Jake Roberts Promo on Harley Race (04-16-1988)

Jake "the Snake" Roberts cuts a promo on his upcoming match with "King" Harley Race at the Meadowlands.
(Wrestling Spotlight, April 16th 1988)

[@wolfieform9514]

When wwe was golden 👍😎👍

[@pronkb000]

This was apparently supposed to be Jake's post-WM program. Rude was a Plan B.

[@jldraw]

Correct. In the immediate aftermath of "Wrestlemania IV", WWE cut a bunch of market specific/general promos hyping the upcoming spring/post-WM house show circuit. Many of these promos have since come to light and while most programs remained in place, two did not. This program and one featuring Ricky Steamboat and Greg Valentine working out of their "Wrestlemania IV" match [Steamboat quit WWE immediately after WM]. The Harley Race/Jake Roberts situation was a bit more nuanced. Race had severely injured himself while working Hulk Hogan on SNME a few weeks prior to "Wrestlemania IV" which would require a rather serious operation to repair a hernia eventually taking him out of action for six months. Race originally wanted to work around the injury and indeed did work the battle royal at "Wrestlemania IV" but was unable to work the scheduled program with Jake. It's funny how wrestling works out sometimes because in pivoting to Rude and the angle they shot with Jake's wife Cheryl they inadvertently ended up with the feud of the summer that Jake/Rude took all around the country. I have no doubt that Race/Jake would'v been amazing as well but WWE literally printed money in 1988 around a rivalry that was not part of the original plan.

[@pronkb000]

@@jldraw I just don't know if Jake vs. Harley would have had the dynamic that Jake and Rude ended up having. Harley was great but what kind of personal issue would drive the feud to the intensity of the Rude program? "You must bow to the King!" "No, I bow to no one" had been done ad nauseum with JYD and Duggan.

[@willisapril]

I had thought Race was out around this time as his injury from the Hogan match

[@pronkb000]

@@willisapril Correct, but they evidently didn't know that at this time. Hence the switch to Rude.

[@michaelscott1658]

Jimmy Hart banned from the building? What do you suppose the odds are that holds up? Lots of luck with that stipulation...!!!

[@jldraw]

As I remember having attended a great deal of house shows in the spring and summer of 1988. Honky Tonk Man would come down to the ring with a very manly looking "Peggy Sue" [It was Jimmy Hart dressed in drag wearing Sherri Martel's "Peggy Sue" gimmick with a scarf to cover the bottom portion of his face and hide his true identity]. Hart would end up interfering during the finish at which time his true identity would be revealed to the crowd. This eventually lead to a second branch of the storyline where during the next loop of house shows George Steele would come out in drag ["Georgia"] and run Hart away from ringside.