Jake Roberts recently talked about a wide range of topics on his Snake Pit podcast.
During it, the WWE Hall of Famer discussed his time in WCCW, the Von Erichs and more. Here are the highlights:
On meeting Fritz Von Erich:
“Yeah, I met him when I was a kid. My father wrestled for him, and, Yeah, I’d met him.”
On the reputation of the Von Erichs not being reliable:
“It was crazy. You didn’t know what the hell you were going to do, and you didn’t know why you were going to do it. Most frustrating time of my life. Absolutely, without a doubt. You couldn’t follow anything. Because the boys were fucking doing whatever they wanted. And usually, that meant your shoulders to the mat. One, two, three.”
On how the Von Erichs treated him:
“They were like little kids, man. They were like. They were like 15-year-olds. Oh, man. You know, they didn’t have, they didn’t understand responsibility. They didn’t understand anything. They were just young, very young. And they’d been pushed into this position and the demands were huge. Huge. They didn’t want the responsibility. None of them did.”
On how good the Von Erichs were when they were sober:
“Well, I’m still waiting. Never got them straight, brother.”
On resenting the Von Erichs:
“Yeah, absolutely. You know, you’re out there busting your ass and you’re worried that you’re going to get hurt because they’re fucked up, you know? And. It’s just really hard. I mean, I remember one instance. Ric Flair came in, and he was wrestling. In Fort Worth, and Carey was so f***ed up. And he couldn’t even put his boots on. so they were laced. They laced his boots up for him. And sitting in the ring. He was wobbling and everything else. And the way they got through it is they said that he had 105 fever, but he didn’t want to let the fans down.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Snake Pit podcast with an h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.