All language subtitles for Dark Side Of The Ring s03e06_English

♪

Jake "The Snake" Roberts is
one of the most authentic

personalities the wrestling
world has ever seen.

I'll drop you so
fast with that DDT,

your whole
family'll fall down.

[cheering]

He's done it!

Behind his raw intensity lies
a depth of personal trauma,

which has shaped his
iconic in-ring persona.

How could anything that
looks so hot be so cold?

Well, it's easy, you see,
time has done that to me.

Unknown to fans for years,
wrestlers Sam Houston and

Rockin' Robin are
Jake "The Snake's"

real life brother and sister.

Each followed in the
footsteps of their father,

wrestling giant,
Grizzly Smith.

The control that
Grizz had over his kids,

he could pit 'em all against
each other because

he was a master of everything.
He was a puppeteer.

Scarred by
traumatic childhoods,

the Smith children followed
self-destructive paths,

and each battled addictions

that nearly destroyed
their lives.

You know how hard it is to
put a smile on your face

when you know what a piece
of shit you really are?

I'd been to prison two days
and I tried to hang myself.

It's the very,
very young girls,

that seems to
be the trigger.

And, I was scared of him,
just totally scared of him.

This is Jo Lynn here.

Without a body,
they can't file murder.

Decades later, the Smith
family finally face their

haunted past in order to
survive beyond the ring.

Lies have consequences.

If you want to feel pain,
then you have to go

from the top and get
knocked to the bottom.

That's when you
feel real pain.

♪

♪

None of us wants to
talk about what happened.

It's too painful.

There's just
too damn much...

that gets drug out.

There was just
no relationship.

There was no pat each
other on the back shit.

There was no,
"I'm happy for you."

You would've never
thought we were

brothers and sisters,
that's for sure.

'Cause we were always that way.

We had just been kind
of raised at a distance.

♪

Since the formulation of
professional wrestling as

an organized sport,
it's been a family business

to a lot of the participants.

There's been a lot of
well-known wrestling families,

like the
Hart family from Calgary,

the Von Erich's from Texas.

You could trust family members
with the business secrets

and the secrets in the ring
because they were your blood.

And also, they had a vested
interest in the success of

the industry because it was
their livelihood as well.

I'm Jim Cornette.

For over 40 years,
I've been a part of

professional wrestling as an
announcer, manager, promoter.

But also, I've been a
student of professional

wrestling history
for over 50 years.

Even though the Smith
family was all related,

the people inside
the industry knew that,

but to the fans,
Jake Roberts,

Sam Houston, Rockin' Robin,
Grizzly Smith,

were all different people.
There was no knowledge,

publicly, that they
were related.

You know, in all honesty,
Sam Houston was the best

in-ring performer of
the entire family.

My name's
Michael Smith, aka,

Sam Houston.

How I fit into
the Smith family,

I'm one of 'em.

Depending on
who you look at,

I mean,
I'm somebody's father,

I'm somebody's son,
I'm somebody's brother.

Through our family,
first, Jake's the oldest,

then Richard, then myself,
and then Robin.

Robin's one of the best
women's world champions,

you know, ever to
come down the line.

And, she's my sister.

It's an honor for me
to say that.

- Wah!
- Oh! The bulldog!

Many years ago, Rockin' Robin.

- Rockin' Robin!
- [cheering]

Actually, it was just
kind of a lazy thing.

One of my first matches,
they said,

"What do you want
to be announced as?"

And I just said,
"Okay, Rockin' Robin."

I think I would have liked to
have tried out Rotten Robin.

I think that would
have been fun.

I'm Robin Smith.

And, for the Smith family,
I am the sister of

Jake "The Snake" Roberts,
Sam Houston, and then

I have another brother
that a lot of people

don't know about, Richard.

My name's Richard Nabors,
and Aurelian Smith is my father.

And Jake Roberts
is my brother.

Sam Houston is my brother.
Robin Smith is my sister.

It's Jake.

This is Jake and myself.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts
is his wrestling name.

When he was growing
up in high school,

my grandmother
called him Buster.

That was his nickname.

That kind of stuck
with him for years,

but Jake's what he wrestles
by and what he goes by.

I didn't want to
travel like that.

It's not a lifestyle.
But Jake likes attention.

