Jake Roberts Gives Update On Ricky Steamboat’s Health
On the latest episode of the DDP Snake Pit podcast, AEW talent Jake Roberts talked about the infamous angle where he DDT'd WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat onto concrete.
It was an idea that Roberts was against from the start, due to being unable to do the move safely on a hard surface. Ultimately, however, both Steamboat and George Scott talked him into it, with disastrous results.
"Bottom line is you cannot be down on a hard surface," Roberts said. "If it's a hard surface, you're going to splatter your brains. Back in my drinking days I did it a few times in bars and other stuff. I got in trouble in there. And they didn't get up. Even when I did it to Hogan on a platform, which has a lot of give, but it didn't have enough because it split Hogan's skull.
"I'm not going to tell you the guys who suggested it to me. I was told by these guys to pick somebody out of the locker room and DDT them on the concrete, intentionally, in hopes of killing. I was like 'what?' They were like 'dude, you'll be the most over heel ever.' 'I don't want to kill somebody, what are you talking about?' They encouraged me to do it, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it.
"Doing Steamboat, I argued in the back 'no, it cannot be done.' And Steamboat had the affiliation with George Scott, who had been the booker in Mid Atlantic and gave Steamboat his big break. And George went to Steamboat with that idea, of me dropping him on the concrete. And Steamboat argued me 'please man, do it for me. I can block it, I can get my hands down in time.' 'No you won't, it won't work.'
"And it didn't work. When I dropped Steamboat, I thought he was dead, I really did. Picking up, it was like 'holy shit.' I herniated myself getting him into the ring. If you watch that film, you'll see me pointing at Steamboat and point at George Scott, because George Scott had come down and gotten in the ring.
"I was like 'there George, I hope your freakin happy because he's dead.' I was surprised he wasn't, because where his head hit, it was a god-awful sound. It was like a watermelon being thrown on concrete. It popped like something broke. It took two weeks for his eyes to turn black. It swelled up four inches."
Jake Roberts went on to claim that Ricky Steamboat is having health issues right now. Issues he hopes have nothing to do with the DDT spot because the incident still haunts him.
"To be quite honest with you, I know Steamboat's having issues right now," Roberts said. "I hope to hell it wasn't what I did. I really do man, because that haunts me. That's beginning to haunt me a lot. Ricky, if you're listening, you know I never meant to do that. I didn't want to do that. I begged you not to do that. I just pray for you man. He's a good dude man."
To quote this article, please credit DDP Snake Pit and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription