At ECW’s November to Remember ‘98 from New Orleans, Tommy Dreamer was in need of a mystery partner to face Justin Credible and Jack Victory. While there are many names that Tommy could have picked, he ended up choosing someone completely unexpected, someone who had only shown up in ECW once before. A legend whose appearance seemed random to some, but ended up fitting into a story. I’m talking about Jake “The Snake” Roberts, someone who seemed like they would fit into ECW like a glove, a cole miners glove if you will, but ended up not staying for very long.
In this video, we’ll look at the short time in ECW of Jake “The Snake” Roberts. We’ll look at how and why he came to be there, what he did on screen and behind the scenes, and what it meant for another legend more accustomed to ECW.
As usual, I’m going to be using the newsletters to see what was reported at the time, but you’re also going to hear from both Jake Roberts himself and others from Jake’s podcast, the Snake Pit, and maybe even some other sources.
When asked about his time in ECW In December 2023, Jake Roberts made note that it was very brief. “I was in ECW only for two instances, and each time, for a few hours.” He goes on to explain that he knew Paul Heyman already having worked with him in WCW, another company Jake was only in for a short while. “Paul and I spoke extensively about him managing me. That was something tossed around quite a bit between us, and then I left.” Whether this meant that Jake would have been part of the Dangerous Alliance or not we’ll never know. That would have been interesting though, because as far as I know, Jake in his in ring days was never part of a faction. Would he have stood out in a group like the alliance, or would he have been better as a lone snake? I wonder if Paul, dubbed the “psycho yuppie” at the time, would have acted as some kind of business manager making deals for Jake, or maybe a sort of handler for him. One thing that is clear though is that Jake certainly didn’t need anyone doing the talking for him. Perhaps we’ll never know.
Before showing up in ECW, the last time he had wrestled on a major show was as a part of the 1997 Royal Rumble match. Jake left WWF a couple of months later, with his last match there being a March 1st house show in Louisiana where he would defeat the Goon. A week before this at the February 24th Raw from the Manhattan Center, ECW would invade the show that night, and backstage is where Tommy Dreamer would meet Jake Roberts for the first time. In January 2024, filling in for Jake on The Snake Pit, Tommy Dreamer would tell the story in more detail, saying that Jake used him to block the he and Jack Lanza were smoking, as Vince hated it. *clip* In the same podcast, Tommy also talked about how he used to watch Jake in the early days of his career, as a lower card wrestler in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, where he described Jake as “an underneath talent that would always have a good match.” It wouldn’t be too long though from that night in Manhattan, that Tommy would actually get to share the ring with Jake, only briefly.
According to the Pro Wrestling Torch, Jake was fired midway through March “after missing work without notice.” It turns out though that past actions had also contributed to this, as the Observer in the same week reports a bit more information. “Two weeks back he took a rental car while on the Texas-Louisiana tour and disappeared for two days including missing a shot. It was just a few weeks back when he was fired, but then re-hired the next day for something similar. I guess his nine lives were up this time. He’d been working in the office helping write television besides working as an occasional in-ring performer when needed.” There had also been an incident a few weeks earlier where Jake, Diesel and Razor Ramon were sent to a AAA event, but this was not their fault “as the airport in Madero was fogged in”, so they couldn’t get their flight. How topical. Even after being fired, Jake would continue to work for AAA, still teaming with Diesel and Razor, as the three had been a pretty regular trio there. This turns out to be nowhere near as cool as it sounds. If you were keen eyed, you might have noticed that it was actually the fake Razor and Diesel. Jake would work indies in the US as well, until getting a surprising phone call.
Hardcore Heaven 1997
At Hardcore Heaven 1997, only ECW’s second ever pay per view, Jake Roberts would make his first appearance for the promotion. He would interfere in a match between Tommy Dreamer and Jerry Lawler, which was part of the long running ECW versus Lawler and the WWF feud which would carry on throughout the year. Jerry was as involved as he was not just because of his constant mocking of ECW on Raw at this time, but also because the feud had bled over into USWA in Memphis, where Lawler regularly appeared. On June 7th, Tommy Dreamer would actually show up in Memphis at the TV studio where USWA was filmed, and would go after Lawler, looking like more of a threat than he ever has in his entire career.
