Bruce Prichard discussed Jake Roberts’ WWE return in 1996 during a recent edition of Something to Wrestle.
Here is what he had to say:
“Everybody knew that Jake wasn’t in shape to go out and have matches of old, however, the attraction of Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts still held water. Jake was still able to cut some of the most compelling promos in the business. We thought if we could get there and make Jake an attraction, there might be something. But putting Jake regularly in matches – not the greatest idea in the world. ”
“I think that most people kind of saw Jake in that one way. It was an opportunity, from Jake’s point of view, that Jake felt very strongly about or at least outwardly felt strongly about getting that message out. So, we wanted to try it. We don’t like doing politics or religion, but in this case, it was a message of, ‘Hey kids, don’t do drugs. Look what can happen to you’ and Jake wanting to do a positive spin on things. Later on, we had what we called a No BS tour where you took guys like Bradshaw and Farooq and different guys and guys that lived a hard life and made mistakes, and go out and give kids the no-bullshit message. This was the precursor to that, and this was Jake going out and telling his story of, ‘Hey man, I was a drug addict. I was an alcoholic. You can get your life back on track.’ That was the idea behind it. ”
H/T to 411 Mania