Jake Roberts has hit out at WWE for making fun of him for being an alcoholic in the mid-1990’s.
Jake Roberts returned to the WWF in early 1996 under a new gimmick as part of the Royal Rumble Match. The persona mirrored the real-life changes that Roberts had undertaken as he became a born-again Christian as he battled to overcome alcoholism.
During this period, Roberts was famously defeated in the finals of the King of the Ring tournament by Steve Austin, before entering into a feud with Jerry Lawler.
As the rivalry progressed, Lawler repeatedly took aim at Roberts over his new-found faith and very real addiction issues. This involved the announcer pouring whiskey over his face and down his throat, despite his well known battle with alcoholism.
Speaking on a Q&A edition of his DDP Snake Pit podcast with Diamond Dallas Page and Conrad Thompson, Roberts hit out at the angle commenting that it was in “horrible taste.”
“He wound up pouring a bottle of whiskey down my face, burned the sh*t out of my eyes.”
Ask Jerry he’ll tell you the same damn thing,” Roberts continued, “because whenever it came time for me to pour it on him he goes ‘you can’t pour that on me,’ and I go ‘what do you mean? You poured it on me.’ He goes ‘well Vince wanted it poured on you.’ That motherf***er, you know?
I can’t say ‘boys will be boys’ because boys will be assholes. They were constantly putting things in my bag that shouldn’t have been there, taking chances with my damn well-being because they were putting drugs in my damn suitcase that I didn’t know were there, and I’d find sh*t in there y’know? Paraphernalia and stuff. It was just horrible, man.”
Roberts went on to explain that he harboured resentment towards Lawler for years over his involvement, until it was revealed that he didn’t actually want to participate in the angle.
“Even Lawler didn’t want to do it. I didn’t know it at the time that Lawler didn’t want to do it, I thought he was enjoying it too much. I had some harsh feelings for Jerry until we sat down and talked about it. Now we’re good.”
During an earlier episode of his podcast, Jake Roberts claimed that during this period his fellow wrestlers hid drug paraphilia in his bag when on the road.
H/t to Wrestling Inc