[1991-10-06-WWF-Wrestling Challenge] Interview: Jake Roberts

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Wrestlemania VIII in Indianapolis is already being hyped. Pretty funny Top 5 listing reasons to go to Indianapolis.

 

Live WWF interviews are usually just catchphrases and no real emotion, but this was excellent. Jake says Savage is very fortunate that he can't return. Jake also tells Sid that chivalry is dead, he's not King Arthur, and that there's no roundtable. He accuses Savage of using Sid, making him a sacrificial lamb in a battle he is incapable of fighting.

 

Jake ends up chasing Gene off with the snake, and they don't play it for laughs at all.

 

Textbook heel stuff.

[PeteF3]

Even as someone who no longer regularly watches, I'm hoping against hope that WM returns to Indy someday.

 

Jake compares Sid to King Arthur but reminds him that it's 1991, not 1521. He draws this metaphor out, talking about how Savage is playing Sid for a fool by having him carry the lance that he can't lift. Jake then delivers a warning to all WWF wrestlers or anyone else, that if they don't like what he's doing, to just take a deep breath and back away.

 

Roberts is leaving when Okerlund starts to editorialize, and that draws the cobra out of the bag. And the brilliant thing is that it's all played completely straight--Roberts is diving after Okerlund desperate to get the cobra on him and Monsoon and Heenan junk their comedy routine to sell the moment. It's quick, but it's a refreshingly chaotic scene for a standard WWF podium interview.

[Kevin Ridge]

Roberts has had his fun with Miss Elizabeth. Jake thinks the luckiest man alive is Randy Savage. Roberts has his hands full with Sid Justice at the moment. Well, that won't last long. Jake has a warning for everyone in that he is not playing any games.

[soup23]

The Letterman style top 5 was pretty clever by WWF standards. This promo freaked me the f out as Jake was menacing with Gene and Gene eventually has to dive into the fans when the cobra is let loose.

[garretta]

Now we know why The Barber Shop took the week off. This interview needed to happen with Gene because of the final bit with the cobra. Somehow I don't imagine Beefcake selling it that well.

 

Jake may be the scariest heel I've ever seen, and that covers some ground. Most heels love to brag or threaten, some are tough enough to do what they say they will, but Jake's another breed in that he literally does not care who he hurts. The shame of this is that with everyone else in the WWF paired off, he only gets to go around with Sid and Savage. How I'd love to see him up in everyone's face just because. Let him go up to the booth and lay out Piper with a DDT on the floor like he did Steamboat. Have him let the cobra loose in the middle of a Hogan match and see the Hulkster run like a rat. Really get across the notion that he can and will go after anyone at any time with no advance warning, even guys he theoretically shouldn't have a problem with, kind of like a one-man NWO. Unfortunately, that's just not in Vince's DNA, and I doubt it would be in many other promoters' DNA either.

 

The weird thing is, this is the first interview I've heard where Jake's been soundly booed. I think it has something to do with his theme song, which is the same one he used during his face run. That may be why they changed it before too much longer; a lot of fans popped automatically for the song's first few notes before they realized just what they were cheering for.

 

Again, the Taker alliance is being kept very loose, almost secret. I know Taker's headed for Hogan, but I would have loved to have seen Jake interject himself into that feud seemingly on Taker's behalf and get his own piece of Hogan, even if only briefly. This would put Savage in the middle as well, leaving us with a six-way feud: The Megapowers and Piper against Jake, Taker and Flair, with a cameo by Sid until Savage is reinstated. Could you imagine the kind of money a feud like that with all its permutations could have drawn between now and Mania VIII?

 

I loved how in awe Heenan was of Jake and the cobra, and not in an admiring way either. He's more than just a comedy foil; he's damn good at analysis and getting people over too. It's just a shame that Gino's getting worse, because this Heenan and 80s Gino might have been a team known for more than just a few laughs on Prime Time.

[dawho5]

I enjoyed the Top 5, very clever. Jake was absolutely incredible and fantastic and every bit of hyperbole you can stack on top of that here. I really love how to top all of that off, Jake warns Gene that it's a bad idea to talk in a way he doesn't like. Then when Gene ignores this warning, Jake immediately lets us know that he means business. Fucking great!