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Vince McMahon has done a lot of tasteless storylines over the years in WWE. Still, the WWE Universe normally assumes that the talent was comfortable with it. But they're not, and Jake "The Snake" Roberts gave proof of that.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts was involved in a storyline regarding his past addictions to alcohol with Jerry "The King" Lawler back in 1996. A match between the two happened at SummerSlam. Lawler poured Jim Bean on Roberts' face after their match, before he was saved by Mark Henry.
Roberts recently spoke to Gary Cassidy of Inside the Ropes about this storyline. It's clear that it wasn't a storyline he wanted to do and certainly paints both Mr. McMahon and Lawler in a bad light.
“Well, I thought it was a horrible thing for McMahon to ask me to do. It was cheap, it was disrespectful, it didn’t prove a damn thing other than the fact that Vince McMahon’s an a**hole, so there you go. Lawler, he’s in the the same boat. Both a**holes.”
Jake "The Snake" Roberts battled with addiction before and after the infamous WWE storyline
Roberts has had a well-documented history battling addiction throughout his life. His issues were documented in the movie "Beyond The Mat" and other documentaries produced over the years.
The storyline didn't help matters, and Roberts suffered for many years afterward. Despite WWE sending Roberts to rehab on three separate occasions, nothing stuck, and he continued to fall back into his addiction habits.
Luckily, Diamond Dallas Page stepped in to help save Roberts' life, as seen in the documentary "The Resurrection of Jake the Snake". It took many years, but it eventually resulted in Roberts getting clean and being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014.
While Roberts' story had a happy ending, it's clear from his words that he still hasn't forgiven McMahon for forcing that storyline on him in 1996. Roberts currently works for AEW as the manager of "The Murderhawk Monster" Lance Archer.
Do you think that Vince McMahon was fair? Do you think WWE should avoid storylines like these? Or are they okay as long as they're entertaining? Let us know by sounding off in the comments section below.