During the match, as Tommy had devious plans for Lawler with the ring post, the lights would go out in the War Memorial Auditorium. When they came back on, Ravishing Rick Rude would attack Dreamer with a trash can, leaving him laying. Rude had appeared for ECW before, but it was still an odd sight to see him there. He throws Tommy into the ring for Lawler to pin him, but Dreamer kicks out at two while Rude disappears. A little later on, Tommy goes for a Piledriver, and the lights go out again. When they come back on, Jake Roberts is standing in the ring, and clotheslines Dreamer. Jerry Lawler looks like he has seen a ghost, calling back to their feud in WWF a year earlier. In Tommy’s Snake Pit episode, he tells a story of hearing the sound of someone getting winded while the lights were out, alleging that Jake had taken the opportunity to get a cheap shot in at Lawler, but in a separate Snake Pit episode Jake denies this, while laughing wryly. Regardless, Jake and Jerry are clearly not friends, but Tommy still gets hit with a DDT. Jake then blasts Lawler with a clothesline and leaves. Lawler again tries to cover Tommy who kicks out, and rather confusingly, Jake applauds this as he walks away. Joey Styles exclaims “Jake is clearly here for personal reasons,” as an attempt to explain what was going on. The match continues with the lights going out a third and final time, with Sunny being the last surprise. All of this was designed to build Tommy up as the heart and soul of ECW, battling against all odds. Tommy Cena would eventually overcome all of the interference, and would win the match.
At the start of this video when I quoted Jake referring to his time in ECW as brief, and he wasn’t at all kidding. In the week after the pay per view, the Torch would report that “Jake Roberts arrived just in time to appear on the PPV as a surprise, about 15 minutes before they would have had to do the angle without him.” Wade Keller isn’t clear about this, but he makes it sound like Jake arrived at the building well into the event being underway. He continues, “Originally Roberts was going to be the final surprise, not Sunny, but ECW either (a) decided at the last second Sunny was a bigger deal, (b) were worried about Roberts’s recent track record and didn’t want to put too much heat on him, or (c) were upset with his late arrival and his immediate conduct backstage and decided to downplay him a bit.” To give the other side, this isn’t quite how Jake explains it on his podcast. From what he said in February 2024, the arrangements seemed to be very last minute, but he claims he was at the building a fair bit before the show started. He also says that he was flown in specially, and that he was paid well by Paul Heyman to appear. *clip*
Before Jake left the ring, he approached the camera and made quite a perplexing statement, made even more confusing by his recent positioning of himself as a religious man. Here is what he said quoted word for word on the Snake Pit. *CLIP* Jake would note in the retelling of the story that he found himself in a lot of trouble when he got back to the locker room, and to this day doesn’t know why. Perhaps he wasn’t familiar with ECW’s previous issues with religion, as less than a year earlier at High Incident, Raven and the Sandman had gone too far in depicting a crucifixion. It makes sense that upon hearing Jake’s comments that were said right into the camera, Paul didn’t want a repeat of what happened in the previous October.
If you’re wondering how ECW explained Jake’s motivation after Hardcore Heaven, well, they didn’t. In the following episode of Hardcore TV there was barely any mention of Jake, only in a brief recap where they showed a still image of him there. Tommy Dreamer didn't mention him in his promo either. I wonder if Jake being so late to the show was the reason for this? Maybe they didn’t have the time they wanted to film a follow up for TV, and Jake wasn’t going to be at the next taping. While Rick Rude would appear on the show a week later with Shane Douglas, and Sunny would return to ECW with Chris Candido, Jake wouldn’t come back for a few months, leaving everything vague and unexplained. When he did, nothing would be made clearer then either.