He likes all the
stardom being on him.

Please welcome Jake
"The Snake" Roberts.

When he walks in
the room, I mean,

it's like, you know,
he wants it all to be there.

And that's from being in
the ring so many years.

That's from being
in that business.

It's just a rat race.

It wasn't me.

Jake Roberts, as a wrestler,

had strengths and
had weaknesses.

Jake Roberts was never a
high level amateur athlete.

He didn't have a
ridiculous physique.

But what Jake knew
and understood was the,

the mental aspect
of pro wrestling,

the psychology of it.

By growing up with a
father in wrestling and by

learning how to think of it,
and he had the verbal ability.

Don't come calling
me a sicko because,

brother, if you look at
yourself in the mirror

I think you'll find
out one thing...

You're no different than me,
if you tell yourself the truth.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts,
once he fully developed

that persona, was able to
make you believe

that he really was a
snake in the grass.

And there was
probably some truth to it.

He was kind of dad's shadow,
in a way, I think.

He, he spent as much time
as he could with dad and,

maybe, I guess,
learning the ropes, you know.

That's...

dad and Jake.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts here.

Real name is
Aurelian Smith Jr.

Now you know why we went
Jake "The Snake".

He didn't want me in
wrestling, period.

In fact, he got me
fired a couple of places,

asked the
promoters to fire me.

To get me out.

I got humiliated,
I got stretched,

I got tore up.

Basically, crawled back
to the locker room and,

my father looked
at me and said,

"I'm ashamed of you.
You're gutless and

you'll never amount
to anything."

Exactly what I
wanted to hear.

That was my whole drive.

I got into wrestling
because I hated my father.

And that was gonna
break it off in his ass.

I wanted to hear
my father say,

"I'm proud of you, son.

I'm really proud of you."

You know,
he never told me that.

He'd tell other wrestlers
he was proud of 'em,

but he wouldn't tell me.

Never.
And that was my drive.

He had worked in
the oil fields.

He met
someone that had...

knew about wrestling or was
involved in wrestling and,

you know, saw this big,
humongous dude, you know...

[laughs] And said,
"You'd probably be good."

He would line up on Friday
afternoon where they all

got paid outside the
railroad yard.

And he would stand up
against the wall.

And the guys would
pay him 25 to 50 cents.

They would pay him if they
could just draw back and hit him

in the stomach as hard
as they could because

it was a bet to try to
make him double over.

He would make more
money that afternoon,

in an hour's time, than he
would the whole week.

So, then he got
the wild hair and

he wanted to get into wrestling.

He was 7-foot tall.
About 350 pounds.

Long red hair, big beard.

He looked like he just
walked right out of the woods.

He wore a pair of blue
jeans and had a rope.

His sash cord,
that's what he called--

that was his belt.

If he could ever get a
hold of somebody and

wrap his arms around 'em,
then that was it.

[cheering]

Wow, how'd it make me feel?

Well, I was honored.
I mean, Superman was my dad.

He's the main event.

He, you know, he's the
biggest thing on the card,

and he really was the
biggest thing on the card.

I used to get really freaked out
when we'd go to the matches.

And I'd be inside
the matches, watching him.

He'd get his head
busted open or,

you know, scratched.

And he'd go to
bleeding and stuff.

I'm 6, 7, 8 years old
and I would totally flip.

So, dad'd get out of the
ring and I'd go back to the

back with him and I'd
be crying my eyes out,

and he'd go back
there and he'd sit down.

And the doc'd
look at him and say,

"Grizzly, I told you I can't do
anything else with your head,"

because the skin, the
tissue was tore up so bad.

They'd take it,
clean him up,

and put a butterfly
Band-Aid on it.

"Okay, see you
tomorrow night."

You know, and then he would
travel to the next town,

and it was just
an ongoing thing.

You know, I used to
think when I was a kid,

I said, why does
he want to do that?

And he'd tell me, "Son,
I gotta make a living."

I think one of the things
that has helped me to

understand life and to enjoy
life as much as I do...

is my father.

He would give you a
whipping for lying to him.

He'd give you a whipping

whenever he thought
you needed it.

He'd give you a whipping
for making a mistake.

[Jake] My father was
a mean man.

Mean in the way that he
tortured us, psychologically.

He would play the
angle out at home.

