Jake "The Snake" Roberts' Heel Turn in 1991

ICEMAN

Hey everyone,
This is my first post on the forum. From my viewings of the threads, it appears that you guys/gals, know your wrestling history. So, that leads me to my question:
How did the Jake Roberts heel turn in 1991 come about? I was big into wrestling at that time (I stopped watching from 1993-1995), but for some reason can't place a finger on how his turn happened.
Thanks for the help and I look forward to contributing my views on the forum.
-Djwlfpack

Disco Raheem

Welcome to the forums mate.


As for your question, I think it had something to do with his snake biting someone, I'm thinking Randy Savage. However, in 1991 I was 6 years old, so my memory is vague.

Crocker

He actully turned on The Ultimate Warrior he was trying to get him 2 face his fears and locked him in a room full of snakes if my memory serves me correctly

Dreds

Yes, it was against the Warrior....The Undertaker was getting the best of The Ultimate Warrior and thats when, on an episode of The Funeral Parlour, Jake told Warrior that he could help him beat both Taker and his fears of facing him (Taker had previously locked him in a casket).....thats when on the last day of training, locked in a room full of snakes and left him there to die, after one of the snakes got him.

Bouchie

And on a side note, some people say that Jake's heel gimmick ended at WM8 when Undertaker damn-near destroyed him.

Creature of the Night

If my memory serves me correctly, Jake Roberts extended a 'hand of friendship' to Ultimate Warrior to help him conquer the darkside of the Undertaker because he claimed to know what it felt like to endure the kind of claustrophobic surroundings that Warrior had endured inside Undertaker's casket after having been 'blinded' for the best part of six months at the hands of Rick 'The Model' Martel and his cologne spray (the resulting blowoff match for that feud, a blindfold match at WrestleMania VII was hilarious btw).

He made Warrior go through a series of 'trials' in successive weeks on superstars, one being locked in a casket, one being taken to a graveyard and the final one being having to find his way out of a dark outhouse with a room full of snakes inside it. Warrior was about to make his way out guided by Jake but he ended up falling and when he looked up, the leg he was holding onto was that of The Undertaker. Jake had basically aligned himself with Undertaker and a chain of events followed that essentially turned Undertaker face after a feud with Warrior and a segment where Jake turned on him and trapped his hand in a coffin, leading to their WrestleMania VIII encounter.

Papa Shango

Yeah it was the legendary Warrior training vingettes that turned him heel.

And that match with Taker at WM8 was his last in the WWF until he returned some years later.

ICEMAN

You guys are good!

Thanks for refreshing my memory. I have only a slight recollection of those vignettes Jake did with the Warrior, and what you all have said makes place.

If I also remember correctly, didn't Roberts and Taker have something to do with the Savage-Elizabeth wedding reception, which then led to Jake and Savage feuding for a few months?

I bet Roberts-Savage was originally pegged for Wrestlemania VIII, but when the Hogan-Flair angle fell apart, they peeled Roberts and Savage off into new programs in time to build them for Wrestlemania.

Thanks again guys!

Good Ol' JP

they did indeed, at summerslam heaven and hell or what ever it was billed as, they came into the wedding party.

Rhyno's #1 mark just layed the smackdown!

If I am no one, and no one is perfect, then I am perfect.

Creature of the Night

Ur absolutely right about Hogan and Savage having their Mania matches changed, It was supposed to be Hogan vs Flair at WrestleMania VIII but egos got in the way and it never happened.