Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Some things in professional wrestling just make common sense to do. You take your top babyface (good guy) and your top heel (bad guy) and make them clash in an epic good versus evil story. Sometimes, however, it isn’t as crystal clear as that. Sometimes things get a bit blurred and as a promoter….you are forced to make a decision. This is the case of Hulk Hogan and Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts and what might have been.
In 1986, there was no bigger star in the World Wrestling Federation than it’s WWF champion Hulk Hogan. He was the star and everything about the company revolved around him. While Hulk was extremely popular with fans, the key to his success and longevity was putting him against the top heels the WWF had to offer. Whether that was Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, Andre the Giant or Randy Savage….the better the heel…the better Hogan looked to his fanbase.
Vince McMahon had invested a ton of money into the Hulkamania machine. He was indeed the face of the promotion…from merchandise to appearances. If you thought about the WWF, you almost always thought about Hulk Hogan. That’s how it was for the company, he was the straw that stirred the WWF’s drink.
Enter Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts. Here was a wrestler who was being pushed as the ultimate evil character. In many way, the devil incarnate. From his cold, dark stares, evil grins, slithering into a ring and his devastating finishing move called the ‘DDT,’ Roberts was a true heel. To add to his character, Roberts came to the ring with a sack and inside of it was a large python he named Damien. A snake that Roberts would lay on top of his fallen opponents after his matches.
Jake Roberts was moving up the ladder of top heels thanks to his great feud with Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat. A feud that saw Roberts DDT Steamboat on the concrete floor. Not only could Jake wrestle, but he was also the master at talking up matches and making you believe he was pure evil. It was only a matter of time before Hulk and Jake were set on a collision course against each other. Top face versus top heel…it had to happen.
It was all set up, a confrontation between Hogan and Roberts on Jake’s own talk show segment called ‘The Snake Pit.’ Hulk would talk about how he is a force of good and against everything that Jake ever stood for. Hogan would also do his usual talk about his 24 inch pythons (his arms) and how his pythons were bigger than Jake’ python Damien. As the conversation between the two stars got more heated, Jake would then throw powder into the eyes of Hulk and then using his DDT finisher on the vulnerable Hulkster.
That was the plan and it went down flawlessly. As Jake Roberts returned backstage, Vince McMahon was there to greet him. Vince was sure that when Hulk finally got back to his feet, he would rip off his T shirt and the thousands of Hulkamaniacs at the arena that night would start chanting Hogan’s name. That was the thought, but it didn’t happen that way. Instead, when Hogan finally rose up to his feet….fans began chanting ‘DDT! DDT!’ All Vince could do was look at Jake Roberts and tell him that he was screwed. Meaning that the feud between Hulk and the Snake was not going to happen.
The two would wrestle each other on two house shows and not surprisingly….both shows were sold out. According to Jake, fans continued to chant DDT on both shows…killing any hope for a pay per view type match. Years later, Jake Roberts would jokingly curse out and blame the fans for the sudden ditching of the planned feud. In many ways, he wasn’t joking. The feud would have made Jake a ton of money and he would get a good run in a series of main event matches against Hogan. Instead it was abruptly halted and to ensure that Jake and Hulk wouldn’t collide….the WWF turned Jake Roberts into a babyface.
According to Roberts, instead of challenging Hogan for the WWF title, he was now in charge of getting other heels ready to face off against Hulk. It certainly became a tough pill for Jake Roberts to have to swallow….but the fact was it was business for Vince McMahon. He had millions of dollars invested in Hulk Hogan merchandise and practically nothing invested on Roberts. If and when Roberts got himself over on Hogan…all that merchandise would be wasted and all those appearances would go away. Business wise it may have made sense at the time, but then again it forward thinking on McMahon’s part.
Just like the Tom Magee vs Bret Hart match was placed in storage and never viewed for years, so is the Snake Pit segment with Hulk and Jake. Hopefully one day we can see for ourselves what might have been.