His injuries, his feeling
of the upcoming match.

How dangerous this match was
gonna be with those guys.

And, you know, I look
back now and I say,

why didn't I figure it out?

You know, they kept showing
up in the same territory

my dad would go to,
every damn time.

What the hell?

These guys are chasing
my father down and

they're gonna kill him!

I remember crying myself
to sleep many a night,

thinking my dad
was gonna die.

And that bastard
never told us anything.

By the end of the 70s,
Grizzly Smith retires from

wrestling in the ring and
transitions to a management

position behind the scenes,
but he would use his power

and influence for something
much more sinister.

You know, I had been around
the business for a little while

at that point, and
when I first got there and

was in the locker room
hearing all the other people

who had known
Grizzly longer,

been around him,
talk about him,

the wrestlers
always had a way of,

of knocking or talking
behind the back of the

authority figure or
the "office" personnel.

But I'd never
heard it like this.

Every joke
wherever Grizzly wasn't,

every single little statement
had something to do with,

"I wonder if Grizzly's
mentoring the young girls,"

or, "he's probably got
one of them on his lap

reading her Bible verses."

And they would laugh and
they thought that was funny.

I'm like, that...

kind of strange.

And I had no idea of the
back story that the family

had that would come out in
years and decades later on.

♪

Everybody knew Grizz.

Everybody had good
things to say about him.

You wanted to do road trips
with him because

you wanted to pick his
brain about, like,

how could I make
myself better?

How do I make more money?

My name is Nickla Roberts.

I worked in the
wrestling profession.

Look where Baby Doll is!

My dad promoted
in Lubbock, Texas.

Both of my
parents were wrestlers.

But how I actually met and
got into the Smith family,

I think this was
like April of '85.

I kind of started talking
to Sam a little bit then.

And, July 30th was the very
first day that we kissed.

And we got married a
year to the day from there.

Baby Doll is the
mother of my children.

I love her immensely.
I always will.

The craziest thing to go along
with the whole Grizzly Smith

and, and the
weirdness of it was,

to do a road trip with him, we
would like all of a sudden

be like 50 miles
off the road,

picking up some 14,
15-year-old girl.

Then she was gonna ride
with us for 3 to 4 days.

And it was just like...

you're gonna put... okay.

And then her parents were
like waving on the front yard,

like, "Bye,
see you on Tuesday."

It was really weird
because it wasn't until

after his death that...

you kind of start
finding out, you know,

the whole whirlwind
of the stories and

the whole just horrible stuff
that was going on.

And, I was
there and, and I...

you kind of get
that feeling like,

okay, something,
something's not quite right.

And you look for it.

I was right there
and I never saw it.

♪

Before embarking on a
career in the ring as

Jake "The Snake" Roberts,
Aurelian Smith Jr. endures

a traumatic childhood,
which would be

a source of torment for
the rest of his life.

Jake was a, a mean
son of a bitch

that didn't care about nothing.

And there's nothing that's
out of bounds with Jake.

Aurelian,
completely different cat.

Aurelian hasn't grown...

since he was
12, 13 years old.

I put him away a
long time ago.

I had to, 'cause
it hurt too much.

I don't think I've been
Aurelian in 30 or 40 years.

And I don't know that
I ever will be again.

Aurelian feels it and
Aurelian remembers.

And Aurelian's crippled and
can't do nothing about it.

But I am more
comfortable with Jake now.

I respect Jake.

I know how dangerous
Jake can be.

Jake's okay as long as you've
got him handcuffed, you know.

You know, really, seriously.

Aurelian though,
very scared kid.

And again, I don't think
I've grown since

I was probably 13.

When most of that
stuff started happening.

She was 13 when I was born.

My father was a pedophile.

Disgusting pedophile.

Which would haunt me
the rest of my life.

By the age of 17, then
he divorced my mother,

and he left and
went on the road,

leaving us all behind.
Kids got passed out.

My little brother, Richard,
he was passed out to

my dad's sister
and her husband.

They couldn't have children.

My sister Jo Lynn was...

she was tossed everywhere.

She spent too much
time with my dad,

if you know what I mean.

My mother was blind
to a lot of this.

I had a great mother,
wonderful mother.

Loving mother.

