Jake Roberts Admits He Initially Though Feud With Andre The Giant Wouldn’t Work

WWE Hall of Famer Jake Roberts has confessed that he was initially hesitant about working a programme with Andre the Giant, fearing their matches would be too difficult to make believable.

Speaking on The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under podcast, Jake Roberts recalled his concerns about facing someone as physically dominant as Andre, questioning how he could structure a convincing match against the legendary big man.

“I thought that there was just no way in hell I could make that match work, because you look at Andre and no matter what you think, you’re not even close, 500 pounds is 500 f**king pounds, brother. And he’s a huge son of a b**ch, beyond huge. There’s nobody like him, there never will be. I’m thinking to myself, ‘How in the hell are we going to make this believable?’”

Roberts soon realised, however, that Andre’s willingness to sell his fear of Damien, Roberts’ famous pet snake, was the key to making their rivalry work. He shared a memorable moment from Grand Rapids, Michigan, when an unexpected young fan became part of the action.

“Andre got me in a headlock, he was goozling me, and all of a sudden, he was gone. He’s let go of me, gotten outside the ring, and he’s like, ‘Whoa!’ I roll over and look, and here’s this girl, about 11 or 12 years old, coming across the ring after Andre with Damien. Most guys would have gone, ‘Get that b**ch out of the ring.’ But Andre was a thinker. He saw it as the perfect moment to get out of the ring.”

Andre then capitalised on the situation to generate even more heat.

“He gets the microphone and says, ‘Arrest her! Arrest her! Get her out of the ring.’ Well, f**k, if Andre says, ‘Do something,’ people do s**t. The cops grabbed the girl, she’s crying her eyes out, and Andre is laughing, ‘Ha ha ha, I show you!’ That’s how good he was, he could make s**t work.”

Despite his early doubts, Roberts acknowledged that Andre turned their feud into one of the most memorable storylines of his career.

How Does Jake Roberts Think The DDT Could Work As A Finisher In Modern Wrestling?

Jake Roberts spoke about how he thinks his old finishing move, the DDT, could make a comeback as a deadly finisher in modern wrestling and said that it would need to stop being used by most wrestlers as a normal spot in matches and instead one wrestler would need to adopt it as their finishing move. Roberts went on to explain that any move could be a finishing move if used correctly and protected.

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