Terry Funk’s Wrestlefest
While maybe not technically an ECW appearance, and Jake himself doesn’t seem to consider it one, there is a match that Jake had around this time which deserves a mention. On September 11th 1997, Terry Funk’s WrestleFest would take place in where else but Amarillo Texas. While the show was promoted officially by Terry and his wife Vicki, and it included talent from WWF, ECW and FMW. “It was billed as 50 years of Funk–as Dory Funk Sr. came from Indiana to Texas in 1947 and eventually became the biggest wrestling star and owner of the territory based in Amarillo until his death in 1973. It was also billed as the final match for Terry Funk in his home town where he started wrestling in 1965.” If you’re curious, it would not be Terry’s last match in Amarillo, as he would have two more there. In 2000, he would wrestle Lance Storm on a WCW house show, and in 2002 he would face Greg Valentine for the XWF.
There seems to be quite a lot of grey area as to whether this can be called an ECW event though, and it’s easy to see why. As noted it was promoted in name by Terry and his wife, but the ECW crew produced it, and it was promoted for several weeks in advance on Hardcore TV, with the home video also being promoted on the show afterwards. As well as this, a couple of ECW matches on the card would later air on Hardcore TV. During the show, Paul Heyman would take the microphone and thank Terry for all he had done for ECW. He would present him with his own world title belt, dubbing him the “lifetime Heavyweight champion”. ECW’s fingerprints were all over the show, but it can also be called an independent event. I’m sure Paul Heyman would have loved for it to be known as his, as it drew nearly four thousand fans, which at the time would have by far been the largest crowd ECW ever drew, though they would top this two months later at November to Remember ‘97. Dave noted in his coverage that “Heyman and Funk will try to promote another show in Amarillo in early 1998 which would be a total ECW card.” This planned event would not take place.
If you ever wondered what it might look like if Bret Hart competed in ECW, this is as close as we ever got, as he would face Terry Funk in the main event. Not only that, but Bret was the WWF champion at the time, and wanted to be there out of respect for Terry Funk. Mick Foley also appeared as his Mankind persona to face Sabu. This would be the only time ever that Foley wrestled Sabu using his WWF name and not Cactus Jack.
Just before the main event though, Jake Roberts would compete in a six man tag, teaming up with former WWF team the Headhunters, against Hakushi, Hayabusa and future ECW world champion, Masato Tanaka. As best I can tell, this would have been Tanaka’s first ever match outside Japan. In the Observer, Dave would say that “Roberts got the biggest pop of anyone not named Funk. Although he was overweight and laughing his way through the match, in no way did he hurt the match.” If you’d like a peek behind the curtain at how frustrating it can be to reference both the Observer and the Torch, Michael Daugherty’s review of the event for the Torch states that “Roberts appeared to have slimmed down a bit since leaving the WWF.” Which one is it lads?
In what was perhaps a questionable decision, “The Japanese worked as the faces, but the crowd due to the recognition of Roberts, cheered them.” Despite this, Hayabusa would get the win, pinning Headhunter A after a move from the top rope. This would be the penultimate match that Hayabusa would ever have in the US, with his last being at ECW Heat Wave ‘98, teaming with Hakushi against Rob Van Dam and Sabu. For reasons we’ll get into very soon, it’s very interesting that Jake would be a part of Terry Funk’s sort of not quite a retirement show. That’s because this wouldn’t be the last we’d see of Terry Funk.
November to Remember 1998
Jake Roberts would spend the end of 1997 and most of ‘98 largely working independents. Notable matches include an ungodly number of clashes throughout the year with the One Man Gang for a promotion called Bad Boys of Wrestling, and a tag team match in Kent England opposite future British wrestling great Doug Williams for a promotion called NWA Hammerlock. This is the same place that trained Finn Balor and Zack Sabre Junior among others, and got them their starts in wrestling.
