Jake Roberts Details The Process Of How He Got Steroids From Dr. Zahorian In WWE

WWE Hall of Famer Jake Roberts has offered a candid look into the prevalence of steroid use during his time with WWE in the 1980s.

Speaking on his podcast, The Snake Pit, Roberts detailed how easily wrestlers accessed the substances through Dr. George Zahorian, a physician closely tied to the company at the time.

“You would go into a room and he’d have several suitcases in there. You’d tell him what you wanted, and he’d go through the suitcases, get it, package it up for you, and hand it to you.”

Roberts explained that he used steroids primarily to recover from injuries caused by the physically demanding wrestling schedule. However, the methods employed by Zahorian went far beyond ethical medical practices.

Dr. Zahorian’s activities ultimately led to legal consequences. In 1991, he was convicted of distributing illegal steroids and sentenced to three years in prison. His cooperation with federal authorities during the investigation placed additional scrutiny on the wrestling industry and its use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The fallout extended to former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who was indicted in 1993 on charges of distributing steroids to wrestlers. Although McMahon was acquitted in 1994, the trial cast a spotlight on the darker side of professional wrestling during that era and led to changes in how the industry approached drug use.

Why Did Jake Roberts Leave Stampede Wrestling For Mid-South Wrestling?

Jake Roberts spoke about his decision in the late 1970s to jump ship from Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling to join Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling and said that the decision was due to a number of reasons, including that his father was working for Watts at the time and he wanted to learn from the performers who were working there at that time.

H/t to ITRWrestling.com