Heartwarming / Jake Roberts

• Getting back into shape with Diamond Dallas Page. He's gotten sober, he's lost over sixty pounds, and he started an Indiegogo drive some time ago to raise money for a shoulder surgery. He needed slightly more than nine thousand dollars. Within weeks, he'd tripled that amount.
  • When the initial drive reached its goal in a single night, Jake just sat in disbelief and said, “I guess all those years really did mean something.”
• His entire induction speech into the WWE Hall of Fame, thanking Diamond Dallas Page for having helped turn his life around for the better, and bringing his 18 month old grandson onto the stage, telling Vince to get his writers ready for Wrestlemania 50 because he will be main eventing by then. No, YOU'RE crying!
  • This overlaps into Moment of Awesome, too. The guy had ruined his relationships with his family and friends and everyone else until DDP took him in, and now look at him. He's a frank and candid speaker about his drug and substance abuse problems, yet legitimately seems like he wants to go straight. Welcome home, Snake.
• The resulting documentary, The Resurrection of Jake The Snake, is a combination of heartwarming and Tear Jerker. It's an emotional rollercoaster, and sometimes outright painful to watch when Jake relapses, but to see WWE's faith get restored in him after all these years is life-affirming stuff. And Scott Hall coming along on the road to sobriety is just the icing on the cake.
• Another piece of hurt to Jake? His teeth. Years of taking shots to the face gave him one too many root canals. Every time he would touch his mustache and the corners of his mouth before his promos? That was because he was self-conscious about his bad teeth. It not only meant that Jake couldn't smile, he couldn't eat most of his favorite foods for years. In 2018 he got dental implants that finally gave him a perfect set of teeth. And then he went out for ribs with his family. Damn this sudden urban sandstorm!
• During Jake's Hall of Fame induction speech, which was a mix of awesome, heartwarming and Tear Jerker, one sad part was when he bemoaned having to leave the ring behind, mournfully admitting "It hurts because I can't play any more." Jake loved wrestling like nothing else. But in 2020, thanks to All Elite Wrestling, the Snake is back in the game! Admittedly only as a manager for Lance Archer rather than an in-ring performer, but either way, Jake is back where he belongs, cutting mesmerising promos that have made the wrestling world sit up and take notice. Even if he's an evil, sadistic heel again, we wouldn't have it any other way. Welcome home, Jake the Snake!
• Perhaps the best indicator of how successful Jake has been on his road to recovery is the fact that, after being separated for more than twenty years, he's back together with his ex-wife Cheryl.