Current AEW talent and WWE Hall of Famer Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts discussed how much damage the DDT did to his own body through the years. Roberts spoke on his Snake Pit podcast about the finishing move he made famous.
Roberts stated, “To do a DDT hurt so bad. When I took that bump, it would just jar down my spinal column. Man, it just, a few times, my legs went numb. That was scary, you know, just for three or four seconds. But man, that three or four seconds seems like an hour.”
Roberts also spoke about delivering the move to Ted DiBiase once: “It got to the point that I was in such pain that it was just crazy. I cradled [DiBiase]. I didn’t even do the DDT because the pain was just so unbelievable when I would do it and there was no getting around it and it was finally got to the point that Vince told me, ‘Go home and don’t come back until you’re well.’ He was genuinely pissed off at me.”
Roberts noted that he later had neck surgery and would never wrestle again. He did continue to wrestle for years afterward.
