Hello all, I'm a long time lurker here. I realize this is your sandbox and I hesitate to join in, but I think this one is worth it. Also, let me say I enjoy all the bickering, bantering, OO Rick's insights, Janerd's gif bombs (most of the time) and all the other goings on here!

I found this podcast with Steve Austin and Jake the Snake Roberts while checking out a link from PaddleFoot. It's fucking awesome! I've been watching wrestling since the 70's on Ga Championship Wrestling. This takes me back to the days of old school "wrastling", - the same "wrastling" Vince got rich off of - not the Sports Entertainment bullshit of today. Today's WWE bores the shit out of me, it's as predictable as a traffic Light.

Here's a paraphrased quote from Jake as a teaser:
"You don't get heat by hitting a guy with a sledge hammer. You just ruined your character. If he can get up from a sledge hammer, I can't fight him. You just told everybody you're a phony sum-bitch. You ask a guy on the street about that, he'd say really, You kidding me? "

Fucking amazing! Love this interview, it's awesome. Full of real incidents and insights, not watered down, sanitized, TV-PG bullshit.

This starts about 36:24 in the podcast.

I recommend this to all of you, especially the younger folks here who maybe aren't familiar with old school pro wrestling.

They also talk about the invention of the DDT, and how guys today don't do it right.

One from Steve:
"Nobody normal sticks a blade in their head and twists or pulls"

Hope you all enjoy.
https://youtu.be/R53UditX4lw

PS,
Charger, bring back the Total Divas recaps, that shit was epic.

[Edited on 3-21-2016 by Dirty Rhodes]

[Edited on 3-21-2016 by Dirty Rhodes]

[Edited on 3-21-2016 by Dirty Rhodes]

[Edited on 3-21-2016 by Dirty Rhodes]

I am not young but I haven't really seen much of Jake The Snake Roberts except for his brief WWF return to put over Steve Austin. That match wasn't great but it put over Austin convincingly and established Vince's clear direction of younger guys over "Legends".

I understand that Jake and Undertaker had teamed up for a while in backstage segments during Taker's early days.

So how does Jake Roberts really rank in the hierarchy of WWE legends?

Had seen a video of him on You Tube talking unflatteringly about Bret Hart. The mark in me turned off after that.

I remember Jake back in the old days as a great "evil" heel, and the fact I hate snakes made me not like (his character) him even more. As far as a where he ranks, he's gotta be high on the list - but I won't even begin to place a rank # beside his name cause frankly I'm not knowledgeable enough to do so.

After hearing this interview I now realize what a great mind for the business he has/had, and is actually a decent guy once he got clean. It's a shame he's not running creative now instead of ole' balloon tits. Ahh, what could've been....

I just enjoyed the shit out of listing to Austin and Jake... That was entertaining to me.

P.S. I used to work with a guy who was an ex Pro Wrastler, (local territories) who got hurt before making it to WWE, but could have. He reminds me a lot of Jake. Same look, tall, and scary if you pissed him off.

I remember Jake from Texas. He was an average body, not wrestling body, but walking around body.

He takes some liberties (no surprise) in the shoot. But as a whole, I think his perspective is fair.

He needed two things to get over 2:30 minutes on a microphone and Ricky Steamboat taking a DDT on concrete. I searched in vain for a picture, or video...none.

Here is some mic work.

http://youtu.be/XPlhZJGPanQ

quote:

---

Originally posted by shashwat mishra
So how does Jake Roberts really rank in the hierarchy of WWE legends?

Had seen a video of him on You Tube talking unflatteringly about Bret Hart. The mark in me turned off after that.

---

Hard to do a hierarchy, but there was a time he was in the top two heels in the company when he was feuding against Macho Man. There was also a time when he was arguably a top 3 face in the company during his feuds with Rick Rude, Andre The Giant, and Earthquake. His character was definitely one of the most captivating both when he was a face and as a heel, and his promos rank up there with the best.

I've heard a rumor that there was a short time Vince wanted to have him feud with Hogan as a heel but that it they resisted because they were afraid he would be cheered more than Hogan would.

Either way, of all the guys in WWF and WCW to have never won a championship (really - he's never been World, US, Tag, or IC champ in either company), he's easily by far and away ranks at #1. He might be the only non-celebrity in the WWE Hall of Fame who never had a championship reign in the big two.

Late to this thread, but I cannot overstate how incredible Jake was in his prime. At that point, there was NOBODY better than him on the mic. His Trust Me program is to date my favorite heel work of all time.

His in-ring work wasn't great at first glance, but he punctuated it with the best psychology imaginable. Damian was part of it, but the guy really was a creepy, diabolical genius.

Listened to the podcast.

The stuff with the blading and how to do it right was kind of scary. He referred to blood as juice!! Makes you understand that wrestling is a hell of lot tougher and scarier than what people make it out to be.

He came across as pretty smart on how to get some of the basics right in terms of story telling and how even the referees play their part actively (how many of us even pay attention to that?).

I have no idea if Vince ever thinks of getting some of these old timers (including Cornette) a chance at some consulting...give them a pet storyline to create around 2-3 stars and get them all over.

He was my favorite wrestler as a 7-year-old in the mid-80's and is easily one of my favorites of all-time for the aforementioned reasons.

I used to be pissed about him never getting a run at the highest level (or even a mid-card belt) but the more we've learned about him over the years, I think a large part of that was largely due to his own personal mistakes and his many demons, drug use, etc. No clue how much of a role that might have played in it but I'm sure Vince would have been hesitant to put a belt on him if his numerous issues were really that evident, even in the free-wheeling 80's.

Jake has been pretty clear about belts. He kind of carries the lack of a NEED for a belt as a badge of honor. His position is the belt is a tool to help get wrestlers over and he never needed the help.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot

quote:

---

Originally posted by shashwat mishra
So how does Jake Roberts really rank in the hierarchy of WWE legends?

Had seen a video of him on You Tube talking unflatteringly about Bret Hart. The mark in me turned off after that.

---

Jake was already one of the most popular performers in the company at the time and would have been one of the mega-stars if it hadn't been for Hogan's glass ceiling as well as Vince's growing nonsense at the time about him having the "wrong" kind of body (i.e. in great shape but not a body-builder). I'd compare Jake to what WCW did right with Dallas Page except that WWF did everything completely wrong with him. There's no way that this below isn't one of the great segments of all time, and the snake bite is only the second best thing about it because Jake talking shit to Macho and calling him out is 100% brilliant.



I saw that clip where Jake dissed Bret and HBK. He didn't diss them as wrestlers or performers. He was more pissed off at both of them for acting like such babies backstage, causing all sorts of trouble (a lot of which was magnified by the trouble that dirty slut Tammy Sytch was causing with both of them), and he called out Vince for letting the two of them get out of control. Jake was basically "it's a business, dummies, so grow the fuck up already".



[Edited on 3/22/2016 by Paddlefoot]

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
There's no way that this below isn't one of the great segments of all time, and the snake bite is only the second best thing about it because Jake talking shit to Macho and calling him out is 100% brilliant.

---