Jake Roberts – ‘Vince McMahon’s Lies Made Me Quit WWE’
During the latest episode of his “The Snake Pit” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jake Roberts discussed leaving WWE for WCW in 1992, how Vince McMahon handled his departure, his mindset at the time, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On when he started considering a WCW return: “Well, there had been some things that happened with some people that got in trouble with messing around with young boys [the alleged ring boy incident with Pat Patterson]. And that went down, and Pat Patterson had stepped down, or so I thought. I had been promised Pat Patterson’s job. And so when this went down I’m like, ‘Okay, cool. I got the job now. I can get off the road.’ Because I was wanting to get into the booking end of things, and TV. So I was very excited about it. But [I] talk to Vince, and Vince said that, ‘Out of respect for Pat Patterson, we won’t fill his position.’”
On his WWE departure: “Yeah, very frustrated, very angry. I should have handled it better. The bottom line is, I should have never left.”
On quitting WWE because Vince McMahon lied to him about being a producer: “Basically [I said] I quit. Because [Vince] lied to me again, you know? It’s hard to work for a liar, man… I was going to step it down. You know, just maybe work the PPVs or whatever. That was the plan, but it didn’t work out that way. No, I met with Vince the night before WrestleMania, like 2:00 in the morning. And he told me that they weren’t gonna fill that position and that things would continue to be as they were. So later on, I found out that Pat at no time stepped down. He was still there, he just wasn’t being seen. He didn’t come to TVs or show up at shows or anything like that. Just a big lie, you know? And so I gave my notice. I gave my notice and was told that I had to give him a 90-day no compete. So I didn’t liked it, but what was I gonna do, you know? So I said, ‘Fine, f**k it’.. That’s another thing that hurts, I had to be released.”
On whether an agent tried to mess with his WrestleMania 8 match with The Undertaker. “They wanted to have me DDT Taker twice, and cover him. Well, I did, but I just took my time doing it… Yeah, that got a lot of heat [taking the Tombstone on the floor]. [They said], ‘What the f**k, Jake?’ F**k, I thought it was great!”
On whether he was hesitant to go back to WCW: “No hesitation at all. I wanted to go home. It was more about me being able to be home more. Being that they did all their TV in Atlanta, I would have been home those nights. And that would have made my life a whole lot better.
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