Jake Roberts

This article is about wrestler Jake Roberts . For the British film editor of the same name, see Jake Roberts (film editor)

Aurelian Smith Jr.
Data
Ring name	Fred Platt Fred Smith Jake Roberts Jake Smith Jr.
height	196 cm
Fighting weight	105-121 kg
birth	May 30, 1955 Gainesville , Texas
Announced from	Stone Mountain , Georgia
Trained by	Grizzly Smith Moose Morowski
debut	May 13, 1975

Jake "The Snake" Roberts (born May 30, 1955 in Gainesville , Texas as Aurelian Smith Jr. ) is a former American wrestler , who became known through his appearances at World Wrestling Entertainment . He was mainly characterized by his acting skills and the ability to carry a live snake. He currently appears as a manager at All Elite Wrestling .

Private

Smith has a son and a daughter. He also has a half-brother, Michael, and a half-sister, Robin, who were also active in wrestling as Sam Houston and Rockin'Robin . A biological sister was murdered. Smith is an alcoholic and underwent WWE- paid therapy in December 2007 . However, this failed. By 2012 his health and drinking behavior deteriorated and he gained almost 140 kg. Afterwards, with the help of the wrestler Diamond Dallas Page , who is now working as a motivational speaker, he underwent another withdrawal program, as well as a yoga training, through which he lost 30 kg and was dry for a long time. In June 2013 he had another alcohol relapse, but continues to participate in the program. On February 23, 2014, Roberts announced that he had a cancerous tumor in his knee, which was surgically removed on February 25.

Career

Smith's father Aurelian Smith Sr. was active as a wrestler and booker under the name Grizzly Smith . As a result, Smith rarely saw his father and actually had a very negative attitude towards wrestling. But in order to get his father's recognition, he wanted to prove himself in his profession. Since he was very slight compared to him and the relationship between the two was very tense, his father advised against a career as a wrestler. Smith started his career in Louisiana in 1974 as a referee, but was soon also used as a substitute wrestler and thus made a name for himself in Mid-South Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling . In 1983 he was made a member of The Legion of Doom with the National Wrestling Alliance , from which the Road Warriors later formed, and played a program with Ron Garvin for the NWA World Television title .

In 1984 Smith moved to World Class Championship Wrestling , where he was allowed to win the World Class Championship Television Title and the World Class Championship Wrestling Six Man Tag Team Title . 1985 Roberts went back to Mid-South Wrestling , but ended his engagement there in February 1986 again.

Smith was given the additional name of "The Snake" ( Engl. The snake ) because it was relatively large, but was rather slim. From then on Smith slid under the lowest ring rope and brought a live tiger python to the ring. From 1986 Roberts worked for what was then WWF . There he got his first major feud program against Ricky Steamboat . Also in 1986 Smith had his first Wrestlemania appearance and was allowed to defeat George Wells.

Because of his excellent microphone skills, Smith was given his own interview segment, "The Snake Pit", where current feud programs were discussed and promoted by Smith as a moderator. After Smith appeared at Wrestlemania III in 1987 with rock legend Alice Cooper against The Honky Tonk Man , a program against Rick Rude followed in 1988 . Smith's then wife Cheryl also took part in this event.

In 1989 he was allowed to work in a feud with Andre the Giant , after which he took a short break and was officially injured by Ted DiBiase . The ensuing feud was concluded at Wrestlemania VI in 1990 with a victory for Smith. A year later, he played one of the most unusual fights in Wrestlemania history, the so-called Blindfold Match . Both opponents faced blindfolded because of the storyline and finally Smith was allowed to win against Rick Martel .

In 1991, after a feud against Earthquake , Smith's character was changed to Heel and he was tied into the storyline of the Ultimate Warrior against Undertaker . In the following, Smith and the Undertaker continued to be used together, including in a program with Randy Savage , during which Smith even brought a cobra with him. They separated again in 1992 and let them compete against each other at Wrestlemania VIII. Smith should lose the fight. Previously, Smith fell out with the WWF leadership when he did not get the promised position on the creative team and as a consequence threatened with not appearing at Wrestlemania if he was not released from his contract.

In 1992 he was briefly active for the WCW , but left it again for reasons of merit in April 1993 and made his debut at the Mexican Asistencia Asesoría y Administración , where he worked with Konnan . In 1996 Smith returned to the WWF. After brief feuds with Steve Austin and Jerry Lawler , he left the WWF in 1997.

For several months of 1997 Roberts fought again in the AAA . In the following years he appeared in smaller independent leagues.

In November 2002 he founded his own wrestling promotion, the "Real Stars of Wrestling". Smith made a WWE appearance on March 14, 2005 on RAW , where he appeared with Randy Orton . In 2006 he also had a few appearances for TNA .

Smith had been in rehab in Atlanta since December 2007. This withdrawal was paid for by the WWE. In the meantime he was considered "dry" and occasionally appeared in small leagues. His last major appearance for the time being was at the League TNA Slammiversary 2008 event . After that, Smith slipped further because of his alcoholism until his wrestling colleague Diamond Dallas Page took him on in August 2012 .

On November 17, 2013 Smith returned actively to the ring at Superstars of Wrestling and was even able to make a guest appearance at WWE again in January 2014.

On April 6, 2014, Smith was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame . The laudation was given by his former wrestling student Diamond Dallas Page.

Smith first appeared in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in the March 4, 2020 issue of Dynamite , introducing himself as the manager of an AEW wrestler whose identity was revealed the following week as Lance Archer's .

Smith has released two DVD releases about his career. The first was produced by WWE and is a 2006 DVD production called "Pick your Poison". This retrospectively examines his career and shows some of his most famous fights. In 2015 the documentary "The Ressurection of Jake the Snake Roberts" was released.

Others

• Fought in 1979 at Stampede Wrestling against The Junk Yard Dog the first official leader fight in wrestling.

• In 1999 Smith took part in the wrestling documentary " Beyond the Mat " and addressed his alcohol and drug problems and their consequences.

• Roberts is considered to be the inventor of DDT, a well-known and often used move in wrestling today. According to one anecdote, the abbreviation DDT means Damien's Dinner Time and refers to Robert's snake, which he called Damien, and which he often put on his stomach after a fight against defeated opponents.

Most important successes in wrestling

Web links

Commons : Jake Roberts  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official profile in the WWE Hall of Fame
• Jake Roberts in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tweets on Jakethesnakeroberts.com
2. ↑ Match statistics at cagematch.de
3. ^ Report on RAW from January 6, 2014 on cagematch.de
4. ↑ WWE Hall of Fame Profile