Jake Roberts On His Fear Of Snakes, Vader & Honky Tonk Man Injuring Him, Damien Biting Him

Jake "The Snake" Roberts recently took part in an Ask Me Anything question & answer session on Reddit. The WWE Hall of Famer fielded questions from fans and shared some intimate stories from his legendary wrestling career.

When a fan asked if Jake was ever afraid of his massive python Damien, the "Master of the DDT" revealed that he is actually terrified of snakes.

"Absolutely, I am terrified of snakes, always have been and always will be," Jake answered. "It was just a great idea. I came up with it years ago, and I go to WWF and they finally let me do it. When the reality of doing it sunk in, I was terrified. [...] I've been bit over 20 times, they can strangle you... it takes them just seconds to kill you... Ricky Steamboat had to pull one off of me, when I came thru the snake was in the audience and I grabbed him and got him under control."

Roberts faced countless opponents during his active years, but when asked if there was one particular wrestler he dreaded working with, he answered "yes, absolutely."

"Vader -- He broke my sternum twice," Roberts said. "Back to back. I wrestled him once, he broke it. I wrestled him again after I healed and he broke it again. I've had so many injuries over the years, and I don't need something like that from someone who doesn't know what they're doing."

His most painful wrestling-related memory is still the guitar shot he took from Honky Tonk Man on WWE Superstars in 1987. "The worst thing that happened was being hit by the guitar, that shattered two discs in my neck and damn near killed me," he recalled.

Jake's most-popular answer in the AMA post was to a fan asking what his proudest moment in wrestling was.

"There was a young boy in California with brain cancer and he'd just given up, and he had a horrible scar from surgery and he was real ashamed of it," Roberts recalled. "It was ugly, man, it was damned ugly. I went in to see him and I was like, "Oh my God, I gotta get a haircut like that! It is badass!" It sparked him up a bit. Then they sent a TV crew in and newspaper people in, and he didn't want that. He just wanted to hang with me. I saw his demeanor change and I told them that if he points at the door, you guys leave. Because it was for him and not for the newspaper, you know? He pointed, so I threw them out and he loved that.

"I was coming to town in three weeks and I told him I needed him in my corner. The doctor told him that wouldn't happen. But we got him fighting, and we got him going again and he showed up for my match with the Honkey Tonk Man. I let him put the snake on him and to see that kids face... I don't know, man, to see that... I could talk about 100 different matches but you asked for a moment, and that was a moment.

"I should try to find him now, because that's the kind of stuff I do now. And those are the moments I treasure, because if I can bring happiness to someone, whoever... that's why I love DDP Yoga, because it makes people feel better about themselves. And I know what's that like because I've hated myself and the way I've looked and given up, so I've been down that road... so to go on this program with DDP and to watch people help themselves... I thought I was getting high before, but man! It's an amazing feeling when you've helped someone get healthy.

"Dallas asked me once what DDP Yoga had done for me that nothing else could, and I said it gave me back the dream - when you're down and out, you don't dream. But as I got better, I started dreaming again."

You can read Robert's entire Reddit AMA at this link.