Jake “The Snake” Roberts, 55, announced his retirement from active wrestling Sunday night at an independent show in New York, ending a 35-year career.

During an in-ring speech, the inventor of the DDT discussed the loss of his father, Grizzly Smith, who passed away in June. He said he entered the wrestling industry to make him proud.

Roberts thanked the fans and said he could no longer compete due to health reasons.

Roberts achieved his greatest fame with the World Wrestling Federation during its ‘Golden Age’ era in the 1980s. He also wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance in 1983, World Championship Wrestling in 1992, and Asistencia Asesoría y Administración during the latter portion of his career.

SEScoops Mailbag for August 25th

(submit YOUR questions to [email protected])

Q: How did the Dungeon of Doom stable finally end in WCW?  I know Chris Benoit and Kevin Sullivan had a long series of matches culminating with the “Taskmaster’s” retirement, but I can’t remember if the Dungeon of Doom had been disbanded at this point or not. – Geremy Kerr

A: The Dungeon essentially faded away at that point.  The New World Order became the hot commodity once Kevin Sullivan retired, and when The Giant joined the nWo, that was truly the death knell.

Q: What will WrestleMania’s big gimmick match be now that MITB has it’s own PPV? – K.K.

A: If their mentality is still to fit as many guys on the Mania show as possible to get everyone a payday, they can simply go back to sticking them all in a meaningless Battle Royal as they’ve done many times before.

Q: What is your prediction for the LayCool/Melina storyline? -madslam2009

A: It can really only go one of two ways.  Either they ask Melina to join their group and she refuses, or they have some sort of title unification bout, which would probably be for the better.  I’d guess unification.

Q: Thanks for the new mailbag.  I think it’s a great idea.  What is the real story behind Tod Gordon, Paul E. and ECW?  When did Gordon sell ECW?  Was he telling WCW about wrestlers that were leaving?  I guess it was a hot topic with the recent TNA PPV. – David Profeta

A: Tod Gordon sold ECW to Paul Heyman in 1996 and stayed on in a figurehead role.  As more and more ECW stars began to defect to WCW, the belief was that there was a mole in the ECW locker room and Tod Gordon was later fired from the company.  The idea was that instead of an ECW wrestler speaking directly with WCW, Gordon was serving as a liason between the two parties as a way to avoid potential contract tampering.  There was also a rumor that Gordon was overheard on an answering machine speaking to Terry Taylor (then working in the WCW front office) about signing certain ECW stars.  As best as we can tell, none of this has ever been substantiated and Gordon himself remarked in an interview several years ago that the whole “ECW mole” story was merely a work created to help ECW save face when they started losing so much talent.

Q: Would you like to see WWE go back to where every month either Raw or Smackdown has their own PPV like they did for a few years a while back?  I know I would. – Mike

A: Absolutely not!  The reason they stopped doing them was because the rosters for each brand, on their own, lacked enough depth to justify devoting an entire PPV to each.  That and they performed poorly.  Now, that’s not to say their PPV numbers are doing much better these days (they’re not), but people pay to see stars and a Smackdown PPV, with the lack of starpower on that show and lack of attention the brand itself gets from WWE (at least until the SyFy debut in October) would do quite poorly.

Q: Can you tell me when TNA is planning on “de-helmeting” Tara?  It’s about time. – Nathan Bryan

A: Hold on, let me ask Dixie.  I’ll be right back.

Q: Why did Hulk Hogan beat Yokozuna right after Yokozuna defeated Bret Hart for the WWF Title?  Is there like a story or a reason? – Fabian

A: Hogan convinced Vince McMahon it was the right thing to do for business.  Bret Hart worked hard as champion, but that did little to turn around WWF’s business at the time.  Hogan didn’t turn business around either and was scheduled to face off with Hart at Summerslam for the title, likely doing the job, but felt that Bret was too small and instead dropped the belt back to Yoko at the first King of the Ring PPV three months later.  He did work a few house shows after that, but then disappeared from the WWF before joining WCW a year later.

Q: Was Rey Mysterio ever a heel? – Steven K.

A: I believe the only time Mysterio might have ever been considered a heel was when he was part of the Filthy Animals faction with Konnan in WCW.  This was also during the period where he was unmasked.

Q: Is there any update on that new Florida promotion funded by members of the Wilpon family?  The Wilpons own my favorite baseball team, the Mets, and I’m trying to keep up with what they’re doing with this new promotion.  Thanks in advance. – A.J.

A: First of all, the Wilpons have NOTHING to do with this new promotion.  The supposed “Milton Wilpon” is likely not even really a member of their family.  Second, the group now officially has a name (Worldwide Wrestling Promotions), but is now not expected to host their first event until early 2011.  Third, my condolences on being a Mets fan.  I share your pain.

Keep those questions coming to [email protected] and remember to include your name!

— “The Million Dollar” Man Ted DiBiase discussed his usage of steroids and cocaine during an interview with The Courier.

“I took steroids for a very short time,” says the WWE Hall of Famer. “It should be obvious by looking at me that I didn’t take them regularly because I was in good shape, but I was never massive. My strength was my ability to talk and my work in the ring. I always looked like an athlete but I didn’t look like Charles Atlas.

“The thing about the steroids was I was always afraid of them and I finally had a doctor tell me about the effects and that warned me right off them — that was it for me with that stuff. The only other drug I took for a while was cocaine. Now this doesn’t sound like the Million Dollar Man, but I stopped doing that because I was cheap — I didn’t want to spend the money on it!”

— Celebrity gossip blog crazydaysandnights.net, which rarely covers professional wrestling, noted the following ‘blind item’ last week concerning a former WWE Diva performer:

“This former WWE entertainer has come a long way down from her height of fame. You can now find her servicing club promoters in return for getting booked at clubs.”