AEW Booms and Duds: WTF was Jake Roberts doing?!

Dud: Jake Roberts’ antics taking away from another impressive performance by Archer

Look, I know: what Roberts did last night is straight out of his playbook from the 80s.

That’s the issue. Just because something worked in the 80s doesn’t mean it’s going to or should work 30-40 years later.

I’ve been saying all wrestling shows should be canceled, but since they’ve been running, I appreciated how AEW was able to utilize video segments from Roberts to keep his presence on the show. This means he didn’t really need to be present at Daily’s Place last night.

At least he wore a mask…that he lowered below his mouth shortly into the match.

He had the mask on when he brought the all-too-familiar sight of a snake into the ring. He, unfortunately, lowered the mask again as he was preparing to place the snake (and himself) on top of Brandi Rhodes.

(Rhodes was knocked out after being attacked and laid out with a DDT on the outside of the ring by Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., who was sitting ringside as part of the audience.)

We knew he was going to place the snake on Rhodes; the whole point of his snake was to gain a psychological edge over his opponents as the snake is long considered a terrifying creature.

Through his client, Archer, Roberts’ “opponent” is Cody, and great heels tend to target those around their objective as a means of gaining the upper hand.

This plays partly into the imagery I think AEW was trying to convey: the snake in the Garden of Eden, with The Rhodes’ playing Adam and Eve.

It came off more like an old man getting some excitement at the expense of an incapacitated woman. This gave me the proverbial heebie-jeebies.

We all should be more aware and conscious of what sexual harassment, assault, and rape look like and function after the events of the previous decade. An elderly man straddling an unconscious woman and gripping a snake like a phallus while it’s slithering on top of her was just unnecessary.

Beyond that, there are also the racial overtones of an old White man on top of a young Black woman. That’s for another article.

(Commentary also explained why there was no save: the locker rooms at Daily’s Place are spread all over and pretty far from the ringside area.)

The ending antics from Roberts helped erase what was another great performance for Archer. While QT Marshall has never really been built as someone to take seriously (even commentary mentioned how much they rib him for being a front office member), his lower third mentioned he had won three of his past four of five matches.

Marshall may have lasted as long or longer than Colt Cabana in his match with Archer, but seemed to do less with that time. Having to work through a commercial break, Archer basically took his time dismantling Marshall.

If they would have ended the segment with Archer’s victory, cool. It would have been great if Roberts would have just placed the snake on Rhodes rather than straddle her as well. While I’ve enjoyed Roberts’ contributions to AEW, last night left me scratching my head and wondering if Vince McMahon somehow had influence in that segment.

With two shows left before Double or Nothing, how will the rest of the card be filled by events on the next two episodes of Dynamite? Next week is also advertised as a stacked show, so at least we know AEW is working to build anticipation and excitement for their second quarterly PPV of the year.

Until then, please stay safe and healthy, readers!