If you haven't heard, Jake "The Snake" Roberts had yet another meltdown, in front of a live audience, in the presence of cameras. If you have not seen the video yet, you can view it here.
An event like this in the wrestling world always elicits a bit of a mixed response. I usually can't help but laugh, but this time I felt more horrified than anything. It brings up a lot of the same old questions about the quality of life for wrestlers, during and after their careers. What is it about this lifestyle that fosters these types of behaviors and downfalls?
I will say before going any further that The Snake's circumstances are probably a lot worse than most aging wrestlers out there. Anyone who has seen Beyond The Mat knows about his torrid family experience and his problems with addiction. There have been claims made that the film went a long ways toward showing him a negative light. However, in the same year, at an independent show "Heroes of Wrestling" Jake had a complete meltdown. Several attempts were made to salvage the main event to no avail. He appeared slurring his speech and cursing (as in the newest video), leaving several times and coming back in various states of undress, and before it was over he took out his snake, put it between his legs, and swung it around like a gargantuan penis. Apparently the cameras cut off before he could actually remove his pants.
Jake spent the next few years having similar problems at live shows, and at point was the subject of allegations of animal abuse against his prized gimmick snakes. Another of his meltdowns occurred during his short TNA run, fortunately for him this particular incident did not make it to air.
If you will remember, last year, WWE instituted a program of paying for rehab for all it's former employees, and Roberts took up the offer. By all accounts he seemed to be clean, even receiving a mark of encouragement from Jim Ross.
And then, the most recent event.
His assistant claims he was drugged. People at the show claim he actually showed up with alcohol, and that fans were buying him alcohol all night. The truth? Who knows. It sounds like he simply fell off the horse. Hard.
It still begs the question: Why does this happen to so many performers? Why do so many leave the business and wither away, and why do so many end up dead in the prime?
The very fact is that to make it in wrestling, you have to live wrestling. Most of the guys who have lived up even to jobber status have done so because they have literally hallowed out their lives in favor of wrestling. Some of them grew up in wrestling families, and have never worked a job that was not directly involved in the business. And while things might not be so bad in WWE, actually getting there involves subjecting your bodies to hard bumps day in and day out. When you look at the average career of any athlete, you will probably see that for most it's significally shorter than a wrestler's. Batista, a man in his late 40s, has only been a star for a few years, when most athletes his age are getting ready to retire if they aren't already.
Do they not retire because they can't? For some, maybe, for others, definitely not. Some people who can and are smart enough- like The Rock, or Hulk Hogan, go on to live decent lives because of other avenues available, and probably because there just isn't much for them to do anymore. Other's like Stone Cold are forced out due to injuries, but maintain a good working life in the company that help build them. These days, in general, the idea of wrestlers going into more of a backstage capacity is growing and probably a good thing, as it keeps them in the business without having them kill themselves in front of crowds.
But there are others like Jake, who do not have the mind for backstage, the star power to headline, or the health to even work. What happens to these men? They go home, realize they have nothing there, and they turn to many of the same recreations they indulged in on the road- drugs, alcohol, and sex. Many of them, as I pointed out earlier, have never learned to do anything else; they couldn't even work a retail job if they had to. Most of them never went to college, few of them graduated high school, and some of the older guys never got that far.
Wrestling is almost a world unto itself. It's why a man with so many concussions he's delusional can walk around with no one noticing. It's why no one can walk away and no one can afford to stay and keep their health. It's also part of why none of us can stop watching or being enthrawled by this magical other word that's so great and terrible.
At the very least things do seem to be looking up for younger guys. Many of them seem to have better attitudes toward life and generally be less self destructive (Randy Orton excluded). They have more to look forward to as they can start building themselves up for backstage jobs after they're done in the ring. It's also easier for them to go into business for themselves and open their own promotions, since there are no mob-esque territories in place. There's also opportunites in things like WWE Legends, DVDs, merchandising deals, etc. Many wrestlers have learned from the past and started investing years before it becomes a problem. Booker T for instance has always invested his money, operating several businesses and his own promotion.
In the end, as an occpation, wrestling simply demands too much. There's always the push to be the biggest, the best, the top of the card. Combine this with the fact that wrestling IS the lives of many of these men and you end up with a culture that promotes a wreckless lifestyle that at times can make rockstars look like Ghandi. As happy as I get everytime Shawn Michaels shows back up on RAW a small part of me cringes because I know the sort of things he's done to himself (and to other people) in the past, and his struggle to find a good medium between what he considers his more important personal life and wrestling.
I think I could write 10 blogs worth of material on this subject but suffice to say the Jake situation is really sad. I hope he cleans up before he becomes just another dead wrestler.
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