All Elite Wrestling has built up a reputation in its early of using pro wrestling legends incredibly well on television. One of the best examples has been WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts, who arrived in AEW in March 2020 and has been consistently working as Lance Archer’s manager. Ahead of Archer’s Texas Deathmatch with Jon Moxley for the IWGP United States Championship this week, Roberts sat down with Diamond Dallas Page and revealed he recently signed a two-year contract extension.
“To go out into the ring after 22 years of being out of it and slam that promo down Cody [Rhodes’] throat. I remember looking in his eyes and he’s like, ‘Where am I?’ Toss the mic over my back and he catches it and he’s like, ‘What the hell did that mean?’ And to feel the love of all those people man because it was loud. It was loud and it let me know how much they loved me and it inspired me to stay with AEW and thanks to Tony Khan, when I originally signed with them, it was for a ten-week deal,” Roberts said (h/t POST Wrestling). “At eight weeks, guy comes along with some papers, ‘You need to sign these.’ I’m like, ‘What for?’ ‘Well it’s your contract.’ ‘Dude, I’ve only got two weeks left.’ ‘No, you got another year.’ ‘What?’ And then just a few weeks ago, I buzzed Tony, I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got four weeks left. What do you want me to do? I need a notice so I can start setting up my stuff’ and he says, ‘We need to sign another piece of paper’ and I signed again and then after I signed it, I found out that it wasn’t for a year, it was for more than a year. It was for two years. He’s such a wonderful man and he gave me my love for wrestling back. It’s great to be a part of it so for me, I’ve taken on that job — not a job, a pleasure, to keep my eyes open and see people that are struggling and go to them and try to help them.”
Roberts also talked about working alongside Archer, saying, “He’s [Lance Archer] an animal man. I may give him a few things to do and we’re having a blast man and I’ve been able to help him with his interview work and it gives me great pleasure. Helping guys is why I’m there. The only thing that frustrates me is that I — the persona intimidates so many people, they won’t ask. They won’t ask man.”