At one point it was thought that Jake was actually set for return to WCW, which certainly seemed possible given that none of the people who were in charge when Jake was there the first time still had power. In and around March of ‘98, Raven would repeatedly reference “The Snake” in promos, making it sound like Jake was coming in. They certainly convinced Dave Meltzer, who wrote in the Observer on March 23rd that “Raven again brought up The Snake and they wouldn’t be bringing up his name if he wasn’t coming in. Hell, they don’t even bring up Ric Flair or Bret Hart’s name and they are in.” Ultimately this never led anywhere, and Roberts would not appear. In April 2023, Raven would actually address this on an episode of The Snake Pit, saying that he was essentially paying tribute to one of his influences, and that Jake wasn’t actually coming in. *clip*
This next one might seem a bit pointless, but you’ll see why I’ve included it in a minute. In June a match would be promoted for World Pro Wrestling in Fort Smith Arkansas pitting Jake against Brian Knobs “being billed as a WWF vs. WCW match.” I bring this up partly because of the novelty of neither wrestler working for either company at the time, and partly because a few of the other names on the card caught my eye, like this one. You read that one out loud cos I’m not doing it.
And now we come to November to Remember 1998, and the mystery partner that I talked about at the start of this video. It seems that in the lead up to the pay per view, Paul Heyman hadn’t yet secured a surprise partner for Dreamer, and wouldn’t until almost bell time. According to Tommy Dreamer on the Snake Pit, he discovered who his partner was going to be on the morning of the event, and he did in the strangest possible way. While hung over having partied the night before in New Orleans, Tommy says he answered the phone to Paul, who requested that he source quote, a “ten foot boa,” because Jake was going to be on the show. *clip* Tommy goes on to say that he never even tried to find such a snake, or any snake for that matter, but he told Paul that he had tried. *clip*
On thing that is very noticeable about Jake as he walks to the ring is his interesting attire. Jake by this time had not completely begun wrestling in his street clothes, as he wore ring gear in the Terry Funk promoted event, however on this night Jake didn't exactly look like he was ready for a wrestling match. That’s because similar Hardcore Heaven the previous year, “Jake Roberts missed his flight to get to the PPV. They had to charter a plane at the last second and he arrived literally a minute before he walked out onto the rampway for his match.” A contributor for the Torch who reviewed the match wasn’t at all keen on the clothes Jake walked into the building wearing, asking “why couldn’t they give him an ECW shirt to wear instead of that goofy one he showed up in?” In Tommy’s defence, he claims on The SNake Pit that he offered Jake an ECW short that he refused. The reason he turned this down might become more clear by the time we get to the end of the video. The shirt he is wearing in case you were interested is a Wigan Warriors rugby shirt. As Tommy said in the clip I played earlier, Jake was actually living in England around this time, and so getting him to New Orleans wasn’t as easy as sending a plane across state lines like the first time. He would move there some time in the late 90’s, and would remain part of the UK wrestling scene until he moved back to the US in late 2004, even promoting his own shows and running a wrestling school based in St. Albans, Hertfordshire. In the end, it’s probably for the best that Tommy didn’t manage to bring a ten foot snake to the show, as Roberts being so late and having a strange boa thrown onto him definitely doesn’t sound like the best idea, but you can bet ECW would have tried it.
While Jake would never be seen in ECW again, his appearance would fuel a story development that would play out over the next few months. At the beginning of the pay per view, while Joey Styles is doing his usual introduction to the show, Terry Funk enters through the crowd. He makes his way to the ring from the very top of the arena. Once in the ring, Terry who at this point is cheered by the fans, goes on a tirade about how he wasn’t invited to the show, about how he is Tommy Dreamer’s Father figure, and he rages about not being chosen as the mystery partner. He tells us that years ago Tommy asked Funk to be his mentor, and he accepted, but he’d been waiting for weeks to be called, but he never was.
It seems that going into the pay per view, the fans were fully meant to believe that Tommy’s partner could only possibly be one man, Terry Funk. On the episode of Hardcore TV a week before the show, Joey Styles outright tells us that it’s got to be Funk. Joey says quote, “Now come on, we all know every time in the past when Tommy has needed help, he reached out to his Father-figure, his mentor.” He then cuts to a video package of the last time Dreamer and Funk teamed up for a match in December ‘97 for FMW. While footage plays of the two defeating the Dudley Boys to the tune of Desperado by the Eagles, is a voiceover from Tommy telling us that Terry Funk is his mentor with the subtlety of a sledgehammer through a window.
