a recent installment of the DDP Snake Pit podcast focusing on addiction, AEW's Jake Roberts talked about his return to the WWE in the mid-90s, where he attempted to transition from his in-ring career to one backstage.

According to Roberts, Vince McMahon needing him to wrestle coupled with issues in the writer's room led to the WWE Hall of Famer going back on the road and thus leading him back to trouble.

"I wasn't struggling in the beginning, but I didn't want to work. I just wanted to write," Roberts said." But as Vince does, he gets what he wants, and this guy would get hurt and this guy would miss a show and I would have to go replace him. That was okay. But then he said 'we need you to on this European trip. We need you back on the road.'

"And games were being played at the office with the writers. There was a lot of jealousy involved. Some didn't want me there, some did. And it wasn't long before I was out of that. That's a shame because I enjoyed writing. But when I went back on the road full time, I knew I was in trouble."

Once back on the road, Jake Roberts recalled others putting utensils in his bag that could be used to do cocaine, quickly leading to him relapsing and his marriage collapsing. Following his wife serving him divorce papers and his departure from WWE, Roberts says he turned to cocaine full time to numb the pain going on in his life.

"I can't go seven days a week," Roberts said. "Yet you are throwing me out here. And there were a few guys in the locker room that played some pretty nasty games. You know, putting stuff in my bags. The utensils you might use to do cocaine would be found in my bag. I didn't put it in there. But it wasn't long before I started using again and as soon as I did, my wife said, 'we can't do this again.' And she divorced me.

"Once she filed on me, that was it. I left the WWF and I went straight to my cocaine because that was the only thing that took the pain away from me. That was the only thing that made it alright. When I did the coke, I could forget about my wife and my four kids. If I was high enough, I could forget about them. The only problem is when you wake up, you've got the same f-cking problems."

Now clean and sober years later, Jake Roberts is forthcoming about that period of his life, admitting he did a ton of things wrong and that several shows he was part of, including the infamous Legends of Wrestling event in 1999, suffered due to his behavior. He credits DDP, Diamond Dallas Page, for not only helping him get back on track but saving his life.

"I did a lot of things wrong," Roberts admitted. "I was high. I was totally out of control. I'm ashamed of what I did. I was so full of hate at the time that I wanted everybody else to suffer. And there were certainly a lot of shows that suffered through my hi-jinx, my bullish-t, and the horrible thing that I did. But I was a maniac that was just f-cking out of his mind. I was out of my mind because I had lost my family, I was out of my mind because I lost my dream, I was out of my mind because I had thrown a career out the window, and I was out of my mind because I couldn't quit. It's a well-known fact and I'll just say it again, I would not be sitting here today without Diamond Dallas Page."

Jake Roberts also admitted that at the lowest point during his addiction, he went to England for four years to lay low. While he was still able to get drugs there, Roberts also admitted they were harder to come by and that ultimately his years there were helpful.

"It was so bad, I left the country for four years," Roberts revealed. "I went to England. I just head out, get out, and I was able to hide out over there because some wrestling fans took care of feeding me. And drugs were a lot harder to get there. I still got them, but not nearly as much. That was helpful, in a way."

To quote this article, please credit DDP Snake Pit and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription