10 Things You Notice Rewatching Beyond The Mat

6. You Remember Just How Hard A Life Jake Roberts Had

Vince McMahon Beyond The Mat
Imagine Entertainment

Some may lazily dismiss Jake Roberts as a superstar wrestler who had it all but who choose to throw it all away in favour of embracing his own demons, yet there is far more to this most multi-layered figure than that.

To start with, Jake was conceived after his father - wrestler Grizzly Smith - raped a 13-year-old girl whose mother he was dating. Roberts barely spent any time with his father, but the time he and his sister did spend with him saw Grizzly's partner of the time become so jealous that it pushed Jake's sister into the arms of a 50-year-old man. From there, the ex-wife of Jake's sister's partner killed the young girl.

Making things even worse, the body of Jake's sister was never found. Police found enough blood to know that she was dead, but the perpetrator could only be sentenced for kidnapping. After ten years behind bars, this alleged murderer still refused to tell Jake and his family where the body of his sister was. Jake Roberts was further rocked when his stepfather died from electrocution.

So desperate to win the love of his biological father Grizzly Smith, Jake put off his own college aspirations to enter the wrestling business in an attempt to make his dad proud.

As Roberts explains in Beyond the Mat:

"If it's the last thing I do, I'm gonna shove this business up his rear. Guess what? I did it. And guess what? It didn't matter."
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.