Jeff Cobb Explains Why He Finally Said Yes to WWE, Felt He Had Plateaued in NJPW

Former WWE Superstar Jeff Cobb (aka JC Matteo) recently sat down with Insight with Chris Van Vliet to discuss his WWE run, why he opted to sign with WWE last year, and how he felt he had plateaued in NJPW. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Jeff Cobb on Why He Finally Signed With WWE Last Year

“I just felt like I kind of hit a plateau in New Japan, and they’ve always been great to me. So I always give them props, and that’s one of the reasons why I went back because they have always been good to me, but I don’t know. I felt like it was weird because when I did the try-out in 2014. At that moment, if you look at the roster, they were collecting like one of everything. So they had a Hawaiian guy, Noah Kekoa [Kona Reeves], was on there, and then they had an Olympic [athlete], Chad Gable was already still in NXT at the time. So they had one Olympian already. They had one Hawaiian guy already. Fast forward a couple years later, there’s like five guys from China, five guys from India. So yeah, at the time I was like, it’s weird. They actually want me.

“Then I remember having a phone call with Mr. Regal and he was like, ‘Hunter wants you, Hunter wants you.’ I was like this can’t be true. Then he said, ‘Yeah I want to set you up with a meeting with him.’ I was like this can’t be true either. Then it was like a Zoom call with Hunter. I was like okay maybe this could be true. Then it’s like, yeah you’re not getting any younger. It could be now or never. And at the same time, I was like, okay, if they didn’t want me in 2014, I was like, I’m a little more than 10 years older now, and then this could be my last chance to go. So, and it’s always been like, say what you want. But when I was growing up as a kid, WWF is what got me into wrestling. Seeing Hulk Hogan on TV was a larger-than-life superstar. Because of Hulk Hogan, I was hooked. That’s where I’ve always wanted to work, was WWE.”

On When He Previously Received Offers From WWE

“The first time was when I made my AEW Dynamite debut when I just came and beat up Jon Moxley, and the very next day I started getting phone calls like, ‘Are you available?’ I told you this every November, ‘Hey, January is usually when I’m free. But I already committed to New Japan.’ So I just told them, ‘Hey, listen, I had signed a deal with New Japan for a year because they usually only do one-year deals.’ So yeah, I said, ‘Well, I’d sign for a year,’ and then the pandemic hit. So I just said no, and that was the first time. Was February 2020, I believe.”

On the Excitement for His WWE Debut and the Comparisons to Rhino

“Oh yeah, even on the Indies before WWE, it’s like, ‘Oh, is that Rhino’s Kid?’ I did get a couple. Rhino was like the most compared one, the other one was Bronson Reed, and then another one in a distant third, but it was still mentioned, was Bo Dallas.”

Jeff Cobb was released by WWE earlier in May. He later made his NJPW return in August at the G1 Climax 36 finals.