After his parents split up,
Jake lives an idyllic life

with his grandmother until
she passes away when he is

11 years old, forcing him to
move back in with his father

and his new wife, Marsha.

I thought it was gonna be
the greatest thing ever, man.

This is gonna be so cool.

Well... it wasn't cool.

He was forced to
take me home with him.

Shortly after I
moved in with him,

his wife started
playing games.

Sometimes games
that weren't so funny.

Sexual games.

I went...

to my dad and told
on her one time.

And...

she stopped me right
in the middle of it,

said, "I'll tend
to you later."

And she went in,
talked to my dad,

next thing I know,
she beat me with

a damn clothes hanger
and fly swatter.

It's one thing to have sex,
but it's another thing

to get beaten for doing it.
Freaked me out.

Little did I know, my father
was aware of all that

'cause he was doing the same
thing to my sisters.

[cheering]

First, I want to say this,
is that my intention

is not to destroy a
legacy that was,

you know, my dad was
great at what he did.

He could be a hero.

But, to me,
he was my monster.

♪

I guess, just going back
to when it all started,

I was probably 8
or 9 years old.

And, the, the wild
thing about it was,

was that I remember about
a month before

the first thing
ever happened, he...

he, basically,
was working me.

And this is part of
the manipulation that,

that I think people...

people do to kind of
groom you and, you know,

get you where they
want you, basically.

So, for about a month or so
before the first thing

ever happened, he was
walking around,

completely ignoring me.

He couldn't stand to
be in the same room.

You know, as an
8-year-old kid, I mean,

you think, what in the
world have I done?

All you want is the love
of your parents, right?

Then one day, my,
my mother was gone,

and he, he worked
during the day.

He was home working in
the office in the back and,

so he called me in the back,
and just to,

just to say,
"Well, you know,

you know daddy
loves you," and...

and, I mean, I was
so relieved that, you know,

oh, he does love me.

He doesn't hate me and
that turned into the

first time he put
his hands on me.

So... [clears throat]

Ah, you come out of that
real confused and real...

you know, had no idea
how to process that.

I mean, you just don't.

I think that very day it
strips you of your security.

It strips you of
your self-worth,

self-respect, innocence.

It strips you of
all the things that,

that make you a child.
It really does.

I think from when I was
about 8 until about 14.

I told my mother
about it and

she gathered up everything
and we left.

At about 15, I actually
remember telling him that

if he ever did anything again
that I would shoot him

with his own gun.

'Cause I knew
where they were.

All I can tell you
is that my mother was

not the kind of person that

would have tried to
be inappropriate.

If something happened
with my mother,

I tend to think that my
dad probably asked her to

do some things that she
never would have done,

just for his own
whatever pleasure.

She was what, 16 - if -
whenever they got married.

So, I mean, she was
very, very young.

When Robin is 15 years old,
her half-sister,

Jo Lynn,
Grizzly's other daughter,

pays her an
unexpected visit.

She came,
she picked me up and,

we went out,
we went shopping.

And it, to me, it seemed
like there was just,

there was something that she
was wanting to tell me

or talk to me about,
or ask me, or...

She was just asking
quite a few questions.

Her main thing was,
do I feel safe?

Do I feel comfortable?

I think she
wanted to know if,

if I had gone through the
same thing because there was

no doubt in my mind that the
same thing happened to her.

I don't doubt it,
to this day.

It just seemed like there was
an awful lot on her mind.

And then, it was about
2 weeks later

when she was kidnapped.

♪

♪

Richard and Mike and I were
at a roller-skating rink.

We had gone over there,
gone skating.

And, they came over
the intercom and said,

"Robin, Mike, Richard,
the Smith family."

We got a phone call.

It was dad, and he
told me, he said,

"You need to get home.
Get home immediately."

[Robin]
So, we got home.

Dad left a note in
the house that said

Jo Lynn had been kidnapped.

I thought it was kind of crazy
at first because I was like,

how does he know
she's been kidnapped?

Was there a ransom or...

what was going on?

Richard put his
hand through the wall.

I busted.
And I totally lost it.

They were very close,
Richard and Jo Lynn.

Closer than any of us.

Somebody has hurt my sister.

I need to find out
what my next step is.

I couldn't understand why
somebody'd want to kidnap

somebody that was so sweet.
She never hurt nobody.

