Jake Roberts: DDP saved my life

Jake Roberts, who will be appearing on a Maryland Championship Wrestling card in Joppa, Md., on Saturday, said he owes his life to DIamond Dallas Page, who has made it a point in his retirement to help push fellow grapplers on the brink into rehab.

“Dallas saved my life,” Roberts said in an interview with ABC-2 in Baltimore this week. “I owe everything I have right now to him and helping me get back on the right path. It wasn’t rehab Dallas put me through. It was tough love and it sunk in more than any rehab I ever tried.”

Roberts will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame next month in New Orleans. By rights, as he admits, he should be dead and gone, after years of fighting a losing battle against drug and alcohol addiction.

“No one grows up and says they want to be an alcoholic or a drug addict,” Roberts said. “It just happens. The best way to avoid that happening to you is never trying it in the first place.”

Two years ago, Roberts was at his depths. Weighing in at over 300 pounds, he could barely make it up the steps in his house without losing his breath.

Enter DDP, who has transitioned post-wrestling into a career as a fitness consultant and DVD salesman, with his DDP Yoga series earning him millions.
Roberts moved to Atlanta to get the Page treatment up close and personal. Roberts has gone more than 18 months without using drugs, he said, and has lost more than 50 pounds.

“I was in so much pain before getting together with Dallas,” Roberts said. “I was using coke and drinking just to get through the day. That’s not the case anymore.”

Roberts is slated to appear in a six-man tag match in Joppa with MCW mainstays Adam Flash and Ronnie Zuko vs. Mustafa Aziz Daniels, Mitch Miller and Paul White.

And then it’s on to the WWE Hall of Fame in two weeks.

“Had I not gotten clean with Dallas’ help, I wouldn’t be going into the Hall of Fame,” Roberts said. “The WWE doesn’t want to put someone out there and not be able to trust what they will say in front of a worldwide audience. Being clean has given me another chance in life.”