Tommy comes out and tries to smooth the situation over by explaining himself, but Terry is having none of it. While not on the microphone, we can hear Tommy say “you wanted a lighter schedule and that’s fine,” implying that he thought he was doing the right thing. Funk does a pretty masterful job of entering the ring a hero, and leaving it completely detestable through what he says, and more would play out later on in the night.
As Tommy walks out to the ring later in the night to the familiar tune of “Man in the Box”, he stops on the walkway and Jake Roberts slinks in behind him. While Jake doesn’t exactly do nothing in the match, there are times early on where he is alone in the ring on his own while Dreamer and Justin brawl outside, and he’s not exactly very active. For most of the match once it settles down, Jake is in the corner waiting for the tag while Tommy fends off not just Justin, but his whole entourage. In the wrong corner for a fair bit of it too. Once Jake gets in, he and Tommy go after Justin and Jayson Knight, who noticeably does a lot in the match despite not being officially in it. It turns out that there is a reason for this, as early on in the match, Jake throws Victory over the top rope, who lands badly and according to Dreamer, “his knee explodes”. By this point the match seems if you’ll pardon the pun, snake bit. A bit later on you can see Jack on the apron favouring his knee, and he does little in the match after this. Tommy says on the Snake pit that Jayson had been listening when the match was being put together, and so managed to fill in all of Jack’s parts perfectly.
When it looks like it might be time for the DDT, more of Justin’s weird collection of ally’s, the One Man Gang and Rod Price run in. To intercept them, out come New Jack and John Kronus, bringing with them a collection of weapons. While an absolute brawl takes place, Jake can be seen lying on the apron, at one point having what looks like a full conversation with Jack Victory. The match at this point breaks down into chaos, as Kronus hits a 450 splash, and referee Jim Molinaux begins to count for a pin before realising he is not actually in the match. Once Jake gets up, he goes to the wrong corner, until he remembers that he is the legal man and gets back in. Of all people to take the DDT, it’s Nicole Bass, who also gets hit with a low blow. Tommy Dreamer brings a ladder in, perhaps foreshadowing the stairway to hell match he and Justin would have in January at Guilty as Charged. Jake DDT’s Justin onto it, and pins him to win. The match is, quite frankly, bowling shoe ugly as JR would call it, I'd argue fun though. To be fair to all involved though, Tommy claims in his Snake Pit episode “He shows up during the show, and I’m trying to put the whole match together without my partner there not knowing what he wants to do. Again, I also have to deal with Jake the Snake, who I don’t really know.” I don’t know what that must be like, but it certainly doesn’t sound like an easy task. Tommy refers to the match as “all mess ups and ad-libbed,” and also one of his “least favorite matches of all time,” but you can say that there were a lot of circumstances that made it the way it was. The match did give us a truly rare sight, a Tommy Dreamer win against Justin Credible. True to the nature of Tommy’s entire career though, he wouldn’t be able to celebrate for long.
After the match as Jake and Tommy are leaving, Terry Funk comes back. He first rants about Jake Roberts being the mystery partner, to which Jake throws his hands up and leaves. No matter how much Terry shouts at him, Tommy refuses to fight, so Terry attacks him from behind, leaving Tommy laying. Joey Styles then explains to us that Terry left ECW for the WWF, and then left there to film a movie, and so Tommy wasn’t at fault for not asking him, as Tommy is helped away.
In the newsletters, the critical reception to Jake being the mystery partner was not complimentary. The Torch would print various takes ranging from confusion as to why Jake was booked, to disgust that he was not in as good shape as Hollywood Hogan in WCW at the time. Those last ones are a bit galling as it’s not like Hogan was having classics in 1998 either. The Observer wasn’t much kinder, referring to Jake as a “relic”, and also complaining about the use of Mabel, who rather weirdly was brought in as a guest member of the Full Blooded Italians. I’m not sure it’s completely fair to put them in the same category. You could argue that Tommy picking Jake made storyline sense, as Terry was perhaps even more upset by him choosing another veteran and not himself.