She had no intentions
of hurting nobody.

She just wanted to
live a happy, free life.

And she was finally happy.

She had a kid, that
mission was accomplished.

It was a quiet, peaceful
trailer park she was living in.

She finally had it going on,
and then this.

When you talk about
murder, kidnapping,

armed robbery,
something like that,

no, we, we just
didn't have that.

That just wasn't
in Tatum, Texas.

My name's Carl Gage.
My nickname's Buzz.

I've been Buzz all my life.

I'm 69 years old
and in 1979,

I was 28 and I was
Chief of Police at Tatum, Texas.

As I remember,
just on routine patrol

one particular morning and,
the manager from the

Cherry Hill mobile home park
flagged me down.

I knew him, and he said,

"I had a kidnapping out here
at the trailer park."

Jo Lynn was there
with little Ted, her baby.

They grabbed her and
pulled her out and

threw her in this car,
and took off.

Jo Lynn was 5'10,
probably weighed 200.

You ain't gonna take
her down by yourself.

Me and her used to wrestle,
and she's tough.

So, there ain't no way one
person loaded her in that car.

Went right to it pretty quick
and got out there and,

the door's open.

Of course, we hear
something in the house.

- SFX: [baby crying]
- And I go...

"What's that?"
He said, "Well,

her baby's in there."

The baby's fine,
wasn't no problem.

Then the husband got there.

We got in and I noticed some
letters on the little table

there by the door and I said,
"What are these?

They're addressed to
your wife."

He said, "That's my ex-wife.

She would send
threatening letters to her."

With the menacing
letters as evidence,

authority's number one
suspect becomes

Faelyn Rogers, the ex-wife
of Jo Lynn's husband.

Investigators discover
incriminating evidence in

Faelyn's car, and she
eventually confesses

to the kidnapping, but she
claims Jo Lynn escaped

shortly after the abduction.

Searching, oh,
lord have mercy,

we had search parties out.

We had helicopters,
we had horses,

we had motorcycles,
we had people on foot.

I had a psychic call me.
She came down.

"I think I can help you out.

I think I'm getting
messages from Jo Lynn."

She was given a personal
possession of Jo Lynn's.

She was saying,
"It's just, it's dark.

Maybe like a
well or something."

Let's starts looking
for abandoned wells.

And we got information on a
couple of 'em that had been

covered or filled in so,
we went out,

we checked them.
We never found a body.

Jo Lynn's body is
never recovered,

making a murder
charge impossible.

Faelyn is brought to
court indicted on the lesser

charge of kidnapping and the
Smith family is devastated.

I think that's probably the
first time my father

ever missed a wrestling match,

was when my sister
was kidnapped.

He went to the trial.
I didn't go to the trial.

I was medicating myself,
trying to pass out every day.

The only information we got
was through dad because

we weren't allowed
to go to court,

and he just said, "No,
you're not going to court."

And that was that.

It's amazing that the
evidence was overwhelming,

but without the body and
without somebody to say,

"I saw her kill her"...

She got convicted of
aggravated kidnapping,

got 30 years.
I think she served 7.

Dad used to carry a
piano string in his hand.

You'd take a piano string
and two pieces of wood and

hold it in your hand.

He was hoping to get
close enough to her,

supposedly,
is what I been told,

he was wanting to get close
enough to her to where

he could be able to do that,
and it would kill her.

I was told that it was
4 sheriffs in front,

in back, and on the sides
because dad was so large.

And they knew with
a man that large,

once he was mad, it was
gonna be hell to pay.

Well, they say
murder's hard to prove.

How can you prove murder?
Go back to the story.

She works at a place
that has an incinerator.

I believe that that's
where they took her.

Whether she was
conscious, unconscious,

or even dead.

I think she found her
way to the incinerator.

And there's no evidence,
it's all gone.

[Robin] I just started
thinking that,

who would have the
most to lose here?

What's the reason
to get rid of her?

I thought, well,
I mean, really

somebody who's got a lot to
lose would be dad.

If she was gonna
expose him, you know,

with the young
girls and, you know,

it would cost him his,
his career and,

so yeah, I kind
of question that.

Richard really wanted to go
to Unsolved Mysteries and

dad actually told him
he didn't want him to.

We're going, "Why in the
world wouldn't you want that?

