10 Most Re-Watched Wrestling Moments Of All Time
9. Snakebite
In which Jake Roberts supplied the young WWF audience with a lifetime supply of nightmare fuel.
On an October '91 taping of Superstars of Wrestling, Roberts goaded Macho Man Randy Savage to the ring with a scathing promo in which he belittled his mettle. The subsequent, über-shocking angle was perfectly calibrated to yield both terror and sympathy. Having capitalised on the bumbling distraction of the referee, Roberts tangled Savage's arms in the bottom and middle ropes. He withdrew a very real (though de-venomised) King Cobra from a burlap sack. Its head darted around Savage's terror-etched face, in parallel with the heart palpitations of everybody watching, before ultimately settling on Savage's arm - from which it drew a small, yet deeply unsettling, amount of hardway blood.
McMahon sold the scene, perfectly, with a panicked tenor of terror. Savage, genuinely frightened, could not bring himself to do more than clench his eyes shut and pray. Elizabeth was visibly distraught. Roberts, a terrific heel was delighted. The high-pitched squeals of the audience, meanwhile, surpassed even the superb work of those old pros.
Children everywhere rewound the footage - involuntarily - to see where the magician had hid the card.