Jake Roberts may have gotten a WWE Hall of Fame induction, but he was ready to compete in the 2014 Royal Rumble.
The Master of the DDT spoke about this topic on the latest edition of his DDP Snakepit podcast, where Roberts shared details of his conversation with Triple H, how ecstatic he was to be getting in the Hall of Fame, and how prepared he was to wrestle if WWE asked him to. Highlights can be found below.
Looks back on getting the call from Triple H that WWE wanted to induct him into the Hall of Fame:
I was at DDP’s [Diamond Dallas Page] crib, and I get the phone call from Hunter [Triple H]. I thought he was calling for the Royal Rumble. I had been training hard for it, and I told Dallas, ‘I’m going to get this. I got it. I know I got it.’ I was in the best shape I had been in, in 20 years, easily. Hunter said, ‘Jake, we’d like to induct you into the Hall of Fame,’ which caught me off guard. It took two or three days for it to soak in.
How he wanted to wrestle at the Royal Rumble that year:
Probably a year in. After I started having long stretches of sobriety. That first year, I think I screwed up twice, maybe three times. It was getting better, my head was clear, my workouts were starting to pick up. Not only was I doing DDP Yoga, but after that, I would go to the gym and put in another hour. I was pushing pretty hard for an old fart. It wasn’t easy, but it was something that I really wanted. I always wanted that opportunity to tell the fans goodbye, especially after what they had just done for me. They had paid for my surgery to have my shoulder repaired. It is in good shape now. That blew me away when the fans came through on the IndieGoGo. We asked for a certain amount and within 24 hours it was there. That blew me away.
Says he told Vince McMahon he was training for the Rumble:
Whenever I saw Vince (McMahon), I told him I was getting ready for the Rumble. We met backstage after I did my bit (on Old School Raw).
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)