Jake Roberts, speaking on the most recent episode of his “The Snake Pit” podcast, delved into his WCW run in 1992, which followed his exit from WWE. Among the subjects of the conversation was his tumultuous contract situation and negotiations with Bill Watts, who was the chief booker in WCW at the time.
Roberts did not mince his words while discussing Watts, blasting him for his underhanded tactics and how he was presented in WCW.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On contract negotiations with Bill Watts: “I’d had the pleasure of seeing that no good, fat, motherf**king Bill Watts. And he explained to me how my new contract was going to work, which wasn’t anything like the one that Kip Frey and I’d came up with. See, that was the thing. Kip Frey had sit down with me and come up with a contract that, that would have left me set for life. You know, it was a multimillion-dollar contract. And then when Watts got there, that was the end of that s**t. And Watts told me that my new contract would be $1,000 a day. It’s like, ‘Are you f**king kidding me?’”
On Watts’ underhanded tactics: “He knew I couldn’t turn around and go back to the WWE. So, he just squeezed me… Part of his deal with WCW was to break these contracts up. Some of those contracts were unbelievable, man. Those guys were getting fat. [laughs] They were getting fat, man. And his contract had to do with how much money he saved WCW. Now, how does he save money? Well, he gets you to renegotiate your contract, for less money. Now who’s going to do that? Well, if you don’t do it, what he would do is he would threaten you with putting you on TV every week and getting beat by jobbers.”
On his initial booking in WCW: “He wanted me to come in, and just get beat flat out. It doesn’t [draw]. But that’s how stupid f**king Watts is. And not only that, he banned the snake. As soon as he did that brother, I said, ‘I’m out of here’… I knew I was f**ked [as soon as I heard Watts was coming in].”
On working in WCW instead of Japan: “No, it was the fact that I wanted to work at home…. Should have [talked with WWE about returning].”
