Steroids have been a hot topic in professional wrestling for decades. For years their use and distribution was an open secret and led to the famous ‘steroid trial’ involving then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon in the early 1990s.
One man who had a front row seat as more and more stars used performance enhancers to boost their careers was Jake Roberts. Although Roberts was never typically known as a ‘body guy’ he now admits that he felt pressure to keep up with the likes of Hulk Hogan.
WWE Legend Jake Roberts Comments On Steroid Use
During a recent episode of his DDP Snake Pit podcast which looked back at WWF pay-per-view, ‘This Tuesday In Texas,’ the subject of steroids was brought up. Roberts was asked whether he had been tempted to use them in an attempt to keep up with his colleagues.
The WWE Hall of Famer said that he did use steroids, but in his case it was to speed up his recovery from neck surgery.
“Of course it did, and I did,” Roberts said, opening up about his health during that time. “I went on it for a short period, especially after my neck surgery cause I wanted to heal quicker, but in the WWF at the time we were working so hard, seven days a week, twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday. You needed a little bit of steroids to help with the healing process.
Now some guys took that and went completely off the charts with it, but that was their choice and you know, so many of those guys are gone now and I’m sure that had something to do with it, whether that was Randy [Savage] or The Road Warriors or Mr. Perfect, right on down the line, man.”
Ric Flair has previously stated that steroids were a “way of life” in early 90s WWE, noting that everyone was looking for an advantage. The issue of steroids and performance enhancers was recently brought back into the news by Joe Rogan who urged Dwayne Johnson to admit that he was using them.
H/t to Wrestling Inc