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New Doc Chronicles the Comeback of Wrestling Legend ?Jake the Snake?

Posted: Nov 12th 2015 By: David Onda

The world of professional wrestling has lost far too many of its brightest stars before the age of 60.

While the all-too-common causes of early death amongst pro-wrestlers have been heart disease, heart failure and heart attacks, a startling number of grapplers have died as the result of illegal or prescription drug abuse:

Rick Rude, 40; Curt ?Mr. Perfect? Hennig, 44; Bam Bam Bigelow, 45; Reid Flair, 25; Matt ?Doink the Clown? Osbourne, 55; Luna Vachon, 48; Andrew ?Test? Martin, 33; ?Miss Elizabeth? Hulette, 42; Eddie ?Umaga? Fatu, 36; Lance Cade, 29; Brian ?Crush? Adams, 43; ?Sensational Sherri? Schrull, 49 and Johnny Grunge, 39, all passed of overdoses.

Many of these stars struggled with their demons behind closed doors and out of the ring. Others, for better or worse, have waged highly publicized battles with addiction.

Jake ?The Snake? Roberts is one of the most recognizable names in the history of professional wrestling. In the late 1980s, Roberts became a staple of World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) television programming after winning over fans with his chilling interviews, psychological ring work and (real, live) python snake sidekick, which he?d dump on his opponents after a match.

Roberts, born Aurelian Smith Jr., enjoyed earnest success in the company until his firing in 1997, but the effects of his drug and alcohol abuse ? which began, according to Roberts, in the 1970s ? effectively put an end to his mainstream career. In 1999, a pro-wrestling documentary entitled ?Beyond the Mat? pulled back the curtain on Roberts? addiction, and unflatteringly featured a disheveled and often incoherent Jake discussing his addiction to alcohol, pills and crack cocaine.

In subsequent years, Jake entered rehab facilities twice on the WWE?s dime as a part of the company?s 2006 Talent Wellness Program, which offers paid rehabilitation to all former contracted talent. Unfortunately, the treatments didn?t stick, and in 2008, Jake was famously caught on tape drunk and barely able to stand during a match at an independent wrestling show in Cleveland, Ohio.

By 2010, Roberts? weight had ballooned to more than 300 pounds and the 57-year-old seemed poised to join the long list of squared-circle stars that departed this world too soon, when he got a call from friend and fellow wrestler Diamond Dallas Page. Page invited Roberts to live with him at his Atlanta, Georgia home, and offered to personally oversee his physical reconstruction while simultaneously working towards sobriety.

Jake?s rocky road to recovery is chronicled in filmmaker Steve Yu?s new documentary ?The Resurrection of Jake the Snake,? which also follows Dallas? rehab efforts with former WWE star Scott ?Razor Ramon? Hall. Another wrestler who has publicly battled his addictions for years (and also famously appeared drunk at an independent wrestling show in 2011), Hall moved in with Jake and Dallas after hearing about Roberts? unexpected progress.

I recently sat down with Jake Roberts, Scott Hall and Steve Yu for an extensive chat about the documentary and how they?re doing today.



David Onda: There?s a group of wrestling fans, maybe a whole generation of fans, who are most familiar with Jake Roberts and his problems through ?Beyond the Mat.? Does that haunt you?

Jake Roberts: It was just a brutal lie. They pulled me into it, a couple friends of mine kind of set me up for it. I forgive them for that. I was the guy they sacrificed, you know? It?s one thing to abuse me, but when you screw my family, when you put them in bad spots and lie about them, then I have a problem with it. I wanna leave it at that.

Onda: And that?s all I wanted to ask you, in regards to that documentary.

Roberts: It was real hard for me to accept doing [?Resurrection?] because of that memory, but Dallas, being the friend that he was, and me being so freaking bad off? that kind of got me over the hump. And Dallas said, when the finished product came out, if I did not like it, it wouldn?t be seen by nobody else.

Onda: Steve, the WWE felt badly burned by that other documentary. How did you get them to agree to provide WWE footage for ?The Resurrection of Jake the Snake??

Steve Yu: They knew we were working on something. I think they were kind of waiting to see what was gonna happen with it. We did send a screener to them, and we got really positive feedback from a lot of the people who saw it. What they did say though was the subject matter, in this day and age with the WWE, didn?t fit what their demographic is. It?s a little bit too dark. They didn?t really say they could participate in the film, but they also didn?t say we couldn?t use it. What we ended up doing was making sure with a lawyer, a fair use attorney, that we were OK to use it. But Dallas having a great relationship with all the guys [at WWE], as well as these guys, they never, ever said anything to us about it.

Onda: There are a couple times where Jake says, ?Stop the camera. Turn off the camera.? As a documentary filmmaker, how do you walk the line between respecting Jake?s wishes and doing your job to capture the difficult moments?

