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Though Jake “The Snake” Roberts has spent the last few years working on and off for AEW as Lance Archer's manager, the certified wrestling legend's legacy will be widely remembered, for better or worse, for his time in WWE – okay, technically WWF – where he, despite never winning a title, established himself as one of the most popular heels in the promotion's history.
From his battles with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, to his matches with The Honky Tonk Man and even his feud with Ted DiBiase, Roberts took part in some of the biggest matches of all time, but one feud that didn't have the run it deserved, and thus didn't rise to the same level of excellence, was his efforts against the “Macho Man” Randy Savage, but that wasn't on either performer per se.
No, the reason this performance didn't go quite as planned had more to do with creative than anything else, which is a shame, because, in Roberts' opinion on his podcast, the feud had the potential to be fantastic.
“Yeah, Savage and me. That whole storyline was so good, and it was cut so short,” Jake Roberts said via 411 Mania. “They hadn’t even touched the tip of that. All of a sudden, they snapped it off, and that was it, which made me sick because, h*ll, we didn’t even go all the way around. For it to be cut that short, it was just disgusting. But what I am? I don’t know. That’s the one that sticks out.”
Asked if he thought Savage would have been his opponent at WrestleMania 8, Roberts agreed, stating that he felt he “got the shaft on that one.” Still, part of the feud's end may have had to do with Robert's decision to slap Miss Elizabeth on television, which upset her family greatly.
“Yeah, that was a part of it because her family, they revolted, man,” Roberts added. “They went psycho on Randy. Randy was no longer allowed at the house. He had promised the family that Liz would never get hurt because, unfortunately, Randy and Liz had never smartened them up to the business. So when I slapped her, that was the end of the ship, brother.”
Would it have been cool to see Roberts go at it with the Macho Man over an extended program that ended in a match at WrestleMania 8? Sure thing, but hey, at least fans got to see Savage get bitten by Robert's snake; that's something, right?
Jake “The Snake” Roberts names one of his craziest foes in WWE
Elsewhere on his The Snake Pit podcast, Jake “The Snake” Roberts reflected on another one of his rivals from years past, Bob Backlund, whom he knew from their time together in Mid South Wrestling.
While many fans know Backlund as the second-longest-reigning WWE Champion of all time, Roberts recalls him fondly for a very different reason.
“He's a f**king maniac. Are you kidding? That guy is legit psycho. He's just … that guy is so strong, it's incredible. He's a freak of nature. He'll f**king lose it man, and start screaming and s**t. He scares the f**k out of me. He does it at signings. He'll grab someone in a f**king hold and just scream like crazy,” Roberts said via Wrestling Inc.
“I remember back in the late-70s, he came to Mid South. They brought a kid from LSU, who was like 6'8, 350 f**king pounds to challenge a wrestler. And nobody wanted to get in there. Because if you get in there and you lose, your f*****g s**t's over. And Backlund raises his hand and says I'll track you. And everybody's like ‘Oh, f**k no man.” But he went out there, and all he did was grab the guy in the f*****g headlock. He grabbed that guy in that headlock, and squeezed so f**king hard, the guy passed out. That was f**king incredible man. And it didn't take long either.”
Though Backlund's legacy isn't fresh in the minds of WWE fans in the same way as, say, Hulk Hogan, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, or even Jake “The Snake” Roberts, fans may be surprised to learn that Backlund wrestled as recently as 2018 in the ring for Dradition Pro Wrestling in Japan back in 2018. Though the now 74-year-old is now happily retired and, presumably, has mellowed out from what Roberts remembers from the mid-70s, who knows, maybe Backlund could still mix it up Ric Flair-style in the ring if need be… or at least appear on an episode of The Snake Pit to reminisce on the good old days.