Ending
In June 2023, Jake was asked if there was ever supposed to be more planned for him in ECW, and he simply answered “no.” He elaborates that everything he was supposed to do there was a one off, and he doesn’t seem to be gutted about that either. When asked his opinion on ECW as a whole, sometimes he has stated that it was quote “a bit much” for him, and other times he has said quite emphatically that he is not a fan of ECW’s product. *clip*
Not only that, but Jake doesn't sound too fond of the ECW fans either. In 2022, he referred to them as “kids who were allowed to be out of control,” though he also goes on to say “I appreciated how much they loved their wrestling.”
When I think about what Jake could have done in ECW, assuming he was going to stay out of trouble, and had he wanted to be there a bit more, I think of all of the people that he could have been a valuable mouthpiece for. Jake didn’t care for the in ring product or the tone of ECW, so I doubt he’d have gotten in the ring much, but his mind for wrestling could have been so valuable, especially when paired with some of the newer talents who were coming in around the time of Jake’s last appearance there.
It’s hard to imagine that he would have been another Terry Funk, someone who at least in ECW lore is said to have wanted to help everybody he came into contact with, but as we’ve seen in wrestling over the years, few veterans are that generous. Let me know in the comments who you would have paired Jake up with as a manager and why, or even what story ideas you think would have been good for the Snake.
Sources:
Pre ECW
Snake Pit Ep 53 December 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAJM7L-C-tw
PWT MAtch 22nd 97 Jake fired https://vip.pwtorch.com/2017/03/11/vip-1997-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-432-mar-22-1997-cover-story-on-bret-hart-snapping-after-loss-to-sid-foreshadowing-major-wm-main-event-angle-coverage-of-wwf-msg-tv-special-with/
WON Mar 24th Jake fired https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-24-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-future-mma-takes-turn/
WON March 10th Madero airport https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-10-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wrestlemania-xiii-line-joe/
HH97
PWT Aug 23rd 97 Jake at HH97 https://vip.pwtorch.com/2017/08/14/vip-1997-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-454-august-23-1997-analysis-of-ecws-second-ever-ppv-hardcore-heaven-97-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-wcw-more/
Feb 9th 2024 Snake Pit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4i9hFmuji8
Funk’s WrestleFest
WON Sept 22nd 97 https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/sept-22-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-huge-issue-w-fritz-von/
PWT Sept 20th 97 Jake lost weight https://vip.pwtorch.com/2017/09/09/vip-1997-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-458-september-20-1997-michaels-pulls-another-stunt-at-raw-tapings-uswa-in-turmoil-with-jerry-lawler-being-sued-austins-tenuous-in-ring-future/
N2R 98
WON March 23rd 1998 Jake WCW bound https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-23-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-turmoil-ufc-16-tons/
April 28th 2023 Raven on the Snake Pit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsfHc9PiXyQ
WON June 1st 1998 Jake vs Knobs https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-1-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-observer-awards-preview-tons/
PWT Nov 7th Match review https://vip.pwtorch.com/2018/11/03/vip-1998-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-519-november-7-1998-coverage-of-jesse-ventura-being-elected-governor-of-minnesota-detailed-report-on-the-ecw-november-to-remember-ppv-coverage/
PWT Nov 14th Missed flight, goofy shirt https://vip.pwtorch.com/2018/11/10/vip-1998-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-520-november-14-1998-cover-story-on-first-major-signs-of-wcw-spiralling-downward-mitchell-coverage-of-jesse-ventura-election-keller-updates-on/
Jake in the UK https://www.facebook.com/groups/ProfessionalWrestlingHistoricalSociety/posts/24622141724073321/
WON Nov 9th Match review https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-9-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-jesse-ventura-wins/
Ending
Jun 6th 2023 Not having any more to do https://youtu.be/U5BPPRc8sMI
Jake shoot interview - Hannibal TV, February 26th 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcELdQf2XCw
Apr 28th 2022 Jake not liking ECW fans https://youtu.be/4xWfsLlP_7A
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