Roberts won his first title, defeating the Grappler for the Mid-South North American Heavyweight Title in June of 1981 before losing it to Paul Orndorff on July 4th of the same year. Roberts moved to Georgia Championship Wrestling to take part in Paul Ellering's Legion of Doom stable with King Kong Bundy, the Road Warriors, Buzz Sawyer, the Iron Sheik, Crazy Luke Graham, the Sheik and Killer Karl Krup. He would defeat Rugged Ronnie Garvin to win the NWA National Television Title and Roberts would become known as the first official NWA Television Champion, which would later become the WCW Television Title. Garvin lost the gold back to Garvin and began feuding with the Von Erichs alongside Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez. He would win back the TV Title from Garvin and lose it again before battling Dick Slater to become the Mid South Television Champion. When he lost the gold to Dick Slater, he accepted an offer from Vince McMahon to enter the rapidly expanding World Wrestling Federation in early March of 1986. 

    Jake had received the nick-name "The Snake" prior to joining the WWF, but solidifed the nickname by bringing a python into the ring to drape over his opponents after defeating them. Roberts made his first big splash in the WWF by defeating George Wells at Wrestlemania 2 and draping the snake over him. Roberts would then feud with Ricky Steamboat, who he once teamed with in the NWA. Roberts legitimately knocked Steamboat unconscious, causing him a concussion, when he DDTed him on the arena floor, drawing even more heat. Steamboat would then bring a pet Komodo Dragon to the ring to feud with Roberts' snake Damien, leading to a Texas Death Match in Toronto and a rematch on Saturday Nights Main Event. 

    Roberts would go on to feud with WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, but was quickly becoming a fan favourite and beginning a feud with the Honkey Tonk Man, who had been a fan favourite prior to an incident on Jake's interview segment titled "the Snake Pit" where HOnkey bashed Jake with his guitar. The Honkey Tonk Man would defeat Roberts in front of 93,173 fans at Wrestlemania III in the Pontiac Silverdome, but afterwards Roberts and his guest manager Alice Cooper got a measure of revenge by tormenting manager Jimmy Hart with the snake. 

    Roberts began feuding with Ravishing Rick Rude when Rude, who would select random women from the crowd to receive a kiss, chose Roberts' wife Cheryl and Cheryl slapped him instead. This feud with highlighted in a time limit draw at Wrestlemania IV in the first round of the WWF World Title Tournament and again at Survivor Series 1988 when Roberts, Jim Duggan, Ken Patera, Tito Santana and Scott Casey took on Andre the Giant, Curt Hennig, Dino Bravo, Rick Rude and Harley Race. During the bout, Roberts was viciously choked by Andre, leading to Andre being disqualified, which set the stage for their match at Wrestlemania V. Big John Studd returned to the WWF as a fan favourite and served as the referee, disqualifying Andre when he attacked him from behind. 

    Roberts then feuded with Ted DiBiase, who used a pile driver to explain a sabbatical where Roberts had surgery to repair damage stemming from ruptured discs he suffered during that famous Snake Pit incident with the Honkey Tonk Man years before. The surgery was a success and Roberts returned in 1989, teaming with WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and the WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition to defeat DiBiase, Zeus and the Powers of Pain in Survivor Series 1989. The feud would climax at Wrestlemania VI in Toronto, Ontario Canada at the Skydome where Roberts DDTed DiBiase to gain the victory. Roberts would feud with Bad News Brown and then with Rick Martel, who had "blinded" the Snake by spraying his cologne "Arrogance" into the Snake's eyes on an edition of the Brother Love Show. Roberts wore disturbing white contact lenses to sell the injury. The feud continued in the 1990 edition of Survivor Series where Roberts, the Rockers and Jimmy Snuka lost to Martel, Warlord, Paul Roma and Hercules. They would have a notable skirmish in the 1991 Royal Rumble Match before settling the score at Wrestlemania VII when Roberts defeated Martel in a classic blindfold match. The Snake moved into a feud with the Earthquake, who ahd killed Damien the Snake with the Earthquake Splash. Of course, this was a work and John Tenta later revealed that the snake was actually hamburger stuffed into a pair of panty hose. Roberts came back with a bigger snake, whom he called Lucifer. 

    During the summer of 1991, Jake Roberts became the confidante of the Ultimate Warrior in his battles with the "evil" Undertaker. Roberts and the Warrior undertook an angle where the Warrior had to pass three tests over three weeks to understand the dark side. The first test was to be locked in an air-tight coffin, the second involved the Warrior being buried alive and the third saw the Warrior locked in a room full of snakes where he had to walk through the snakes to open a chest that contained his answer. The chest contained a King Cobra who bit the Warrior in the fake, in storyline terms. With the Warrior physically weakened by the venom, the Snake came on camera with the Undertaker and Paul Bearer to reveal they were in on the plan all along. The Warrior and Roberts never settled the score and the Warrior was fired following Summer Slam 1991. 

