Jake the Snake: Bret Just Wasn’t a Champion to Me

[ChristmasFnatic]

During his podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts was asked to pick his favorite worker between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Here was Roberts’ response…

“Neither. What for? Better performer? Shawn. Bret just gets dull at times. His interviews aren’t up to par, I don’t think, to what they should be for what position he held. I think his interviews were poor, at best.”

“They were part of that era that quit selling things, you know, and just did everything. I will give it to Bret that he did wrestle a lot more than Shawn. Bret to me just, oh boy, I’m gonna get myself in trouble here. He just wasn’t a champion to me. There I said it. Neither one of them.”

-------

Agree or is Jake the Snake just another anti-Bret loser like Goldberg, Shawn, Flair, Goldberg, Seth, etc?

[XterraRob]

[EidFnatic]

**** the snake man.

Motherfooker didn't even share his medicine with Sheiky Baby.

[yieldtonothing]

All he's gotta do is go buy him a cheap bottle of Thunderbird and try to dig back some of that courage he had in his prime

[Superplex]

I'll never forget the first event I went to.

It was supposed to be Hulk Hogan in the main event.

However, the card is subject to change, so there in Houston, that night, the main event was Jake the Snake & instead of booing him, the crowd turned & sided with Jake.

Jake lost by DQ but in the eyes of the fans, he won that night.

I'd have to find the exact date but it was in the 80s.


Everything was sold that night, on both sides, & when he pulled out the snake from the bag...

ha

[squat_blaster]

He's right ya know. Compared to Hogan, Warrior and Flair at that time, Bret was the first mid-carder to hold the title.

[BrickEX]

He's right ya know. Compared to Hogan, Warrior and Flair at that time, Bret was the first mid-carder to hold the title.

This. It’s the facts whether folks like it or not.

I do disagree with his take on selling though. Shawn was a great seller.

[wings_unhinged]

Jake has never had much good to say about Bret in these shoots. I do agree about Bret's promos... Bret even talks about him being terrified in front of the camera in his book, which is what brought on his iconic shades. His best work was as a heel against Shawn/USA because he was able to channel his honesty and emotion. And 99% agree on Shawn being the better performer.

I thought Bret and Shawn were fantastic sellers. Both of them looked totally gassed and hurt throughout most of their matches despite still being able to go for another hour.

[Deathstroke]

Warrior was set to drop the title to Jake. He quit instead. Left Vince telling Jake backstage “you have the worst luck in history”.

As heel I guess Jake could’ve made a good wwf champion had warrior done that job for him. In that era I couldn’t see him being money like savage, hogan, warrior, flair.

[Deathstroke]

Can you?

[yieldtonothing]

bret continued the ic title being a stepping stone to the world title thing that started with macho and then warrior. only hogan came in and was champ immediately


when jake was at his peak, bret was a half a jabroni. i'm sure he's also salty that he didn't get the call to go over flair in 1992 after all the years he put in consistently being higher on the card than bret

[BrickEX]

Can’t think of anyone with a more p3do (lol at this being censored) look than Jake that reached his level of success. There has to be someone? Pretty impressive he got as far as he did when thinking about it

[andyray]

Warrior was set to drop the title to Jake. He quit instead.

Warrior never quit as champion though?

[Deathstroke]

Warrior never quit as champion though?

You’re right I just read the ultimate warrior/summerslam 91 controversy.

Warrior was entering a high profile feud with Jake and Jake was going to beat him at summerslam. But warrior held Vince to ransom and Vince wouldn’t pay him what he wanted so warrior threatened to quit but instead Vince fired him. That’s when he told Jake he had the worst luck ever.

Warrior never likes clean. Jobs.

Jake said at the wwe hall of fame ceremony warrior apologized to him because he screwed him out of his big push and jake lost a lot of money .

Some reason I thought warrior was still wwf champion at this point.

[jtaylor2010]

Yeah he wasn’t the best interviewer but early on was still seen as super cool by the fans. Plus his technical skills are just on a level that very very few people ever get to. Coupled with his dedication and love of the business as well as being willing to help put over other talent and he should be ranked as one of the best of all time imho. No one is a complete package. But his comment is kind of useless until he’s ready to rank wrestlers so we can see who he puts ahead of Bret then tear apart his case. Just saying “he wasn’t a good champion” doesn’t really mean much.

