A few hundred fans took a trip down memory lane as they watched former WWE star Jake “The Snake’ Roberts wrestle in a tag-team match on the Eastern Wrestling Alliance card Friday night in Parkville.

Roberts, 53, teamed with Champ Champagne to defeat Jim Christian and Chase Rawlings. Champagne worked most of the match for his team before Roberts got the hot tag and cleaned house. “The Snake” delivered a pair of short-arm clotheslines before hitting the DDT on Rawlings for the victory.

Roberts then gave the fans what they wanted, as he pulled a large snake from his ominous bag and draped it across the fallen Rawlings and Christian. The show was supposed to end there, but Roberts wasn’t finished.

The word backstage before the match was that Christian legitimately wasn’t very fond of snakes. That little bit of information somehow made its way to Roberts. So, instead of just letting the snake slither on Christian, Roberts decided to have a little fun and shove the snake’s head down Christian’s pants.

To his credit, Christian never broke character and he sold it well. Either that or he was paralyzed by fear. Backstage after the match, a relieved Christian reported that the snake did no damage to his, um, lower extremities. Roberts responded by saying: “There are some things so foul that even a snake won’t eat it.”

I nearly had my own harrowing experience with the snake at Friday’s event. When I arrived backstage before the show, an EWA official told me to help myself to a bottled water as he motioned toward a pair of coolers on the floor. For no particular reason, I selected the cooler on the left. It was a good thing I did, because I was informed a few seconds later that if I had removed the lid on the other cooler, I would have been greeted by a snake rather than bottles of water.

Trust me, the only “snake” I was interested in greeting was Jake Roberts, who sat down for an interview with me during the show. The interview was videotaped, and I hope to post it within the next few days. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that the video is usable. Roberts is somewhat of a “low talker” and there was some background noise, so the sound quality may not be up to snuff. If that turns out to be the case, I’ll transcribe the conversation and post it as a Q&A.