Jake The Snake Roberts Has Set The Bar For HOF Speeches

[Jack-Hammer]

The title of the thread pretty much says it all. Watching the WWE Hall Of Fame induction ceremony on the WWE Network, Jake The Snake Roberts came out and delivered an emotionally charged acceptance speech. Roberts bared his soul tonight and touched on many tragedies and problems from his personal life without shying away from it. I mean, genuinely personal stuff ranging from his triumphs, his shortcomings as a man and the cost of the bad choices he made. I have to admit that I got a little choked up when a "You Still Got It" chant broke out and Roberts replied, "No, you're wrong, I don't. My heart still wants it, but there's a point where you can't do it justice."

The ceremony's still going on right now, but I don't see how any other speech can top that.

 

[IT Factor]

I think that Jake Roberts & Scott Hall had the best speeches from the 2014 WWE HOF. They were emotional and short, which are both things you need from a speech. Warrior was intolerable and kept bringing up his past issues with McMahon and kept referencing the "Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" DVD. He was incoherent and long winded at various points and had to stop at times to think about what to say next which winded up being stuff he said the previous two or three minutes ago. Lita's speech was awful as well with very little in the way of acknowledging WWE although she did thank Trish Stratus, Victoria, Arn Anderson, and Mysterio.

The worst induction speech of the night by far, was Mr. T. He kept talking about his mother over, and over, and OVER. I bet he said "my mother...." like 50 million times. It was almost a mercy killing when Kane came out and told him his time was up. He bored me to death and he never got around to referencing his debt to WWE and enjoying WrestleMania. I hope that next year's HOF will be a lot better because Hall and Roberts were the only ones worthy of mention. The rest sucked ass.

 

[jones.ben1977]

I was really looking forward to hearing Mr.T's speech as I was expecting him to talk about his WRESTLING career not how great his Mother is. It's very disappointing and sad the way he was cut off because even if he was given unlimited time I highly doubt that wrestling was ever going to come up.

Relating to this thread, I completely agree that Jake's speech was the best. He was brutally honest about his struggles but it was great to see that he has worked so hard to become a better (sober) person.

 

[closet_fan]

I didn't watch Mr. T's speech. And after reading thoughts from others, I'm glad I didn't. It's a shame they allowed Lita so much time to make her's. It seemed to go on forever. I'm not saying she wasn't an important part of her generation of wrestlers. But when you have guys like Warrior, Jake and Hall waiting in the wings, shorten it up.

Jake's was from the heart. Kind of reminded me of Michael Irvin's speech. I think Warrior was so overwhelmed. Not to mention his condition at the time likely didn't help his thought process.

 

[darla]

Concerning Randy Savage, his brother Lanny Poffo is part of WrestleMania Axxess this year and has given his consent to induct Savage without him & his father IF WWE gives their condolences regarding the death of his father. At least, that's what he said according to a report on an interview he gave earlier this week. That in & of itself makes me highly suspicious of Poffo's real motives because, according to him, it was Savage's wish that all three of them be inducted if it ever happened and he said he was honoring his brother's wishes. Now, he's offering WWE some sort of alternative and is willing to take their money to appear during WrestleMania Axxess. Since neither his brother or his father are alive to verify it, we've only got Poffo's word on this and the fact that he's been so vehement about fulfilling his brother's wishes only to offer this alternative makes me suspicious that he's ultimately trying to use his brother's name to make a little money and a little taste of glory.