Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Jake "The Snake" Roberts is a wrestler of the classic era of the WWE. Known for coming to the ring with his pet snake, Jake would use her to instill fear in his opponents and celebrate with her after a victory.

Jake started wrestling in the independent federations and was shortly hired by the WWF.  He joined and for the most part was one of the best "heels" in the WWE.  His snake would scare off his opponents, like Andre the Giant at the first WWE Royal Rumble in 1989.  He was blinded by Rick "The Model" Martell in 1991 and the two wrestled a blindfold match at WrestleMania VII - Jake won with a DDT, his finishing move.

Jake had two different snakes during his WWE career: Damien and a cobra snake.  The snakes were used to scare lots of the greats, from Andre the Giant to the Undertaker to Earthquake (who actually squashed one) and the Ultimate Warrior.  At Summerslam 1990, Jake put his snakes up against Bad News Brown's New York City sewer rats, each man came to the ring with their animals.

Jake left the WWE in the early 1990's but came back in the mid-1990's as a person who has seen the light and repented for his sins as an alcoholic.  He had a memorable feud with Jerry Lawler, who would make fun of his drinking problem.  One of Jake's last matches in the WWE was his loss in the final round of the 1996 King of the Ring tournament to Steve Austin.  Austin came up with his "Austin 3:16" gimmick mocking Roberts's religious turn in life.

Jake Roberts was last seen wrestling in the "Heroes of Wrestling" pay-per-view in October of 1999, where he wrestled Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart.  He also starred in "Beyond The Mat" the classic wrestling documentary.  Jake also made a few appearances in ECW in 1998 at November to Remember and wrestled briefly in WCW.