10 Most Inspiring Wrestling Transformations
7. Jake Roberts
In 1999's Beyond The Mat, Jake Roberts spoke candidly about a life so troubling that it was under a black cloud before he was born. It took until his 50s for that cloud to clear, but in the eight years since he moved in with IRL pro wrestling saint Diamond Dallas Page (and more on his other work shortly), 'The Snake' has managed keep his life on track and score an unlikely return to the art-form he mastered in his youth.
A victim of 1980s excess when he escaped old demons by finding brand new ones, several failed reinventions in the 1990s and 2000s rendered Roberts a byword for wrestler decline more so than many of the stars he'd eventually outlive.
Forecasts were perpetually bleak until 2012 when he began living with Diamond Dallas Page. Documented in the excellent 'The Resurrection Of Jake The Snake', Roberts was on what appeared to be his final road to ruin before DDP stepped in to change his life with yoga, discipline and careful control of his diet.
Years of self-control he was never previously able to follow through with brought him back to the business via All Elite Wrestling in 2020.