Jake Roberts Explains How Vince McMahon “Ruined The Cage Match”
AEW manager Jake Roberts has never been one to not make his opinion known, and he did so on the latest episode of the DDP Snake Pit podcast when it came to talking about cage matches. In particular, Jake Roberts pointed the finger at his old boss, WWE owner and chairman Vince McMahon, as the one responsible for ruining the cage match for many years.
"Vince McMahon, for all the good he did in wrestling, he ruined the cage match," Roberts said. "When he made the cage match, the finish, you had to escape the cage. That was the whole reason you had the cage. You had the cage to keep that chickensh-t in the ring with you so you could get even with him and so you could keep other people out. And Vince ruined the whole d-mn thing. He said first one that escapes this cage is the winner. Are you serious? That blows off all of the heat."
Staying on the subject of cage matches, Jake Roberts talked about working a ton of cage matches while working tours in Japan. He also revealed he got the job working in Japan by exaggerating his height in a picture he took with Andre the Giant.
"I didn't go for Baba (All Japan), I didn't go for Inoki (New Japan)," Roberts recalled. "I went for a territory, for a company called International Pro Wrestling Of Japan. They were known as Blood and Guts. They had a cage match every night, and I was in most of them because I had kind of misled them about my size. I learned a trick when taking pictures, that if you step forward in the picture, you look much bigger than whoever's in the picture with you. Well, I took a picture with Andre and when it come out, I look about that much shorter than Andre. I sent that to Japan. And I got booked immediately. You know, they thought I was like 7'1, 7'2.
"I remember flying over man, I was so excited, I'm gonna make the most money I've ever had in my life. You know, in eight weeks I'm going to go home with $10,000. 'Oh my God, I can retire!' That's how excited I was. I get off the plane and I walk out and I see all these guys with International Pro Wrestling on their jerseys and stuff and I'm like 'hey guys.' And they keep looking by me and looking. 'Who you guys waiting for?' And they're like, they're getting upset because this guy's not coming off the plane and I said 'you know, I'm Jake Roberts.' They look at the picture and they look at me and they go 'sh-t boy. Sh-t boy.' That was my name, sh-t boy because I misled them to get a job. But yeah, it was quite the interesting trip."
To quote this article, please credit DDP Snake Pit and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription