WWE Superstars are encouraged to be in top physical condition as they are athletes. However, this did not happen for Jake “The Snake” Roberts. In fact, he faced the opposite situation
On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Roberts, talked about a back injury he suffered when he was an active wrestler.
“I know when I had my neck messed up, they told me I would never ever wrestle again because I had two discs completely gone. And all the surgeons said, ‘there’s no way in hell you’re getting back in that ring.’ I said, ‘hey, you have no idea, doc. It’s a chemical world now!’ And I went to Amsterdam [Netherlands] after the surgery and picked up a few products and I came back.”
Roberts had successful surgery and get back into shape. He saw that he was stronger and had more defined muscles. Vince McMahon saw his progress and was livid. He threatened to fine Jake Roberts if he tried to visit the gym again.
“And at the time of the surgery, I could lift, like, 4 pounds. with my left arm and that was it. I could hardly move my left arm at all. And somehow, within 10 weeks, I had I was doing seated behind the neck presses with 225 [lbs.] and I gained a lot of size. Here’s the best part though.”
“I gained, like, 40 lbs., man, in three months, so I went into to see Vince to tell him I was coming back and he almost took a bump out of his chair when he saw me. [Imitating McMahon] ‘what the hell’s wrong with you?’” Roberts added, “[McMahon] looked at me and he goes, ‘Jake, what the hell have you done to yourself?’ I said, ‘my God, I’m in the best shape of my f*cking life! I mean, look at this sh*t!’ I had big knobs up here on my shoulder and sh*t.”
“[McMahon] said, ‘if we wanted Hogan to carry the snake, we’d have Hogan carry the snake!’ He said, ‘we wanted some slimy, no-good son of a bitch to carry the snake, you know, a guy that looks like he [has] been run through the mill and a little nasty and dirty, a flesh eating bastard.’ He told me, he said, ‘if I find out that you’re in a gym, I’m fining you $1,000 every time.’”
Jake Roberts made his debut on AEW Dynamite this week. It is unknown who his client is, but we will get to know in due time.
