Jake Roberts Almost Got Legitimately Killed by a Snake Before His Co-Worker Broke Character to Save the Day for Him: “It Got Around My Neck and Squeezed…I Was Out”

Pro-wrestling in the 80s and 90s was vastly different from what it is today. Wrestlers would resort to strange gimmicks and wouldn’t be shy to go to the extreme to enthrall the spectators. This, at times, led to unexpected outcomes, but it did little to deter the performers.

One such pro-wrestler is Jake “The Snake” Roberts. As suggested in the name, Roberts would actually come to the ring with a live snake. The deal was simple if his opponent lost, it was a double whammy. Along with the humiliation of the defeat, the person would now have to deal with the snake. While Roberts mostly meted out the punishment, he was once at the receiving end of it.

Jake Roberts recalls the horror of his snake choking him

Not just Roberts, fellow WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat would roam around with his pet iguana. Interestingly, The Dragon once broke character during a match to save Roberts from his own snake.

Steamboat was fighting Roberts in Indianapolis when the latter’s python started to choke him. Recalling the incident, the WWE legend told Vlad TV: “It got around my neck one time in Indianapolis and choked me out during a match. I was fighting [Ricky] Steamboat and Steamboat had the lizard and I had the snake and it got around my neck and squeezed and I went down and Steamboat looked and seen that I was out and he took the snake off of me, if not I’d been dead.”

Speaking on The Snake Pit podcast, Roberts revealed the aftermath of the incident. He said Steamboat was afraid of snakes and let go of the python as soon as he managed to free it from his opponent.

“As I come to, the snake is going into the fourth row and the tail, luckily, is still in the ring, and I lunge and grab the tail and I whip it all back in. It’s about a 17 footer,” he said, adding people screamed as ran in all directions to save themselves.

When he went back to Indianapolis three months later, a couple of policemen had an amusing message for The Snake from his fans.

When the police saw him, they asked if he was carrying the same snake, when Roberts asked why, they said, “Because, man, everyone called wanting to know if it’s the same snake because they want to watch that son of a b**ch kill you.”

Read More: “Ric Is Day Drinking Again”: ‘Biased’ Ric Flair Gets Slammed Online for Putting Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley Over 70-Year-Old WWE Legend and Himself

Jake Roberts would later change his gimmick and ditch the snake. This eventually led to the rise of a new WWE superstar.

Jake Roberts was instrumental in creating one of WWE’s iconic catchphrases

During his second stint in the WWE, Roberts’ gimmick was that of a Bible preacher, who would frequently quote from the holy book. On June 23, 1996, Roberts faced Stone Cold Steve Austin at the MECCA Arena in Milwaukee in the final match of the King of the Ring tournament.

The ending of the match would give pro wrestling one of its iconic moments as Austin coined the “Austin 3:16” phrase. Wanting to insult Roberts, Austin, who won the match in under five minutes, said: “You sit there and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn’t get you anywhere! Talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3:16… Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your a**!”

Watch This Story: The Most Extreme Moments in WWE Monday Night Raw History!

This elevated Austin to a new level in the world of pro wrestling as the catchphrase stuck a chord with fans. Roberts, meanwhile, has been cited as an influence by The Undertaker as someone who helped him with ideas of putting a gimmick together. Jake The Snake Roberts was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014.

What do you make of this story of Jake Roberts nearly getting killed by his own snake? Let us know in the comments.