Jake The Snake Roberts vs. Ravishing Rick Rude (Mar 1988 – Nov 1988)

Background

Jake Roberts had built his character around psychological menace, his python Damien, and the DDT, a move he had introduced to national television audiences and that instantly stood out for how dangerous it looked compared to the era's other finishers.[1] By 1988 he was an established upper-midcard act, popular but never quite positioned as a top championship contender.[1]

Rick Rude worked as a classic arrogant heel under Bobby Heenan's management, built around a stylized "ladies' man" gimmick: after wins, he would select a woman from the crowd for a kiss, a running bit meant to needle the crowd and set up cheap heel heat.[2] Away from the character, Roberts was married to Cheryl Roberts, whom he had wed in 1984; the marriage was already under strain from addiction problems that would follow Roberts for much of his career and that he has discussed at length in later years.[3]

Build-up

Roberts and Rude first met in the ring at WrestleMania IV on March 27, 1988 at the Historic Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, in the first round of a tournament to crown a new WWF Champion; the match went to a 15-minute time-limit draw, eliminating both men from the bracket without settling anything between them.[4]

The real story started a month later. On the April 23, 1988 Superstars of Wrestling, Rude ran his usual post-match routine, selecting a woman from the crowd for a kiss, and picked Cheryl Roberts without knowing who she was.[2] She refused, identified herself as Jake Roberts' wife, and slapped him; Rude responded with insults, and Jake ran out to pull him away, giving the two men's ongoing rivalry a specific, personal grievance to run on.[2]

Rude escalated it that summer by having Cheryl's face airbrushed onto a pair of his ring tights, a detail even sympathetic retrospectives of Rude's career single out as an unusually personal piece of heel work for the era.[2] Roberts has since said he warned Rude directly about wearing them: "I told him, I said, 'If you go out there, I'm coming out and ripping them off.'"[5] Rude wore them anyway, and Roberts did exactly what he'd promised, tearing the tights off him mid-angle; Roberts has confirmed the moment was not scripted: "That was a shoot, Rick. That's exactly what I did."[5]

The two didn't actually wrestle each other at SummerSlam on August 29, 1988. Rude worked a match against Junkyard Dog instead, which ended in disqualification when Roberts ran in and attacked him over the tights; Roberts had his own match that night, beating Hercules with a DDT.[6] They finally met one-on-one again at Madison Square Garden on October 24, with a stipulation that whoever landed his finisher first would win; Rude taunted Cheryl at ringside, and Roberts answered with the DDT for the win.[7] Five days later, at Saturday Night's Main Event on October 29, Roberts beat Rude again, this time by disqualification after André the Giant interfered on Rude's behalf.[2]

The Matches

The feud closed at Survivor Series on November 24, 1988 at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield Township, Ohio, inside a traditional 5-on-5 elimination match. Roberts' team, Jim Duggan, Scott Casey, Ken Patera and Tito Santana, faced Rude's team of André the Giant, Dino Bravo, Mr. Perfect and Harley Race, managed by Heenan.[8]

Roberts caught Rude cockily reaching to tag in a partner and hit him with a DDT from behind, pinning him for the elimination at 28:45 in a match that ran just over 30 minutes total.[8] Rude's team ultimately won the overall match, with Mr. Perfect and Dino Bravo surviving, but the individual account between Roberts and Rude ended the way most of their encounters that year had: with Roberts landing the DDT.[8]

Aftermath

The Cheryl angle wound down after Survivor Series without a dramatic final confrontation; both men moved into other programs in 1989, Rude toward his Intercontinental Championship run against Ultimate Warrior and Roberts toward continued upper-card feuds built on his psychological-horror persona.[1] Cheryl Roberts largely stepped back from WWF television once the storyline had run its course.[3]

Jake and Cheryl's real marriage did not survive the years that followed. Roberts has spoken openly about the alcohol and drug addiction that defined much of his career during and after this period, struggles documented at length in the 1999 documentary Beyond the Mat; the couple separated and eventually divorced, with reports placing the split between the late 1990s and 2000.[3] In 2023, more than two decades later, Cheryl and Jake reconciled, with Cheryl crediting his sobriety directly: she said publicly that "addiction doesn't have to win," describing Roberts as showing her love again without what she called the demons that had ended the marriage.[3]

Behind the Scenes

The tights-tearing spot is one of the more unusual documented cases of a wrestler carrying out a real, pre-announced threat inside a storyline built around his own family. Roberts' account is direct and doesn't hedge: he told Rude in advance exactly what would happen if Rude wore the tights to the ring, and then did precisely that when Rude ignored the warning.[5] It sits in an unusual space between shoot and work, a genuine act of anger executed inside a program the company was actively booking around the same real relationship.[5]

The broader angle, built on Roberts' actual wife rather than a storyline girlfriend or valet, was aggressive even by 1988 standards, using a real marriage as the emotional hook for a program between two performers rather than inventing a fictional relationship for the purpose.[2] That the marriage was already privately strained by addiction issues Roberts has discussed at length in later interviews adds a layer the angle itself never acknowledged on screen, a real family under real pressure standing in for a kayfabe love triangle.[3]

Legacy

The feud is remembered today less for the in-ring matches, none of which are considered classics on their own merits, than for the Cheryl Roberts angle and the tights spot specifically, both frequently cited in retrospectives of Rick Rude's career as among the more personally aggressive heel work of the late 1980s.[2] It set a template Rude would return to later in his career, using an opponent's real spouse or personal life as heel material, most notably in his subsequent rivalry with Ultimate Warrior.[1]

Jake and Cheryl Roberts' real story, following the storyline that used their marriage as material, eventually became its own well-documented narrative of addiction, separation and reconciliation, one that both have spoken about publicly and that gives the 1988 angle a weight in retrospect that the original storyline, played for heat rather than pathos, never intended.[3]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. Jake Roberts — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Roberts
2. "Every Major Rick Rude Feud In The WWE, Ranked Worst To Best" — TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/wwe-rick-rude-feuds-ranked/
3. "Wrestler Jake 'The Snake' Roberts Rekindles Romance With Ex-Wife Cheryl Hagood 24 Years After Divorce: 'Addiction Doesn't Have to Win'" — Yahoo Entertainment. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/wrestler-jake-snake-roberts-rekindles-172341333.html
4. WrestleMania IV — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_IV
5. "Jake Roberts Says Ripping Rick Rude's Infamous Cheryl Tights Off Was a Shoot" — RingsideNews. https://www.ringsidenews.com/jake-roberts-says-ripping-rick-rudes-infamous-cheryl-tights-off-shoot
6. SummerSlam (1988) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SummerSlam_(1988)
7. "[1988-10-24-WWF-MSG, NY] Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts" — Pro Wrestling Only Forums. https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/41414-1988-10-24-wwf-msg-ny-rick-rude-vs-jake-roberts/
8. Survivor Series (1988) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Series_(1988)

Further Listening

• Beyond the Mat (1999 documentary) — Jake Roberts' addiction struggles in the years following this storyline
• Jake Roberts' own shoot interviews and podcast (Notsam Wrestling and others) discussing the Rude feud and confirming the tights spot was unscripted
• Cheryl Roberts' 2023 interviews on reconciling with Jake and his sobriety