Jake Roberts Admits To Taking Steroids At One Point In His Career

Steroids ran rampant in professional wrestling locker rooms in the '80s and '90s, and someone who saw it all unfold was Jake "The Snake" Roberts. The featured subject was Hulk Hogan on the latest episode of "The Snake Pit" podcast and the topic of steroids was brought up. Roberts was asked by co-host Marcus DeAngelo if it caused him to face any temptation to use them in an effort to keep up with the massive physiques of his colleagues.

"Of course it did, and I did," Roberts said, opening up about his health during that time. "I went on it for a short period, especially after my neck surgery cause I wanted to heal quicker, but in the WWF at the time we were working so hard, seven days a week, twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday. You needed a little bit of steroids to help with the healing process. Now some guys took that and went completely off the charts with it, but that was their choice and you know, so many of those guys are gone now and I'm sure that had something to do with it, whether that was Randy [Savage] or The Road Warriors or Mr. Perfect, right on down the line, man."

Names like Savage, Ultimate Warrior and Eddie Guerrero all passed away early due to heart attacks and a likely culprit was the heavy usage of steroids. Others, such as "Superstar" Billy Graham, have survived, but credit their usage of steroids for a lot of health issues later in life. "You see these guys before and after that stuff and it just blows your mind, you can't believe it's the same person," Roberts added, noting that Paul Ellering once had a fantastic physique before having a bad knee injury that ended his in-ring career.