Jake “The Snake” Roberts said the following about Dutch Mantel on a recent episode of “The Snake Pit” podcast:
“I think there’s always little jealousy between Dutch and I on his side. I think Dutch thinks he should have been a lot more than he ever was. I don’t know. I might be completely missing the boat. He just seemed to be unhappy with the positions he was put in most of his career. I’ve always liked him, but that has nothing to do with it.”
Mantel responded to Jake Roberts’ comments:
“I did my short clothesline with him which he took later and became his signature move, but I used it years before he got to the, I mean, I did a short clothesline that you associate that now with Jake. He told me after the match, ‘I love that short clothesline.’ He said, ‘I’m taking that.’ I said, ‘Okay, go ahead’, and I guess he was serious because he took it, But, I will say that Jake did it beautifully, and it was associated with him because he had a higher platform that he used it on. I used it on regional promotions and he used it in WWE so more people saw it.”
“As for I was unhappy with the place I was in wrestling, well, I’ve said this before. I think everybody should not be happy if they’re not the main event. I’ve said this on our other podcast that if you don’t think you’re main-event material, you don’t need to be there. If you’re saying, ‘Oh well. I’m just the third or the fourth match. I guess that’s where I’m going to get.’ If you don’t think you’re main-event material, you’re wasting your time. Get out of the business. I don’t blame anybody for thinking that they’re main event because if that’s where they want to get, they have to have that mindset. But, Jake, I like him too. I’ve known him a long time, entertaining as hell, great, great performer. He’s had several out of the ring situations and occurrences that slowed him down, almost killed him, I think, but he got by them and my congratulations on that. Jake, I still love you man.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
