On a recent edition of his “The Snake Pit” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jake Roberts discussed the issues that Andre The Giant had with Big John Studd, working with an aging Andre, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On working with a declining Andre The Giant: “I was told a long time ago that you never expose somebody’s weakness. Because if you do that, you’re beating a lesser man. You know, you want to accentuate the guy’s positivity and make him the biggest, baddest son of a b**ch on the planet. That way if you beat him, you beat somebody. So knowing that Andre was struggling with his back — you know, even if you didn’t know, you could tell when he walked that he was hurting. Just by the way he walked. So what do you do? You don’t do s**t that will f**king make him bend over, get down on his knees, and get back up. Giants don’t need to do that s**t anyway.”
On changing up his matches with Andre: “We had variations. We’d just go out there and just do whatever we come up with, you know? I knew two or three things that he liked to do, so I put myself in a position for them. Sometimes he’d do ’em, sometimes he wouldn’t.”
On Andre not liking Big John Studd: “John was a good guy, man. And Andre hated him, hated him! So he would beat the f**k out of the job. In an interview one time, Studd called Andre ‘Nothing but a circus freak.’ And that didn’t sit well with Andre. So he would go out and toss Big John Studd around.”
On whether John had more potential: “I think what you saw is what you got. John wasn’t a lightning-quick thinker, he wasn’t real sharp. He was the dullest knife in the drawer, like a butter knife.”
