The term “rib” is something commonly heard within the wrestling industry, with WWE and countless other companies containing a long lineage of wrestlers playing practical jokes and pranks on one another, with plenty other crazy and wacky stories throughout history, especially back in the 80s and 90s. There was a time when these jokes weren’t as harmless as they likely are today and were taken to extremes, with many of those instances coming to light in recent years, namely on the Dark Side of The Ring TV series. One of those cases where it went too far came in an exchange of ribs between Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts and The British Bulldogs.
*Warning, the following contains description and detail of past animal abuse*
The British Bulldogs Were Notorious For Nasty Ribbing
Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid were renowned for being some of the worst when it came to backstage mayhem and mischief, with accusations pointing towards them allegedly spiking drinks of both fans and fellow wrestlers. They were once caught lighting cigarettes and throwing them into a bag which was sitting in the locker room.
This bag was property of Jake Roberts, and anyone who watched Roberts during his career would know that he would regularly carry around a snake within his bag, with his gimmick being one of the most iconic in history. The Bulldogs were flicking lit cigarettes at the snake in order to anger it to the point where it would lash out at Roberts, with the hope of biting him. This was blatant animal abuse, with no care considered when it came to the effects it would have one the snake.
Roberts Took Things To An Even Darker Path
Roberts wanted revenge and decided to keep it within the realm of pets. Matilda, the famous dog who would accompany the team to the ring at times, was the victim. Roberts bought over seven chilli hot dogs, and fed them all to the dog, unbeknownst to its owners. Instead of the revenge being directly against the men, an unsuspected and innocent animal was used as a prop, which is completely evil.
Whilst in their hotel room, the Bulldogs became increasingly angered at the agitated Matilda, who wanted to leave the room to go to the toilet. Instead of taking her outside, they went to the bar instead, disregarding their own pet, proving themselves to be less than adequate owners. In their absence, Roberts returned to the hotel room, banging on the door to stir up Matilda, until she couldn’t hold on any longer, covering the entire hotel room in feces. Upon the Bulldog’s return, Roberts listened to the disgust and horror ensue, much to his enjoyment.
Both acts were those of an abhorrent nature, taking out both fun and anger on animals who didn’t deserve that treatment. Matilda was unfortunately the target for many other individuals, being taught to hate Jimmy Hart’s megaphone so he would get bitten, in addition to being overfed constantly, which was easy to see due to the weight put on by the dog as time went on.
Ribs Like This Are Thankfully A Thing Of The Past
This was a dark period for wrestling, one which has only recovered fairly recently. The locker room was a scary place for many, with stories of racism, disrespect to culture, defecating in property, and destruction of ring gear, in addition to plenty other tales of humiliation and bullying throughout WWE history. Times have most certainly changed for the better, regardless of what some veterans may think of backstage politics and locker room etiquette. Wrestlers are happier, friendlier, and softer humans, which is more important than appearing rough, tough, and old fashioned. Even Jake Roberts is in a notably better and happier place, despite his previous misgivings and storied troubles.
Hearing a story like the one between Roberts and The Bulldogs today would cause huge outrage, and almost certainly lead to firings at the very least. Yet back then, everything was unfortunately swept under the carpet, no matter the extent or how downright cruel and vile those “ribs” were.