The character that second generation wrestler Aurelian Smith Jnr. played throughout his most celebrated run in the WWF in the late eighties and early nineties was a magnificent bast*rd in every sense of the word. Intense, Machiavellian and fearsomely intelligent, Jake The Snake Roberts was portrayed as a master of mind games, while the real life Smith would prove to be equally adept at the complete psychology of professional wrestling. Everything he did, from mic work to putting together the nuts and bolts of feuds and angles, to the execution of the matches themselves and the minutiae of the performance involved, seemed to come as naturally to him as breathing. Its well known that Roberts second stint in the WWF saw him put over promising heel Stone Cold Steve Austin and inspire the improvised Austin 3:16 promo in 1996 that made the Rattlesnakes career. Whats perhaps less well known is that Jake The Snake Roberts was in Austins shoes a decade earlier. November 1986 saw the vicious heel Roberts receive babyface pops and cheers in matches and angles with no lesser fan favourites than The Macho Man Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. In fact, Roberts trademark dark charisma and fiercely intelligent, articulate promos, together with the popularity of his finishing move, the DDT, had him so over with the fans that a programme with the Hulkster was quashed when Hogan began to worry that Roberts would siphon his heat. Even today, post-drug addiction and a final, successful rehabilitation, Smith can still give it some: his Hall Of Fame speech in 2014 was a study in brutal honesty and self-deprecating humour, delivered by a master of his craft. That the WWE havent now tapped him to manage a heel stable of his own is a criminal waste of a formidable talent.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
