Larry Zbyszko On Why He Never Wrested Jake Roberts, Making More As a Commentator

On the latest episode of The Snake Pit with Jake Roberts, Larry Zbyszko filled in for the legendary figure to talk about why he never wrestled Roberts, his transition to being a commentator, and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On why he never wrested Jake Roberts: “We really didn’t. I mean back in them days, Jake with the snake, he was like a hated bad guy. And I was the most hated man in the business for a while. So the bad guys never really wrestled each other. But I was always in a different territory, he spent a lot of time in the WWE and stuff. So I never really knew Jake a lot. I really didn’t have a chance, we were always somewhere else.”

On making the transition from in-ring performer to commentator: “You know, it’s an interesting story. I’ll try to make it brief, but I was wrestling up and back, up and back. And as the territories were dying, getting ready to go, but for a while, Arn Anderson were a team, The Enforcers or whatever. And I was like 41 at the time or so. So I’ve already been around 20 years and had a couple of knee surgeries. Not bad ones, but torn cartilage. And I mean, it’s a brutal sport, not a long-term thing. Me and Arn made a great team, Arn was great. And the people bought us even when they were starting to read dirtsheets and stuff. When me and Arn walked out together, you could feel that old school heat and the people [would boo], you know. So it was a great team. And then WCW wound up taking it over. And to make a long story short, they brought in Bill Watts to run it for a while. And he was an idiot. No one liked Bill. And he was happy that no one liked him because he knew he was an a-hole. His idea of running the WCW now is, ‘Everybody gets beat by Eric Watts.’ And I wanted to hold on to my reputation for the last 20 years. And you know and I want [to still be] the Living Legend. And Bill made a group. He started making this group, the Dangerous Alliance. He had me and Arn, and Bobby Eaton and Rick Rude, and Stone Cold before he was Stone Cold. They’re good guys — and Paul E, I think, was with it there. But I didn’t want to be part of the group, because then you’d become the same as that group, and I wanted to stay a singles [guy], the Living Legend and carry on for a while.

“And so I said to the TBS people, ‘Oh, my knee hurts.’ So, I went in and got a little nice scope again to remove some torn cartilage, and was home for a month or two rehabbing. And I got a call one day. And I did this because I didn’t want to be in the group and said, ‘What the hell get the knee thing.’ So I took myself out of the group, I was home and I got a call from one of the producers that said, ‘Hey, Larry, Jesse ‘The Body’ Venture just quit. Can you help us out and do a couple of color commentatings over some taped shows we have for the syndicated markets?’ And I went, ‘Well, hell yeah.’ They’re paying me to sit here, I felt guilty. And I lived in Alpharetta, which was 30 minutes away from CNN Center where WCW was. So I went down one day, and — I can’t remember who I did it with, if it was Schiavone, or Gordon Solie, or Jim [Ross]. But I did a couple of shows where I did the color commentating, which I had never done before. I was always a good interview guy. I mean, I had the gift of gab. And I did it from looking at my perspective at wrestling like it was real, and trying to make everything make sense and be real so that fans could get into it and enjoy it more. Well, I did two shows. And all of a sudden, the door sings open. And the producer comes in, says ‘Larry, you’re the best color guy we’ve ever heard. You want to do the color on our shows. We’ll give you this much a year with a contract as an employee.’ I go, ‘What? How much?’ I almost fell off the chair, because this was the time when Ted Turner was given money away like candy, I mean, and WWE, the contracts got bigger so no one would go back and forth. So for a handful of the boys, it was great. And I went, ‘Well god, this is silly.’ So I wound up working like a day and a half a week making more money than I did when I was wrestling with all the benefits and employee stuff. And I commentated for ten years, but I never planned on it. It just happened.”

On whether there was an itch to wrestle again: “You know, I kind of got settled into it [commentating]. And like I said, the guys that were on top weren’t really that great, but I was making more money, I wasn’t getting hurt. I was in my early 40s and was lucky with injuries, no artificial parts, none of that stuff. And the only time I wanted to get back in the ring was when Lord Steven Regal showed up. And I’m sitting there now, getting sick of clotheslines in horrible matches, and Regal came in. And Regal was great. I mean, he could stand there with look and talk, and people hated him. He got a good heat. And he was from England, from Wigham — and I mean, he knew how to get in the ring and have a match. So I did something special, where I programmed the little thing with me and Regal. A couple matches. But the first match went like 27 minutes on TBS. And it was funny, because I went back to the dressing room after the match and Brian Pillman was running around the back, and all the boys were amazed. And Pillman was young, ‘They wrestled 27 minutes and there wasn’t one clothesline!’ So I was trying to show the guys how to have an answer without a clothesline, so that’s why I did a little thing with Regal. Then I went back to broadcasting until I developed the NWO thing.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Snake Pit with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.