Jake Roberts Got A Lot Of Heat For Move He Took From The Undertaker

Wrestling cards are subject to change, and the same is true of wrestling matches themselves. Reminiscing about his WrestleMania VIII match against The Undertaker on the "DDP Snake Pit" podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts confirmed to host Jon Alba that the finish of the match was changed in the ring.

"It was supposed to have been a Tombstone in the ring," said Roberts. "But I thought it fit well, me chasing Paul Bearer, and then Mark getting me right there. And having that done to me on the floor is much more dangerous than having it done in the ring."

At the time, Roberts viewed taking the Tombstone on the outside floor as a "tremendous kill shot" that would write him off WWE programming. Looking back, he gets why the company was upset about the on-the-fly change, and understands the heat he received.

"The point is, him doing it to you in the ring, everybody could've seen it better," said Roberts. "And that's where I screwed up. It wasn't something where I didn't want to do the job ... If I didn't want to do the job, I'd never DDT'd him once."

The match became the second win in The Undertaker's legendary undefeated streak at WrestleMania, as well as Roberts' last match in WWE for nearly four years. When asked by Alba if the match was bittersweet for him, Roberts responded, "Yeah, I was hurting, man. I began having problems at home, which magnified all this. The addiction was starting to rear its head ... you're getting beat up, your body is hurting, you got troubles at home ... how much rest am I getting? Not much at all ... It was probably the worst time in my life. The hardest time of my life."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "DDP Snake Pit" podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.