Jake Roberts Recalls How Andre The Giant Reacted To Snakes
Jake Roberts has opened up about how an old rival of his, Andre The Giant, felt about snakes.
During his Hall of Fame wrestling career, Jake Roberts was known for bringing out a snake, usually named Damien, to torture his opponents. When Roberts was a heel, the did heinous acts like having Damien bite “Macho Man” Randy Savage on the arm, which is a visual that likely scarred a lot of young wrestling fans at the time.
There was also a time when Jake Roberts was a babyface that would often times use the snake to scare heels. Roberts would also put the snake on a fallen opponent after he beat them with a DDT. It was always a good way to get a crowd to cheer him.
In 1989, Jake had a high-profile feud with Andre The Giant, who was at the tail end of his career. In the 1989 Royal Rumble match, Jake pulled out the snake after he was eliminated in the match and chased Andre with it. Andre sold it like he was terrified. At WrestleMania 5, Andre ran away from the snake again in a match that ended in a disqualification.
Some fans that grew up witnessing these moments likely think that Andre was legitimately afraid of snakes, but Jake Roberts put that theory to rest. Jake was recently a recent guest on the Paradox of Sports show and was asked if Andre was really scared of snakes.
“Hell no! No, Andre wasn’t afraid of anything, man. He did a phenomenal job in making people believe he was afraid.”
Jake Roberts would go on to tell a funny story about a snake biting Andre’s shoulder and the snake’s fangs were stuck in Andre’s shoulder.
“Hell, one night the snake broke two fangs off of his shoulder, and he didn’t even know it. And I went back to the locker room because the snake had bit me too, and I didn’t even want to go in the locker room because I’m afraid he’s gonna kick my ass. Because I knew the snake had bit him. And I walk into the locker room like, ‘Andre, you okay?’ ‘Oh, well yeah, why? No problems.’”
“And Rick Rude walked up behind him, Andre he was sitting down. He goes, ‘Hey boss, look at this!’ And he grabbed, and he pulled the fangs out of his shoulder. ‘Look at that! There’s a fang that broke off in his shoulder!’ Andre laughed and said, “Oh, snake must be hungry.’ And that’s all he said. He didn’t get mad, he didn’t want help, he didn’t need a damn Band-Aid. ‘Hell, it’ll quit bleeding after a while, don’t worry about it.’ That was it, and I was glad too.”
Andre the Giant was the first person inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1993, which is the same year he passed away. Jake “The Snake” Roberts was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014.