Yu: It was tough, because there were some situations where you don?t wanna film people at their lowest point, but it was a point where it?s so riveting. As a filmmaker, you?re like, ?How can I not capture this?? The biggest thing, for us, is that we knew we weren?t just making a documentary. We were trying to help both Jake and Scott. Our hearts were in the right place. It wasn?t like, ?Ok, we?re gonna exploit the situation.? We knew we were trying to tell a story that was gonna inspire other people. We knew, ?Maybe we don?t use this, but let?s capture this.?

Onda: A lot of the interviews in this film ? particularly yours, Scott ? were very emotional. Was it difficult to open up knowing how many people could potentially see this film?

Scott Hall: I?ve been in front of a camera and a microphone a lot in my career, but it?s always been as a character, as a wrestling persona. This is real. Even doing these kind of interviews to help promote the film, it?s all kind of strange to me, because it?s all talking about Scott, and not ?Razor? or ?The Bad Guy.? I just trusted Dally and Steve. And Jake had the veto power. To me, I was so desperate at that point. Dally mentioned to me, ?Hey, we?re filming this thing about Jake,? and I saw how well Jake was doing and I wanted to be part of the getting-well process. I?m thinking, ?Hey, if there?s cameras around and I happen to be in it, cool. Keep the focus on Jake, and if I?m in it, I?m in it, but I?m just hoping to make it a couple days without drinking.?

Yu: I think, sometimes, the emotion took them by surprise.

Roberts: It did. It got to the point where, ?Let?s go ahead and shoot this, because I may not be here for the end of it.? That?s basically where I was at, and I think Scott was pretty close, too. This was the last call.

Onda: Scott, you?ve gone to rehab several times. What made your time with Dallas different? What was it that finally clicked?

Hall: I?ve been to 12 inpatient rehabs and outpatient therapy and all that. The first six or seven were 12-step things, where the message is: ?Don?t drink, go to meetings, call your sponsor.? And I?m going, ?Gee, don?t drink? I?ve never thought of it that! How much do I owe? Oh, $40,000? Ok!? And it just wasn?t sticking for me. And it was actually the WWE and their Wellness Program that started suggesting, ?We?re gonna send you here, and it?s a dual-diagnosis place.? Until I started dealing with the root problem and not the symptoms ? the symptoms are alcohol and drug abuse ? what?s causing that behavior? As soon as I started steering the therapy in that direction, I started to make some headway. I don?t feel like I?m captain recovery. I?m this far away from wanting to drink. I?m not where I wanna be, but I thank god I?m not where I used to be. I?m OK and I?m on my way.

Roberts: When you go into recovery, you?re there for four months or 90 days or even 30 days and then you?re back out there. At Dallas? house, I was there for a year and a half. The time I was there, I was starting to being able to be productive. I basically went from a place where I couldn?t get a job ? because I was F?d up or wasn?t gonna show up or whatever ? to people wanting me back. All of a sudden, I was able to start feeling like I am paying my own bills. I am stepping up and he?s introducing me to all this positive s?t about taking care of things and being on time and it got me into that habit. So, when the door opened and I went back out, I didn?t have to run from the damn police because my ex-wife?s got me ready to go back to jail. My bills were paid and I was paying them. I had a career again. When you come out of a freakin? rehab, brother, and you owe somebody three months? rent and you have the ex-wife breathing down your neck that, ?Hey, dude. You need $9,000 today or you?re going to jail.? What do you do? ?F?k it! F?k it!?

Onda: There will inevitably be critics who say that Dallas isn?t trained to do what a rehab can do?

Roberts: None of us are!

Hall: We never had a relationship on camera, for the wrestling audience, but we?ve been friends for a long time. And we?ve always been successful when we put our heads together. I believe that anything worth doing is worth overdoing. I look forward to hooking up with Dally later. I?m gonna spend the rest of the week with him, because he?s annoyingly positive. And it?s contagious. It?s like negativity ? it breeds negativity. Positivity breeds it. Sometimes he?s like nails on a chalkboard, but the end result is always something good. He?ll just call me or text me to check on me. ?Bro, bro, bro. What story you telling yourself?? Every positive action is preceded by a positive thought. He?s so big on that and it rubs off on you. For me, I saw how well Jake was doing, and I knew Jake had been in dark places. I knew I had been in dark places. I?m thinking, ?Maybe there is hope.? At that point, I had given up. I was doing a shoot interview the other day. The fans send in questions. And they listed all the guys who had died in our era, and the guy?s question was, ?Why are you and Jake still alive?? So, first of all, it was like, ?F you, bro!? But then it was like, I never really thought about it. At the [Slamdance] film festival in Park City, it was a non-wrestling fan audience. Some fans, of course. And people started standing up going, ?That really moved me because my sister suffers from it? or ?I?m just in recovery now.? Everybody knows somebody with mental health issues or addiction issues. If somebody can look at me when I had to be held up at this one appearance in the ring, and look at me now, then there?s hope. If that?s what somebody can get out of it and that?s why I?m still here, then that?s good enough for me.

