Jake Roberts, Diamond Dallas Page on the resurrection of The Snake and more
Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Diamond Dallas Page talk to Daily DDT about The Snake’s road to recovery, being proud of the person he is today, his thoughts on the current wrestling landscape, and more.
Renowned wrestling legend Jake Roberts was at one point considered to be a lost cause by both his fans and peers alike due to the years of self-inflicted damage done to his body, more so outside of the ring than in it.
The wrestling world has lost a lot of legends to drugs, depression, alcohol and various other vices. It would have hardly been a surprise to see The Snake’s name on that list when he was at his worst in the 2000s.
However, thanks to a helping hand from the incomparable Diamond Dallas Page, Roberts was able to turn his life around and overcome his demons. His complete journey will be chronicled on the next episode of A&E’s Biography: WWE Legends series this Sunday, February 26.
“I wanted the truth to come out, no matter how hard and how ugly it was,” Roberts told Daily DDT about the primary message he wanted to relay through the documentary. “I wanted that out there so we can show people, ‘Yeah, people do make mistakes, they fall, they get down and are down there for a while and suffer, but there is a choice. There is hope.’ You got to keep a handle on hope because without hope, you have nothing.”
As most are already aware, Roberts credits DDP Yoga (now simply shortened to DDPY) for saving his life and getting him on the road to recovery a decade ago. Once he started to see real progress, he realized good things can indeed happen if he kept going along that path of positivity.
Before Roberts got clean, DDP genuinely didn’t think he’d ever be able to have a real convo with him again. He was willing to do anything and everything he could to save his friend before it was too late but had no real aspirations of what the end result was going to be.
“He was so far gone… it got to a point where I’d say to him, ‘Jake, we’re going to have to start to try and fix this,'” Page said. “Once he got sober, within a year, we’re starting to have semi-intelligent conversations. By the second year, it started getting better. By the third year, I didn’t even know that Jake. Because I only ever knew him through his major partying years and he was never sober.”
For Roberts, it was mostly a matter of breaking every bad habit he had and starting a new life all together. It was the only way he could make consistent strides and leave his life of darkness behind him.
“We are creatures of habit, but you have to break all those habits,” Roberts said. “You have to find new things and make new friends. You can’t hang out with your drug buddies or drunks anymore. You don’t fit in, so you need to find new places and new things and get a great foundation under you, those things are important.”
DDP filmed every experience Roberts had during his miraculous road to recovery and released it as The Resurrection of Jake the Snake in 2015. According to the fitness guru, he’s improved his overall well being even more since then.
Roberts had to pay his dues and prove himself to WWE that he could be counted to appear for the promotion without publicly embarrassing himself. Ultimately, Roberts took his rightful place in the WWE Hall of Fame in April 2014.
“He’s comfortable in every situation now and that’s the most fascinating part,” DDP said. “We did an interview about seven years ago and we were doing a catch-up with where he was [back then]. He said, ‘I fell in love.’ I said, ‘Who did you fall in love with?’ And he said, ‘Myself.’ That’s one of the biggest things people with addiction or life issues: they don’t really love themselves. A lot of people think they’re worthless and all it takes is you changing that story. It’s that simple.
“He’s really risen through the ashes and I hope the documentary portrays all of that,” he added.
Roberts remains active in the wrestling business today as an on-screen talent for AEW. In fact, he just returned to TV as the manager for Lance Archer on Friday’s edition of Rampage.
As a master of the microphone himself, he takes great pride in aiding up-and-comers with their promos, but his biggest gripe with the current state of the industry is that there aren’t enough characters across all of the promotions.
“They’re not taking the time to develop characters,” Roberts said. “They’ve got a lot of great athletes going out there flying through the air and doing inconceivable things with their bodies, but at the end of the night, nothing sticks. It’s like, ‘What was that? What are they going to do next?’ It’s because there’s not a character involved and I’d like to see them work on their characters, starting with interviews. That would help a lot. Hopefully I can help some of those guys do better interviews. That’s my new job in AEW and hopefully I’ll do a good job.”
The Snake mentioned that it becomes “frustrating” to watch the same mistakes being made and that he’s happy to offer any advice he can to talent willing to reach out and critique their work. Bray Wyatt is someone fans have constantly compared to Roberts because of the many similarities they share, and Roberts had nothing but high praise for The Eater of Worlds.
“I haven’t seen his new thing yet, but I will get to it,” he said. “Look at what the [promos] do for him. He’s one of the biggest stars in the world, and he doesn’t have a title. Does he need one? Nope.”
The excessive amount of championships in wrestling right now is another criticism of his, explaining that they don’t mean as much when there’s so many of them.
“When you’ve got 12 titles, it’s all watered-down crap,” he said. “Back in the day, if you had the World title or the Intercontinental title, you were the guy. You were it. For me not to have it… and there was a reason I never had one. It was because they were scared of me. They didn’t know if I’d be there or if I’d show up [messed up] and get fired. But that was my mistake and I paid for it. It probably cost me the world title.”
Looking back at his decorated career now with a clear head, Roberts recognizes how special of a performer he truly was and the impact he had on the industry. These days, he’s taking the time to smell the roses and be grateful that he’s still alive to tell these tales.
“I see how good I was and how far ahead I was of people at certain things, where it be interviews or how I handled myself in the ring,” Roberts said. “I never had that appreciation before for whatever reason. I always wanted to do more and be bigger and be better. I was never satisfied. I look back now and realize, ‘I did some pretty amazing [stuff]. I’m pretty damn proud of what I accomplished.”
If he could change anything about his life, he would’ve wanted to live it drug-free and not bungled all of his previous marriages and relationships. However, he’s come to accept who he was, is and wants to be, and the person he wants to be is who he is right now.
“If I could save one person, then I’ve done it,” he said. “I think [the documentary] going to save thousands. I get people all the time contacting me and thanking me for helping them get out of where they were at. I sponsor several people to help them break the addition and abuse cycle. Life is awfully good if you do things right.”