They solve, they
actually solve murders."

Dad was against it.

So, you know, that throws
in more suspicion there.

[Richard] Yeah,
there's a wild thought.

Did dad have
something to do with it?

Was he involved?
I don't know.

You could bring up a
thousand questions

on the whole ordeal.

I wish I could say,
"Man, I walked in there,

I seen my dad, he was
just bawling his eyes out.

It tore him to shreds."

I never saw it.

♪

Although a conviction is
made for the kidnapping of

Jo Lynn Smith, Jake
"The Snake" Roberts and

his siblings struggle
to cope with the

tragic loss of their sister.

Oh, yeah, the hate.

I, I use the
hate a lot, man.

Thank you, dad.
[spits]

The whole Snake character
was made because

I didn't want people
looking at me.

Look at the snake bag,
don't look at me.

Don't ask me questions,
look at the snake bag.

And everybody fears that,
everybody knows that.

Kids loved it because
mom and dad went,

"Oh, my god, a snake!"

And they loved seeing
mom and dad do that,

you know, so, therefore,
they loved Jake "The Snake".

Crazy people.

As Jake's stardom continues
to reach new heights,

Robin seizes the opportunity

to pursue a
career in wrestling.

I went to North Carolina and
trained with Nelson Royal who...

was a fabulous
wrestler and...

a legend.

And Nelson trained her
like one of the guys.

Wow, okay.

I wanted to change things.

I wanted the girls' matches
to be just as exciting,

you know, if they could,
as the guys'.

I mean, why not?

When Robin
completes her training,

she uses her father's
connections to show off

her skills at a WWF
TV taping, and she catches

the attention of top promoter,
Vince McMahon.

So, they put me on a
dark match with Sherri.

I couldn't tell you
how long it lasted.

I mean, it was,
it's a complete,

total blur, to this day.

I have no idea
what happened.

All I know is
that when I got out,

Mr. McMahon had said,
"Oh, my, my god,

she throws a
punch like a guy."

And, I was like,
cool, alright.

And then,
the next thing I know,

I get the package in the
mail at my house that is

airline tickets and
schedule and all that,

and I was like, wow.

You know, it was a,
it was a total surprise.

...don't count your
chickens before they--

there's a bulldog
off the top rope!

A bulldog!
Turns her over!

- She got her!
- No, I don't believe it!

[cheering]

History has been made,
here in Paris, France!

At the time,
they had Grizz, Sam,

Robin, and Jake
were all working

for the WWE at the time.

In wrestling, the best
compliment that

you can be given is that
somebody would say,

"You're a hell of a hand."
You're a good worker.

That means that you can not
only perform pro wrestling

at a high level, but
you can do it

without hurting your opponent.

And, Sam Houston was the
best worker in the family.

He was the lightest.

He was actually too light,
he was painfully thin.

And that was what held him
back from being used

in a more prominent position.

Especially in the
bigger territories,

Crocket Promotions,
the NWA...

[Commentary]
Poor Sam Houston.

Unfortunately,
Mike was like

a lot of the other wrestlers.

He got to making
good money and stuff,

was doing good, and then...

went to drinking.

[sighs] Um...

listen-- whenever he told
my dad that we were

getting married, he had
32 Crown and Cokes.

32.

It was amazing how much
he could drink and

still be able to walk.

At the time, I thought I would
love him enough that

it would get better and
it wouldn't matter and

that my love could
conquer all, and...

it didn't.

I just realized
that it wasn't me.

There was nothing
I could have done.

Addictive personality
must run through

our entire family.
I mean, seriously.

Because they're very
strong addictions.

You have to find
ways to put that

self-respect back
into yourself.

After years of
living on her own,

Robin gets a surprise visit
from her father, Grizzly.

The bell rings and,
I go to open it up and

I see him standing there.

And, right by his side,
this little girl,

about 9 years old.

♪

I could tell you,
the colour, everything

just drained from
my body and

I knew for sure this girl
was in trouble.

So, he comes in and
the first thing he says,

"Can you make
her a daiquiri?

Do you have the stuff
to make her a daiquiri?

She wants to try daiquiris."

It took everything just
not to absolutely

come apart and come unglued.

And, I said, "No, I don't."

Shortly after, he went to
the back and he went to bed.

