Confession time: We don’t hate every gimmick we post at Wrestlecrap. In fact, some of them (and arguably the majority of them) are so bad that we find them incredibly funny. The angle with Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Earthquake falls into that category.
Earthquake had just come out of a high profile feud with Hulk Hogan. Jake was really at a high point in his career as well (although saying it was a ‘high’ point may not be the best choice of words). The two were set to feud with each other, and the WWF really wanted this one to be one for the ages.
So they had the Quake sit on Damien, Jake’s pet snake!
During an episode of WWF Superstars (at the time the WWF’s premier show), Roberts and Quake were set to have a match. A couple of minutes into the match, Roberts literally opened up his bag of tricks, and let loose Damien, his monster pet snake that he would dump on opponents after he rendered them unconscious with his finisher, the DDT.
Earthquake decided he didn’t like that, and bailed. In fact, it wasn’t just snakes he didn’t like.
After Roberts put the snake back in the bag, Quake attacked him from behind and tied him in the ropes.
He took Roberts’ snake filled bag and placed it in the middle of the ring. He jumped up and down, sending tremors…
…then he bounced off the ropes, and jumped into the air…leading to a most horrifying site:
SEAN MOONEY!
That’s right apparently the WWF considered the squashing too gruesome and edited it out of the syndicated version, replacing it with a shot of Mooney grimacing in the Event Center.
Of course, what really happened was that the Quake landed on Damien, squashing him flat.
Roberts finally got untied, and looked in the bag…and couldn’t believe what he saw.
As bad as that was, Quake continued to play mind games. On an episode of Prime Time Wrestling, he demonstrated his culinary skills. Bedecked in a chef’s hat and apron (that looked more like a tablecloth!), Quake prepared his specialty, “Quakeburgers”, for Vince McMahon, Lord Alfred Hayes, and Bobby Heenan.
Quake and Heenan enjoyed the tasty treat, while Lord Alfred and Vince thought they tasted kinda funny…
Heenan, of course, knew what they were made of, but the others didn’t catch on quite so fast.
Eventually, though, they figured out that they weren’t Quakeburgers, they were SNAKEbrugers! Alfred barfed…
…while Vince got ticked and threw the tray in the air.
So the million dollar question what was REALLY in the bag? Well, thanks to our interview with John Tenta, we can let you in on that secret…