Jake Roberts Loses Snake in DDP’s House

Jake Roberts and Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) have a very long history together. With two such over the top characters, a crazy story like this was inevitable. Once upon a time, Jake Roberts actually lost his pet snake in DDP’s house.

Date: early 1990s
Location: DDP’s house (likely either Atlanta, GA or Tampa, FL)
Source: Jay Mohr podcast

Background

The story of the friendship of Jake Roberts and DDP is so fascinating that it was made into a documentary, and in 2016 “The Resurrection of Jake the Snake” was a big hit on Netflix.

DDP started out as a manager in the AWA, and through his ability to network and make connections, landed a gig in WCW managing Scott Hall. Despite his age (now in his late 30s), DDP trained very hard at the Power Plant to become a pro wrestler.

During this time, in 1992, Jake Roberts debuted with WCW for a main event feud with Sting. DDP and Jake Roberts became friends, with Jake helping DDP on the psychological aspect of his game. No matter how many addiction problems Jake was dealing with at any one time in his career, he always maintained a masterful grasp of pro wrestling psychology. He also gave world class promos, with varying pitches and volumes to fully capture your attention and make you suspend your disbelief.

As everyone knows, DDP was a quick study and rapidly improved both his in-ring skills and character persona in the mid and late 90s. Thanks to his hard work and the impeccable timing of the Monday night wars, DDP became one of the top stars in the business. He also got a lot of help from Randy Savage, who chose to work with Page and insisted on putting him over.

DDP never forgot those who helped him out, including Dusty Rhodes, Savage, Hall, and of course Jake. In return, DDP helped both Scott Hall and Jake Roberts when both were at rock bottom. He put them on his DDP Yoga program and sobered them up, helping them lose a lot of weight and ease much of their aches and pains. While neither man is 100% sober 100% of the time today, both are in worlds better shape mentally and physically, and it’s not an exaggeration to say DDP saved their lives.

The Incident

The time frame of this story isn’t clear, as it could’ve been either before DDP joined WCW originally, or after he was fired in 1994 before he returned later on. Either way, DDP was married to Kimberly at the time and trying to get more and more indie bookings. His friend Jake Roberts came over from time to time, and Jake wasn’t sober at this point. For whatever reason, Jake brought his snake to DDP’s house that day.

As DDP is in another room, he hears all this crazy laughter. He poked his head out and saw Jake with this big, black, 12-foot long cobra. DDP went to go tell him to put it away, knowing Kimberly would freak out if she knew the snake was loose. As ran downstairs to tell him, he saw Kimberly and slowed down, knowing she’d get suspicious if he saw him racing down the stairs.

Before he could get to Jake and tell him to put the snake away, the phone rings. It was an indie promoter, calling to book DDP for a show. At the time, DDP was working very hard to get booked anywhere, and not having much luck. Jake had been working with DDP to teach him how to work with the promoters and get booked, because at this point he was open to taking anything.

The phone call lasted ten minutes, and resulted in DDP getting booked. He went to go high-five Jake, having forgotten all about the snake since he was so excited about getting a gig. Jake was nowhere to be found, however.

Finally Jake comes down the stairs, and DDP says, “Dude, high-five me!” Instead, Jake blew right past him (ironically, DDP would go onto developing the “self high-five” as one of his gimmicks).

“I got big problems, man,” said Jake in his trademark soft voice. “I lost the snake.”

“What? F*ck you, don’t tell me you lost the snake,” said DDP. “Stop ribbing me!”

After a few more exchanges of DDP not believing him, Jake finally grabbed him and said, “Dude, listen to me. I can’t find it.”

DDP asked where it was, and Jake said it’s in the bathroom.

DDP was immediately confused, since his bathroom was fairly small and he couldn’t figure out how Jake couldn’t find this massive, long snake in such a small room with nothing but a shower and toilet.

The irony here is that Jake is actually scared to death of snakes in real life, according to DDP. That has to be an exaggeration, because if he was so scared of snakes, why was he playing with a huge cobra? DDP did say Jake was likely high during all this, which may have been part of the reason he lost the snake.

Jake got on his knees and looked near the vanity, which was probably not easy given how bad of shape Jake’s knees were at this time. He made snake sounds with his mouth, hissing to get the snake to respond somehow.

The snake wouldn’t appear, so Jake nonchalantly says “Eh, he’ll come out. I’ll get him in the morning.” And then he walked out.

“Where in the F*CK are you going!?” asked DDP, rightfully so.

“I told you, I’ll come back in the morning,” said Jake, like nothing was wrong.

“You can’t leave, Kimberly will go crazy!” said DDP, making it seem like his wife was the scared one when DDP was probably just as terrified (as would anyone).

Jake insisted he’d come back in the morning.

Kimberly

As expected, Kimberly freaked out when DDP told her.

They had cats who were apparently very smart, and they were able to jump and open doors in the house by turning the knobs with their paws. They were afraid the cats would open the bathroom door and either let the snake out, or go into the bathroom themselves and endanger themselves as the cobra’s next meal.

According to DDP, Kimberly “turned heel” on him and continued to freak out. So he turned heel on her and they had a big fight. She called for her cats and gathered them so they’d be safe, and then asked DDP what if the snake gets stuck in the wall? DDP thought, “Oh sh*t, she’s right,” because vanities don’t push the sheet rock against the wall.

As for Jake Roberts, he of course didn’t keep his word. Much like he used to no-show indie events, he no-showed DDP’s house the next day after insisting he’d come back to get the snake.

Rather than wait for Jake, DDP wisely called a snake handler. The handler pulled the board out from the floor, and sure enough, there was the snake. There was sheet rock eight inches from the ground, and all the snake had to do was duck his head and he could’ve gone into the wall.

The snake handler asked DDP if the snake was de-venomized.

“I don’t know, man. It’s not mine,” said DDP. In hindsight, if your job is a snake handler, then retrieving a cobra that belongs to Jake “The Snake” Roberts is probably the coolest thing ever.

The handler used a stick with a hook to get the snake and put him in a bag and big box. When Jake Roberts finally showed up three days later, he already knew what happened and said he got the snake back. Our guess is that Jake was well known around town, so the snake handler knew him and was able to give the snake back to him. Either that or Jake was able to call a snake handler and get him back.

Conclusion

This is a very funny story that really should’ve been in the documentary. The visual of Jake playing with the cobra, somehow losing it within ten minutes, and on his hands and knees looking for it in the bathroom, is hilarious. It’s the kind of story tailor made for the WWE Network cartoon series on road stories.

We hope Kimberly was able to forgive DDP, although we suspect the next time Jake Roberts came to the house, he had to leave the snake at home.