Face or Heel: Jake "The Snake" Roberts

[JerryvonKramer]

So my journey through SNME continues. And the next one to have come up on my "face or heel" radar is Jake Roberts. I'm currently witnessing his feud against Ricky Steamboat play out (Jake's debut run). What strikes me is that there is nothing fundamentally different about Jake's personality or gimmick here from when he was booked as a face in his feuds against Honky Tonk Man (1987), Rick Rude (1988) or Andre and Ted DiBiase (1989-90), then he turned back to being a heel in his feud with Randy Savage (1991). He still terrorizes opponents with the snake and still gives sinister psychological promos.

This has lead me to a little confusion over the question of whether he's better as a heel or a face. If you look at his feud vs. Steamboat:

- Roberts brings a snake to the ring, Steamboat says "I wont tolerate that!" (oooh), they feud.

And compare it to his feud vs. Andre.

- Roberts brings a snake to the ring, Andre is scared of snakes so wants rid of Damien

There is literally NO difference, other than the fact that Andre happened to be a heel at the time.

The only time where he's a REAL victim of a an antagonist is in his run in with Rick Rude (who claimed he'd seduced his wife!) and the only time where's he's really heelish is when he interrupted Elizabeth and Randy Savage's wedding with the snake biting savage (and The Undertaker too? - my memory is shaky on this).

So other than two notable feuds (vs. Rude and vs. Savage) Roberts seems like a perpetual tweener. The only reason to boo him vs. Steamboat was because we like Steamboat and don't like his enemies. The only reason to cheer him against Honky, Andre, and DiBiase is because we boo those three.

This leads me to question whether Jake was all that effective as a face or a heel. Seems to me that its the other guy generating most of the heat in those encounters.

As ever, I'd like your thoughts on this: do you think Roberts was better used as a face or as a heel?

 

[zags]

I agree all the way around except he was truly face his last run. Prior to that though his interviews were always very similar whether it were in a face version or a heel version. I believe he never was truly a face or a heel except for the Rude feud and maybe the Earthquake battle and except for the Savage feud he wasn't truly heel. Yes he was with Taker for a bit with this feud then they used this feud to turn Taker face leading into the WrestleMania 8 match between Jake and Taker. Jake himself said he almost no showed this match.

 

[[email protected]]

I wasn't aware that Jake The Snake Roberts was every REALLY that effective.

Here is a man who epitomizes all that is WRONG with the world of Professional Wrestling, and his biggest claim to fame to date is that he starred in a badly produced documentary about the underbelly of wrestling.

Okay so Jake had some big feuds, but if you look at them, historically, most of his opponents got bigger and better, whereas Jake just stayed the same old Jake.

Typical Jake Roberts Match:

1. Come to the ring and sit in the corner.
2. Smile for the camera.
3. Get up from sitting down.
4. Stick the little snake in the corner.
5. Wrestle a little with your opponent.
6. Drop a DDT.
7. Win, or lose.
8. If you win, put your snake on your defeated opponent. If you lose, put your snake on your victorious opponent.

It was always the SAME. ALWAYS! It never changed, until they told him he couldn't bring his snake with him. Then he became even less interesting.

How exactly was he effective in any way as a performer, other than to do the same old thing all the time.

 

[WrestlingHistorian]

Jake ws a great heel but I feel he was better as a face, or better yet, a face out for revenge! Jake had an aura about him that was just amazing, he could give amazing interviews and he could get it done in the ring, he was a true competitor who deserved the praise he got back in the 80's and early 90's. Too bad his demons got the best of him, hopefully he "gets it" soon and stops taking that crap.

 

[KillBill]

If you can't distiquish between face and Heel Roberts, you need to really check out how over he was at Wrestlemania 7 in his blindfold match with Martel. Because 6 months later, he became the most evil heel ever. Face Roberts always brought a Boa to the ring and layed it on his opponents. Upon the heel turn he brought a cobra that bit Savage, and a cobra was also in one of the wedding gifts. Thats a nasty ass snake, and he also slapped Elizabeth during this time. And that whole "trust me" theme was great.