WWE Hall of Famer Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts was rushed to hospital on Friday with a major health scare.
The 69-year-old retired wrestler, who pioneered the DDT move and was known for using serpent friends like Damien to terrorise his opponents, has opened up about his health issues after a ‘pretty scary moment’ on Friday.
‘I got incredibly sick, and I wound up going to the hospital on Friday night. Don’t remember a damn thing. It’s pretty scary,’ he said.
‘Come to find out I had pneumonia, and that’s not a good thing for me. I already have COPD, and to get pneumonia, and that’s not a good thing for me.
‘I already have COPD, and to get pneumonia is like you’re flirting with disaster there. I was in the hospital for four days, and very grateful to find out that I’ve got a couple of issues and I did not know.’
Roberts, whose health woes and past struggles with addiction have been well documented, revealed he had blood in his urine and ‘somewhere in [his] gut’, as well as heart issues.
‘One is I had blood on my urine, didn’t know that. Another thing is, apparently I’m leaking blood somewhere in my gut, and that’s causing my iron levels to be low,’ he said on his own The Snake Pit podcast.
‘That’s not a good thing. Then to top it off, I got a problem with my ticker. But by going in, I caught it, and we got to go have a couple of procedures done, and it’ll be all hunky dory then.
‘I’ve got this cough, but I’m doing better. It’s quite the surprise, man. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a hospital. That was weird.’
Roberts, who was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014, made his debut for the company back in 1986, ending his first spell six years later.
By 1996, he returned again for a second stint until the following year, while he went onto appear for the likes of ECW, TNA Wrestling and independent promotions.
He would make one-off WWE appearances in 2005 and 2014, before joining rivals All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2020, where he’s served as a manager for Lance Archer and most recently La Facción Ingobernable.
When he was by Archer’s side, he traded verbal jabs with then-AEW star and EVP Cody Rhodes, and the American Nightmare has since admitted he wishes they could have crossed paths in the ring.
“I’d really like to get in there with Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Because Jake The Snake, when he was a bad guy, was really just like psychologically menacing and different,’ he explained to WLTX News.
‘He wasn’t yelling. It wasn’t the like big bombastic 80s promos. He was really sinister, like ahead of his time.’
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.