[Deathstroke]

[squat_blaster]

Yeah he wasn’t the best interviewer but early on was still seen as super cool by the fans. Plus his technical skills are just on a level that very very few people ever get to. Coupled with his dedication and love of the business as well as being willing to help put over other talent and he should be ranked as one of the best of all time imho. No one is a complete package. But his comment is kind of useless until he’s ready to rank wrestlers so we can see who he puts ahead of Bret then tear apart his case. Just saying “he wasn’t a good champion” doesn’t really mean much.

Agree with all your points above, but Bret wasn't popular as far as having star power. You can make an argument Hogan, Warrior and Flair were way better and so popular and absolute huge draws they had no problem selling out any arena. This is where Bret failed. People outside the Pro Wrestling community/fans knew who Hogan and Warrior were. Ask anyone about Bret Hart and their response is who or never heard of him. Just speculating from Jake's point of view, I'm sure his pay day was much better when Hogan was headlining then if Bret was.

[LiftBigEatBig]

Who else could have honestly held the strap during the Bret era?

There was no one.

They tried Diesel and it didn't work.

Undertaker didn't need it.

Shawn was addicted to pills.

When Stone Cold was ready, they rightfully gave it to him.

As a kid, Bret was cool and respectable. Vince was pushing the product into every home in North America for the first time. They needed a baby face champ.

[skinnyfat88]

Agree with all your points above, but Bret wasn't popular as far as having star power. You can make an argument Hogan, Warrior and Flair were way better and so popular and absolute huge draws they had no problem selling out any arena. This is where Bret failed. People outside the Pro Wrestling community/fans knew who Hogan and Warrior were. Ask anyone about Bret Hart and their response is who or never heard of him. Just speculating from Jake's point of view, I'm sure his pay day was much better when Hogan was headlining then if Bret was.

Hogan's popularity was obviously on another level but Bret and Warrior weren't that far apart.
Maybe Warrior was more popular within the States while Bret was internationally.

Plus Warrior came and left so many times that killed his momentum. Bret was consistent which is not always given enough credit in the Wrestling Community.

[ChunkBuster]

Bret was obviously great but he was top of the second tier guys. Not hogan/warrior/savage/rock/Austin etc level.

But he was ahead of hhh, rvd, booker t, Brutus beefcake.

[BigDeeps01]

Bret was obviously great but he was top of the second tier guys. Not hogan/warrior/savage/rock/Austin etc level.

But he was ahead of hhh, rvd, booker t, Brutus beefcake.

This

Bret was the king of the midcard and upper card that didn't involve the belt

Bret vs Austin WM13 for example is peak Bret Hart. Amazing match, a match that doesn't need the belt attached to it

But he's just not a face of the company guy. That's guys like Hogan, Austin, Rock, Cena etc

[marinevet63031]

In all honesty, Jake was a great heel. However, he was never “Money” or “The guy” like the others of his era. He just wasn’t. He had his own glass ceiling he created on his own. I remember in high school Warrior and Undertaker did a ton of promos and featurettes to try and get him to the very top. Alas, in just wasn’t meant to be.

[masterfulsky]

Hogan's popularity was obviously on another level but Bret and Warrior weren't that far apart.
Maybe Warrior was more popular within the States while Bret was internationally.

Plus Warrior came and left so many times that killed his momentum. Bret was consistent which is not always given enough credit in the Wrestling Community.

Hart was nowehere near the popularity of warrior whether in or outside the states

[Redfish225]

Macho Man Randy Savage > Everyone else

[BrickEX]

This

Bret was the king of the midcard and upper card that didn't involve the belt

Bret vs Austin WM13 for example is peak Bret Hart. Amazing match, a match that doesn't need the belt attached to it

But he's just not a face of the company guy. That's guys like Hogan, Austin, Rock, Cena etc

And that shouldn’t be treated as a slight that he didn’t reach Hogan, Flair, Austin, HBK, Rock status. He was a HELL of a wrestler and holds up so well in the grand scheme of things. Highly respected and his 97 heel run in particular really eliminated the “well he is only an in-ring guy” narrative. That was his best year IMO