Jeff Cobb Says It’s A Great Time To Be An Independent Wrestler, Talks ROH/NJPW Relationship

In an interview with Wrestling Inc, Jeff Cobb spoke about the growth of the independent wrestling scene and how it means that WWE isn’t the only place to earn a great living for a wrestler anymore. Here are highlights:

On the growth of the independent wrestling: “I want to say, maybe as little as 5 – 10 years ago, WWE was the end-all, be-all. I know personally for me, when I moved to the Mainland from Hawaii, WWE was definitely the end-all, be-all goal for myself. And then flash forward a few years, just the boom in the independent scene, and the boom overseas, and the boom in Japan, and all these other big companies popping up: Ring of Honor is doing great work, Impact is doing great work, MLW is doing great work, and now All Elite Wrestling pops up and they’re doing great work as well, so, you have options now, and it’s definitely a great time to be a professional wrestler. Especially if you’re putting in the work and you’re grinding it out there. The cream rises to the top, so, eventually, I feel like there are going to be places for everyone to work and make a good living.”

On how ROH handles talent creatively: “[ROH management] is very receptive on feedback from what the talent’s perspective is. Usually, if we have a promo, they’re not going over verbatim word-for-word what I need to say. Because that’s definitely not the way I would say something or serve a promo. So, I’ll get a text message the day before or something that says, ‘Hey, this is the gist of the promos. Hit these bullet points.’ And then they trust the talent in where we can get the point across in the way we would deliver a certain promo.”

On ROH’s open door policy: “There’s always an open door policy there. If you have questions, concern or whatnot, they’re more than helpful and listen to you, which I think is wonderful. Like, there’s not 45 people or 45 steps that I have to get through to get my question answered. It’s pretty much, like, ‘Where’s so-and-so?’ ‘Over there.’ ‘Well, can I talk to him?’ And then we’re good to go.”

On if AEW’s formation has affected the ROH-NJPW relationship: “I don’t think [ROH’s relationship with NJPW has been] affected at all, really. I don’t necessarily think a lot of crossover is good because then you kinda lose who you are as a company. Like, when every so-often someone will come here [to perform]; that, I can deal with. In small amounts, I think that’s a good thing. We haven’t really crossed over with anybody. The only companies we cross over with are CMLL and New Japan. For us, we’re connected to those two companies, so, I think we have a good identity in that.”

On the resurgence of the NWA: “It’s also great to have [the NWA] around, especially when Nick Aldis comes around with that giant 10 pounds of gold; you definitely know something’s gonna happen and business is about to pick up. Over the years, I feel like there was a bad stigma with NWA a few years ago and they tried so hard – NWA has a rich history, and every wrestling person should know this history of the NWA because it’s lineage. So, to have that company come around and do a little cross-promoting with us. It’s not overdone. It’s just the right amount, so, this stew that we’re cooking? I think it tastes pretty good.”