Jake "The Snake" Roberts, real name Aurelius Smith, was one of the
World Wrestling Federation's best performers in the 1980s. A
babyface for many, many years, he
lived his character.
Never one of the greatest
technical wrestlers, he made up for those flaws with
fresh and
captivating interviews which would often legitimately
spook out opponents--and if that didn't,
Damien (his
pet snake) definitely would. It was so drugged it could barely move, but watching his opponents recoil in
mortal fear was always good for a
chuckle.
He turned
heel in the early 1990s, and that more than anything else absolutely killed his career. Fans had always dug him as a
spooky babyface, but becoming a
heel--without really changing his character much--the crowd really just didn't care about him. Being stuck in retarded angles like his feud with
Andre the Giant, where the premise of the entire feud was that Andre was deathly afraid of
snakes, didn't help matters much either.
He had a short run with
World Championship Wrestling after leaving the
WWF, but the resurfacing of his lifelong
drinking problem (among other
substances) led to his release in 1993.
He turned to
Christianity, leading
church tours in the name of
religion and giving up his
evil ways. He made a briefreturn to the
WWF in 1996 playing that sort of "
born again" character, a run most notable for creating a monster of another sort entirely: After
Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Roberts in the finals of the 1996
King of the Ring tournament, Austin gave the following diatribe in his
acceptance speech:
"Talk about your psalms, talk about your John 3:16; those things didn't get you anywhere. Well, Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!"
That
catchphrase was the
catalyst for Austin's meteoric rise to fame, and the destruction of
Jake "The Snake" Roberts laid the groundwork for it.
Roberts left the
WWF soon afterwards, falling back into
depression and
alcoholism. He still wrestles occasionally on the independent circuit--when he's
sober enough to remember to show up.
He was one of the main subjects of the
Barry Blaustein's 1999 documentary on
professional wrestling, entitled "
Beyond the Mat". Blaustein accompanies Roberts on the road to several indy wrestling shows, along with an afternoon with his estranged father (wrestler "Grizzly" Smith) and a reunion with his oldest daughter. Blaustein reports that after the difficult meeting with his daughter--who he hadn't seen in several years--Roberts disappeared for a few hours. When Balustein finally caught back up with him, he was high on
heroin.