10 Reasons Why Jake Roberts Is Wrestling’s Original Antihero
1. His Promos
“If a man has enough power, he can speak softly and everyone will listen.”
When Jake spoke, he commanded attention. Unlike his peers of the time, he didn’t need to scream into the camera with his eyes bulging out of his skull. His conviction came in his delivery and his words were a window into the darkened soul of troubled man.
Jake’s promos were unlike anything else on WWF TV. Speaking in proverb and metaphor, Jake would muse about life - light and dark, good and evil, right and wrong - yet he would never profess to be the white knight, flying the flag for righteousness. He was displayed as a flawed individual and candidly presented himself as such in rhetorical promos that seemed almost cathartic.
Most telling of all, 'The Snake' never preached in hyperbole. He would never profess to “kill” his opponent or “tear him limb from limb”; he would simply state that he would “make you wish you were dead”. The former was unrealistic, the latter was believable and that was the essence of what made Jake Roberts a master of the mic.
Roberts' cool and calm delivery only multiplied the intensity and made the brooding aura of danger more palpable and his words infinitely more menacing.