Onda: These days, with cell phone cameras and social media, anything you do in public can captured by someone instantly. Do you ever think about, if this technology were around 20 or 30 years ago, what they would have caught you doing?

Jake and DDP face off after an incident (Photo: Slamdance)

Roberts: Aw, jesus.

Hall: Well, for me, maybe I?d be able to remember some of it. A lot of times I go, ?Was I there?? And they go, ?Yeah, that?s you in the ring.?

Roberts: It?s pretty embarrassing when the fans talk to me about matches. ?I never wrestled that guy! You?re full of s?t.? Yeah, I did. Yeah, I did.

Hall: I think, maybe, I would have been more on guard. I think when you grow up around that stuff, you?re more aware of it. I?m a low-tech redneck. I?ve been online two years. Jake and I both had flip phones when we moved in with Dallas.

Yu: The thing about it is, without social media and the internet, we couldn?t have done what we did. That was really part of the story, because as soon as the internet started to get involved in their comeback, they started having all this support and they started realizing that people care about them.

Hall: I had no idea that anybody even knew who I still was. I had a good run, and now it?s over. And now I?m paying the consequences with health issues. I didn?t like myself, so I didn?t even care what anybody else thought. But I remember looking a Jake going, ?Wow, people care about us and we don?t care about us.? People were going, ?We?re pulling for you!? I?m going, ?Wow, really??

Onda: Jake, you?ve mended relationships with your family, and your daughter Codi has now been traveling with you during this promotional tour. How has having her on the road with you helped?

Roberts: Oh, a life saver. Other than the thing she?s trying to do now, and I finally figured it out ? I think she?s got a life insurance policy on me. She?s working my ass to death, man.

Hall: Do like [Randy] Savage did with you ? make her taste the food.

Roberts: No, we got back together when I got real sick with pneumonia, and she moved in with me and nursed me back to health. And during that time, we started nursing our relationship back to health. It?s been magic for me. It?s probably the best part of my life as far as being able to hang out with my kids. Sometimes I?ll be in bed and I?ll look over at her in the other bed and I?ll just look at her and she?ll be breathing and I?ll be like, ?This is so f?king cool.?

Hall: And she?s a heck of a business woman. I?m trying to get her to book me. Jake?s booked through 2017!

Onda: Scott, one of my favorite lines in the documentary is when you?re standing in a wrestling ring and you say, ?I always felt safer in here.?

Hall: For me, it was often the only time I ever felt any kind of control in my life, is when I hit that curtain.

Roberts: Same.

Hall: My fake life was always cool. It was when I came back through the curtain and, man, the real life was there waiting for me. When people would ask, ?Razor, how you doing?? I?d go, ?Better than you, chico.? It made them laugh. But Scott Hall was falling apart. I really embraced the fake part, because you feel bulletproof.

Roberts: Being in the ring was the only time you feel totally in control of everything. People watching you, your opponent ? you control everything, and I can?t get hurt. When I?m in here, I can?t get hurt. When I talk about not getting hurt, I?m talking about I don?t have to deal with a family, I don?t have to deal with the policeman waiting on me. That sucks, too, man.

Onda: You?ve both said that sobriety is a lifelong project. You?ll always be fighting those urges. Where do guys stand now?

Roberts: Good today.

Hall: My standard response, when people go, ?When?s the last time you had a drink?? I go, ?What time is it?? I?m real apprehensive about putting myself up there as a poster boy for recovery, because I?ve been unsuccessful at so many prior attempts that I?m just doing what I have to do to make it through the day. It?s lunchtime, and I?m gonna try to make it to dinner. If I make it to dinner, then I?m just trying to make it to bed. People go a day at a time, but for me it?s hour by hour. Having practiced making good choices, the repetition is putting me in a better place. I don?t hang out with the same old people, I don?t go to the same places. I?m always gonna overdo something, so now I overdo cardio. It?s so great being around Dally, because he?ll personally put me through a DDP Yoga workout that?s around my limitations. I?m trying to overdo that.

Roberts: I?m in a good spot right now. A lot of it has to do with [Codi]. Myself, I don?t see how Scott does it. He?s alone. And being alone for me would be a bullet in my mouth, man. I?ve always got her around to bounce things off of. Right now, I?ve got a couple good years and I?m enjoying it immensely.

?The Resurrection of Jake the Snake? is now playing in select cities across the country.