WWE Rumors: Randy Savage Did Not Trust Jake Roberts and Vince McMahon During Snake Bite Segment

WWE rumors have long surrounded Randy Savage. There are so many backstage stories that were left untold now that the Macho Man is no longer alive. One of the most infamous segments that Savage was involved in during his illustrious career saw him being bitten on the arm on live television by a snake that Jake Roberts owned. According to Wrestling Inc, Savage did not trust Vince McMahon, who came up with the idea, and Roberts, so he wanted the snake bite to happen backstage before doing it in the ring.

While there’s still some shadiness in professional wrestling nowadays, it was nothing compared to what things were like during the 1980’s. Back then, promoters were able to get away with a lot of things because the business was still in the territorial stage. Social media, the internet, and global corporations did not exist in the industry. Any controversy that took place back then was basically word of mouth, so a lot of things could not be proven.

Wrestling promoters are hard to trust because they have an obligation to protect the brand. Wrestlers and writers come and go all the time, but the brand is something that promoters hope is a permanent thing. WWE has been around a very long time, and thanks to the work of Vince McMahon, it should be around for many more decades. McMahon himself once screwed over a longtime and loyal employee, Bret Hart, because he was afraid that he was going to go to WCW and help the competition.

During a recent interview, Jake Roberts revealed that Randy Savage confronted him backstage before the two of them did the infamous segment. Savage was worried that Roberts was in on a plan to kill him. Roberts stated that he was taken aback by the question because he had no intentions of doing that to Savage. The Macho Man was apparently concerned that Jake wanted to kill him because he wanted to move up the ladder and go after the championship.

To alleviate his own concerns, Randy Savage instructed Jake Roberts to allow the snake to bite him backstage. If nothing happened to Roberts, then Savage would be comfortable knowing that the snake was not poisonous. Since Jake really believed that the angle would come off really well and make the feud even hotter, he did everything he could backstage to convince Randy to go through with the idea.

Randy Savage was said to have been extremely paranoid backstage. In addition to the concerns about Jake Roberts trying to kill him, Savage was said to be extremely jealous when it came to performers interacting with Miss Elizabeth. The storyline where he was jealous of Hulk Hogan because he had bonded with Elizabeth was done because management wanted to mock the real life jealousy of the Macho Man.

The paranoia was said to have caused a lot of issues for Randy Savage. Many believe that was the biggest factor in his real life divorce with Miss Elizabeth. It definitely played a factor in his departure from WWE. Savage was not very trusting of Vince McMahon, so he left the company and signed with WCW. The backstage issues between Randy and Vince were so bad that McMahon spent a lot of resources to mock Savage in various skits on Monday Night Raw.

While the news about Randy Savage being paranoid during the infamous snake biting segment will come as a shock to casual fans, those that have followed the Macho Man closely over the years already know how he could be backstage. There’s a lot more that goes on in WWE than we are allowed to see.

[Image via WWE]