I stayed up with
her all night.

We never went to sleep.

And, I wanted to ask
questions and

I knew what questions to ask.
I said, you know,

"Sometimes, does he pull off
to the side of the road and

want to give you a kiss?"
And she said, "Yeah."

It didn't scare her,
but, I mean,

she was like, "But yeah,
it makes me uncomfortable."

He got up the next morning,
got all his things together

and said, "Come on,
we gotta go," and I said,

"You're gonna go, but
she's not going anywhere.

She's staying right here."

I was not letting
this girl go anywhere.

I think that told him
everything he needed to know

about how I felt.

♪

Reeling from the traumas
endured in their adolescence,

Jake, Robin, and Sam

each battle addiction
into adulthood.

But for Sam, the
consequences become

a matter of life or death.

Sam Houston had the
all-time Texas state record

for most DUI offenses.

And, the reason why that he
was not jailed for them long

before that he was, was
because Grizzly Smith had

been such a big name and
such an important person,

and knew so many people in
the state of Texas over all

those years and etcetera,
that he was able to

get him out of it.

He never spent more than a
day or two in jail before.

Grizz was right there
and got him out

'cause he knew somebody.

And Grizz just
knew everybody,

and I think he knew
something about everybody.

I really don't know 'cause,
I mean,

everything I was ever
charged with was only first,

or first offense, or I think--
and I got a second offense.

It was basically always a
fine that I'd have to pay and,

you know,
community service.

Any time I was doing any,
anything like that,

any kind of
community service,

I always gave it my all.

I washed 7 firetrucks one day
for the parade, you know.

After years of shocking
repeat offenses and

lenient punishments,
Sam's luck has run out.

Grizzly is unable to
come to his rescue,

and Sam is ultimately
sent to prison.

If they caught you doing
something 20-somthing times,

how many times have
you really done it? Right?

The Mothers Against
Drunk Driving had gotten

his record, and had seen,
like, all the judges and

all the magistrates that
had gotten Sam off.

Finally, he did
have to go to jail.

They're telling me 30 years.

I, I was at the
end of my rope.

So, two days,
January the 12th,

two days,
a Saturday night...

I knew I had to break
my neck when I jumped.

I said, "God, only
you can stop this."

And... and I jumped.

I'm gonna tell y'all, I hit
the ground with such force.

The soles of my feet
were bruised for weeks.

I know how to tie a knot.
These knots broke.

Meanwhile, Jake spirals
deeper into new depths of

drug and alcohol
fueled addictions.

I'm not gonna
sugar coat this.

A lot of people in
professional wrestling,

just like a lot of people
in professional sports,

a lot of people
in rock 'n roll,

have had bad
personal habits.

Having said that,
Jake's were stunning.

The one guy that
you would think,

this guy's not
gonna make it,

and somehow,
he always did, and still has,

he was like the Keith
Richards of pro wrestling.

The most important
thing in my life

for 20 years was cocaine.

Above all things.

Above sex, above money,
above children,

above wives, above mama,
above everything.

Cocaine had to
be number one.

That is really messed up.

I will tell you this.

Being in the limelight
gets you things that

you think you want or you need.
Because when you do drugs,

your idea of a good time
changes, brother,

and you get kind of freaky.

♪

You know, at first
it was one girl.

Then it was two girls,
and then it was three girls

doing this with a rabbit and
a dog and donkey and clown.

[laughs] Having fun.

Sitting on the back of a chair
with a lamp on my head.

Yeah, it gets stupid.

I guess one of the biggest
lows in Jake's career was

the Heroes of Wrestling
Pay Per View.

And, this is story number
747,000 of Jake Roberts

showing up in no condition
to perform or actually to

function as a human being.

A lot of the guys that night
put in bad performances just

because they were out of
shape our past their prime,

but with Jake,
he was legitimately

on planet Neptune.

Everybody knew that
Jake was not right.

And, he had a snake, which
became a phallic symbol.

And, it was a 10-year period
or more there

where that more often than not,

if Jake Roberts made
a public appearance,

you would hear about
Jake Roberts

doing something he
shouldn't do in public.

I'm a junkie.
I'm a liar, I'm a thief.

[exhales sharply]

Do you know how much
self-hate is involved

in admitting that?

