Jake “The Snake” Roberts Talks WWE HOF Induction, His Mother Passing Away, Inventing the DDT

WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts recently spoke Joshua Maloni of Niagara Frontier Publications to promote his weekend appearance at the Niagara Falls Comic Con. The full interview is at this link. Below are highlights:

How he feels, how things are going right now:

Well, right now I am down. I just buried my mother. … That is an empty spot. I really feel lost, like, “Wait a minute, I can’t pick up the phone and call her.” It still feels weird. It is a hole that has to be filled. I am so grateful that I was able to get sober and clean before she left, because I know she worried about me constantly, and hated the fact that I was going through what I went through. But she was always there for me, man. If I reached out, she was always there, you know?

So, to have cleaned up, and gotten right, I know she was happy with me with that. And she was comfortable. But to go through this process, and not drink, is so huge for me. Because, normally, boy, I would’ve been on a binge and a half for something like this comes along. I’ve not had one moment that I wanted to go drink or go do drugs or anything. I’m really grateful that I came through this thing. … All I can do is just a day-by-day process and keep living the dream, man, and that’s sobriety.

What it meant to go into the WWE Hall of Fame:

It’s something that I didn’t think was ever going happen, because of some of the things I’ve done outside the ring. And for the McMahon family and WWE Nation to forgive me for those things, and to look past them, and to induct me, was an awesome, awesome moment.

And to have some of my children there was great, because I was building those relationships again. Trying to get our family back together. It’s something I continue to work on, and it’s going really well. The kids and I have a great time. We’re constantly with each other or around each other; we’re talking to each other. So, that’s a great thing, too, man. My life is just so blessed in the last four years since I got sober.

Inventing the DDT:

Yeah, it was an accident. I was in the ring wrestling. I had a front facelock on a guy. He stepped on my feet and we fell backwards. He went on his head. I went on my back. And the fans went “OOOOHH.” I went, “Wait a minute; I’ve got something here.” And I started working on it, and come with it, and named it after the poison that everybody outlawed. I picked up the paper one day, and the front page was “DDT outlawed.” I was like, “Wait a minute. Very cool.” They had … “DDT poison to the brain.” I said, “Way cool.”

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