The legendary master of darkly charismatic promos and intense in-ring psychology, Jake The Snake Roberts always had his personal demons to conquer before he could move up to the next level of competition in the wrestling world. Now that he has, of course, its too late for any serious aspirations in WWE or elsewhere, but thats not to suggest that the real life Aurelian Smith Jnr. has nothing to offer the wrestling business: hed make a fantastic coach at NXT, for example, and a peerless heel manager should WWE consider that one of their stables needs a voice and a brain. Roberts has always asserted that part of the reason for those demons is his upbringing by his father, veteran wrestler Aurelian Smith Snr., who wrestled as Grizzly Smith in the sixties and seventies. Roberts has alleged serious sexual impropriety on the part of his estranged father, including that his own birth was the result of a forced sexual encounter when his mother was twelve years old. Its not the only serious allegation of this type against Smith Snr former NWA president Howard Brody has written that he also abused Roberts sister when she was a young girl, and that she was removed from his custody as a consequence. Whatever the case there, fans of the WWF in the late eighties had the pleasure of seeing all three living Smith children wrestling for the promotion at once. Roberts, his brother Michael (wrestling under a cowboy gimmick as Sam Houston) and his sister Robin (under the name Rockin Robin) all worked for WWF between 1987 and 1989, although the sibling relationship was never made public at Robin Smiths request. Grizzly Smith died of Alzheimers in 2010. All three Smith kids would have separate but significant issues with alcohol and drugs over the years, but all three have successfully rehabilitated themselves now, and are engaged in moving on with their lives out of the shadow of their father.
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.
