Jake "The Snake" Roberts was recently interviewed by Wrestling Epicenter's Interactive Wrestling Radio. You can see highlights below, and the full interview at this link.
The birth of AEW and his take on it:
"Oh, huge. They needed to create a buzz to kick it off and make a splash. They're going to do it. They're going to make that splash. How they follow it up is going to be key. If they don't follow it up with something good, then it is over. They're spending big money and the guy has got deep pockets so the hope is they'll bring wrestling back around and become competition with McMahon. That would be the best thing that could happen. But, the problem is the talent. There isn't a huge talent pool like there used to be. A lot of guys today are cookie cutter types. They're not characters. They don't know how to do it yet. That is the bad part about Vince's machine. His machine creates new talent all the time. But, the talent never gets to grow and become something to where they're unique. They're all built at that Performance Center. The guys learn a bunch of moves and that's it. As far as doing interviews, they don't do their own interviews. It is all written and scripted stuff. When you're doing scripted stuff, the character is not there and the people see through it. They realize these guys are just reading. The fans want more. They deserve more. But, whenever Vince started this whole thing up and killed all the territories, that was the breeding ground for the talent. So, there it went. It is hard to learn how to wrestle working once or twice a week. You can't do it. You've got to go out there 5, 6, and 7 nights a week to push it, to get it where it is second nature. That is what these guys are missing."