    To capitalize on the loss, Roberts, the Undertaker and Paul Bearer crashed the wedding reception of Randy Savage and Elizabeth after Elizabeth opened up a present that contained another Cobra. During an edition of Superstars, the Snake viciously attacked the Macho Man, who had been "retired" after his Wrestlemania VII match with the Ultimate Warrior, and had another Cobra bite Savage on the arm. Savage was unable to compete in his supposed return bout at Survivor Series, due to the snake attack, but did return at This Tuesday in Texas to defeat Roberts. After the bout, however, Roberts would sink to an all time low by slapping Elizabeth in the face and knocking her down in the ring. Savage, of course, went insane and chased Roberts all throughout the WWF. Savage eliminated Roberts from the 1992 Royal Rumble Match and defeated him again at Saturday Night's Main Event. After the match was over, Roberts was seen in the back with a steel chair and he was preparing to strike Elizabeth when the Undertaker showed his human side by grabbing the chair and allowing Savage to attack him. Roberts then went on the Funeral Parlour interview segment to lock the Undertaker's hand in the casket and DDT Paul Bearer on the set. The two would settle the score at Wrestlemania VIII where the Undertaker survived the DDT and tombstoned Roberts to get a victory. Roberts left the WWF shortly thereafter, angry that he had not been promoted to the creative team upon Pat Patterson's exit from the company after a sex scandal. 

    Roberts joined World Championship Wrestling to debut alongside the Barbarian and Cactus Jack to feud with Sting and Nikita Koloff. Since Bill Watts, who had friction with Roberts, took over from Kip Frye, Roberts ended up wrestling only one pay per view bout in a losing effort to Sting at the 1992 Halloween Havoc in a Spin The Wheel, Make the Deal match. 

    Roberts would go on to compete in Smokey Mountain Wrestling, winning the title there. He would also take on Konnan in Mexico, aligning himself with the Powers of Pain. There, Roberts lost a hair versus hair match to Konnan and had to return to the United States bald. He would lose the SMW title to Tony Anthony before his drug abuse problems knocked him out of wrestling. During his time off, he came to faith as a born again Christian. 

    Roberts returned to the WWF at the 1996 Royal Rumble with a religious gimmick, complete with a snake called Revelations. Roberts competed at Wrestlemania, teaming with Ahmed Johnson and Yokozuna in a losing effort to Vader, Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith. He would also rise to the finals of the King of the Ring tournament in 1996 before losing to Steve Austin, who would cut the legendary Austin 3:16 promo in response to Roberts' religious gimmick. Roberts would then go on to feud with Jerry Lawler, who openly badmouthed Roberts over his alcohol addiction and actually poured whiskey down Roberts' throat. His last major appearance for the company was at Survivor Series 1996 when he, Flash Funk, Yokozuna and Jimmy Snuka went to a no contest with Vader, Faarooq, Fake Diesel and Fake Razor Ramon. Roberts was fired in 1997 and began competing on the independent scenes. 

    In 1999, Roberts appeared in the controversial "Beyond The Mat" documentary where his drug problems and personal problems with his daughter were made public. It was a very sad depiction of Roberts and he would later criticize the film makers for showing him in a negative light. Jake would then appear at an independent pay per view called the "Heroes of Wrestling" and was visibly drunk on camera. He went to the ring to wrestle Jim Neidhart and physically touched female fans. The match was salvaged when Yokozuna and King Kong Bundy came out to make the bout into a tag team match. The event stands as a stain on Roberts' career. 

    The Snake moved to Great Britain and was openly critical of the WWF and WCW products. He would go on to become the NWA Hammerlock Heavyweight Champion and started his own wrestling promotion called the "Real stars of Wrestling" and opened up a school. Legal troubles would plague Roberts after his snake died due to starvation. He is now banned from owning animals in the United Kingdom. He would continue to wrestle in the United Kingdom and gained some popularity and began to work to remove the nasty reputation. 

    Roberts returned to the United States and made an appearance on the March 14th, 2005 edition of RAW where he was RKOed by Randy Orton to set up the Legend versus Legend Killer Match that Orton was having against the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 21. He then worked with WWE to put together a DVD covering his career. 

    Roberts returned to the legends circuit throughout the United States, battling Kamala, Kanyon and others as well as young talents. He made his TNA debut in October of 2006 to announce he would be the special referee for the Monster's Ball Match at Bound for Glory. He would DDT Raven during the match, giving the win to Samoa Joe. Rumours persist that Roberts will stay in TNA and that he may finally have his life together, enabling him to enter a major angle as the father of Abyss. 

    Jake Roberts' has had many ups and many downs but above all, he has proven himself to be one of the most brilliant, unique and special wrestlers that has ever competed in the ring. Whether you liked him or you hated him, Roberts was one man you could never ignore. He certainly belongs here among his peers in the UWOW Hall of Fame.