Jake Roberts Recalls Massive Snake That Was Almost Used For 1989 Survivor Series

Jake Roberts very nearly had a hell of an entrance at the 1989 Survivor Series involving a truly massive snake, and he recalled the incident on his latest podcast episode. During the DDP Snake Pit Podcast, Roberts discussed how Vince McMahon wanted them to have a bigger snake than usual that he, Hulk Hogan, and Demolition would come out carrying.

Roberts recalled how he thought it was a bad idea and talked to his “snake guy” who brought a snake so big it couldn’t be carried. The decision to bring the 280 pound snake backfired disastrously, both figuratively and literally. You can see highlights from the discussion below, per Wrestling Inc:

On Vince McMahon wanting a special entrance for him at Survivor Series 1989: “I did this change and now I’m going to be partnered, partnered with Demolition and Hogan. In the main event, bro. That’s where you want to be. Vince comes to me he goes, ‘Jake, I’ve got this vision’. ‘What’s that?’ ‘Can you get a bigger snake?’ I’m like, ‘Vince, the son of a b-tch I’ve got is 120 pounds, I can’t hardly carry anything else’. See people don’t realize, you carry that thing out to the ring, you’re out of gas. Then at the end of the match when you’re really blown up, you gotta carry it back and it’s out of the bag. Man, sometimes I barely made it, I barely made it.

“It was unbelievable, man. But anyway, he says, ‘can you get a bigger snake?’ I’m like, ‘I can’t hardly carry that weight so no’. ‘I want one that all four of you will carry it’. I’m like, ‘what do you mean?’ He said, ‘well, I want y’all to go to the ring with this huge-ass snake. Hogan at the head, you’re next, then Demolition’. He goes, ‘that would be so great on camera’. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘wait a minute. Everybody is supposed to be afraid of the snake and now these guys are going to be holding it too. That’s kind of killing my gimmick, isn’t it?”

On talking to his “snake guy” about the entrance: “So I called my snake guy, Albert, who is Charles Manson revisited. This guy, on this show in the upcoming weeks, you’ll hear a lot about Albert. Scary son of a bitch. Anyway, I said, ‘Albert, they’re wanting all four of us to carry a snake’. He goes, ‘well that’s not good Jake. Nobody touches a snake but you’. I’m like, ‘you’re right Albert. So how do we combat this?’ He goes, ‘what do you think?’ I’m like, ‘can you get one so big that they can’t do it?’ ‘Oh yeah, don’t worry, I’ve got the perfect snake’.”

On having the snake backstage: “So I go find Albert. He’s hanging out in the rafters, why? I don’t know. And I did not ask. I brought him down and I was like, ‘where’s the snake?’ ‘He goes, right there’. ‘Well, right there where?’ He goes, ‘in that crate’. That crate and the crate was huge and it was this deep. It was like 4 feet deep. I’m like, ‘are you kidding me?’ He goes, ‘it’s massive’. Well, Vince wants us to time it going to the ring. We need a crowbar. So we got a crowbar, Albert starts prying the top of it off. And all of a sudden, the d-mn plywood, two by four enforced, goes flying. And this freakin’ snake comes out and the head of it is this big around.

“Oh yeah, it comes up and it just keeps going straight up in the air. Then it leans over. Then Albert comes over and just leaps on it. Leaps on it! The snake picks him up and slams him to the concrete. Albert’s out. Yes, Albert is out. Vince is screaming, ‘my God, what is that?’ We’re all running. 26 feet, 280 pounds. Vince is screaming, ‘get it back in the crate!’ Albert’s out Vince, nobody else is grabbing that son of a bitch. And it took like four or five of us man to get a hold of it man. And Albert weighs like, you know, 160 pounds, he’s not a big guy. But that snake picked him up and slapped him onto that concrete.”

On the worst part of the story: “Albert showed me a picture of a snake swallowing a horse. I didn’t think it was possible, it is possible. But this snake was so massive. Now the worst thing that the snake did, and the part that I loved, is when snakes get scared, they s**t everywhere. And it’s not like turds, it’s a mist and a spray, something like Kabuki did. And if that s**t lands on you, you can’t wash it off. It destroyed the back end of the freaking arena. And Vince was so pissed, I was like, ‘I didn’t know it was that big,’ which I didn’t.”