How I had to look at
myself in the mirror?

I took all the mirrors down.
The ones I didn't, I broke.

Within years of the
WWF phasing out their

women's division, Robin ends
her career as a wrestler and

eventually hits her own rock
bottom with alcohol abuse.

Drinking was
never a problem.

I did it really,
really well.

I was better than just
about anybody at it.

It wasn't necessarily
because of...

of... not working as much.

I think that had
more to do with from,

from my childhood.

You know, unfortunately,
the result of that is addiction

and, even with that,
I realized that

it wasn't getting me anywhere.

And, you know, my father
ruined my childhood and so,

I'll be damned if he
ruins the rest of my life.

♪

On June 12, 2010,
Grizzly Smith dies from

complications due to
Alzheimer's disease.

He was 77 years old.

His biological son, Richard,

who was given up for adoption,

would be Grizzly's
sole caretaker until the end.

♪

I, ah...

I got there as
quick as I could.

Dad had passed.

He...

♪

He had just passed.

♪

He died while I
was in prison.

I'm in the worst
place in the world,

I just got the most devastating
news in the world.

Well, he's got a...

he's got a lot of
good qualities.

And, he was born out of
love and I still love him.

I thought that with him
passing I wouldn't

have to think of some
things anymore.

♪

But memories don't
go away that easily.

No, no.
Hell, no.

I don't think
he thought, no.

I don't think he thought
he did anything wrong.

You know, there was
never any kind of serious

conversation, apologies,
anything like that.

I think he thought everything
was just, just fine.

A few years ago,
we finally did.

I, I can't imagine.

I can't imagine how
devastating that would,

could be to somebody.

You know, and,
and Robin, I guess,

like my mom, you know,
they knew as a child

growing up that my father
was Superman to me.

And, they wouldn't do
anything to tarnish him

because they care
for me so much.

Sam idolized his dad.

He probably would have
forgiven his dad for it

rather than
helped his sister.

He could make Sam believe
that it was Robin's fault.

Or he could make Sam believe
that it was Jake's fault.

It wasn't Grizz's fault, it
was somebody else's fault.

I don't blame anybody at all

for the lack of being together.

That was all done
early on by dad.

So, I mean, it, it's--
nobody dropped the ball.

It's not anybody's fault.

It just, it was how it was.

♪

That's me and dad.

I was probably 10.

He never apologized for
giving me up for adoption.

And I never asked for it.

I have no complaints.
I mean, how can I complain?

I'm the lucky one
out of the bunch,

is the way I consider it.

With Grizzly's death,
his children finally feel

safe enough to open up
about their experiences

from childhood,

but their estrangement
still exists today.

I think there's a certain
amount of hope that

Robin and I could be friends.

I respect her and I
love her very much.

And it'd be nice
to have a sister.

Yeah, I'd love to be close
with everybody, you know.

I understand
though that, you know,

we've all got like
different paths.

Do I wish I could have spent
more time with my siblings?

Yeah, it sounds good, yeah.

I'd like to try.

And after this, I mean,
there's a lot of thoughts

going through my
mind right now. It's...

maybe I gotta figure
out how to do that.

Bridging out across.

You know, I think this is
opening some communication.

It might have a little to
do with bringing us

a little bit closer in.

I guess this is why I agreed
to go ahead and

talk about it was that, I want
people to really know,

it's very, very tough and
I would never say

it's easy to get past it.

I don't know that you
ever do get past it.

But, you don't
have to stay in it.

You can be successful,
you can overcome it.

And for God sakes,
if it's something

you're going through now,

if anybody's going
through it now,

tell somebody.
You've got to tell somebody.

It will not stop.
You have to tell somebody.

And, and you will get help.

What I want to tell you is this:

you can't glorify what
happened to me.

But I ain't the only one.

There's millions of
other kids that are

going through the same
thing as I speak.

If you're one
of those kids...

Run! Run like the wind.

Go to the police,
go to your pastor,

go to the... just go.

And if it's already
happened to you,

you gotta get help.

I'm 65 now, and I'm
not ashamed anymore.

Still a little
angry at times,

but not so angry that
I have to medicate it.

I've been sober
now for 10 years.

10 years, woo.

I did it.
I made it all the way back.

The bottom line is,
never, ever...

ever give up.

♪