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Jeff Cobb On How His AEW Appearance Came About, Speculation He’d Signed There, Whether It Was Kept Secret Backstage

May 8, 2020 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Jeff Cobb AEW 2-19-20, Kenny Omega Image Credit: AEW

Speaking on the ROHStrong podcast, Jeff Cobb discussed his brief appearance with AEW and how it led to speculation that he’d signed with the company. Cobb made a surprise appearance on AEW Dynamite on February 12th, attacking Jon Moxley during his feud with Chris Jericho. Cobb then went on to face Moxley the next week on Dynamite and there were a lot of reports that AEW was trying to sign him, but he ultimately returned to ROH.

Talking about the appearance on the podcast, Cobb revealed that his contract with ROH expired on January 1st and he was always interested in staying there, but had the opportunity to make the appearance which he felt helped everyone out. He also talked about how while only a few people knew, there wasn’t any attempt to keep him secret backstage. Highlights and the full audio are below:

On the conflicting speculation that he had signed with AEW or was staying with ROH: “Well, I mean, that’s the funny thing about the internet. You know, everybody just assumes things. And like, the people that know, know. People have asked me privately, and the people that I reply to, they know the situation. And especially the guys at Ring of Honor. Because I got a lot of emails and text messages and phone calls from people in Ring of Honor, like, ‘Hey man, uh, what’s going on?’ I was like, ‘I’m not going anywhere.'”

On how the whole thing came about: “I mean, to be honest with you? January 1st, my contract did expire with Ring of Honor. And I made it very clear that I would like to stay and work with Ring of Honor because I believe in the company, and I believe in the direction that we’re going. And especially the talent, like, the talent is ridiculous. So my goal was to stay, but this opportunity came up and I took it. And I feel it was good for both parties. Because now, people are talking. People that only watch AEW are like, ‘Well, I thought Jeff is Ring of Honor?’ Or some people are like, ‘What’s Ring of Honor?’ And then they come over and look at Ring of Honor, and now there’s more eyes that wouldn’t have been on Ring of Honor that are going over now. So I think it helped everybody in the grand scheme of things. And t was fun, you know. Good pay day.”

On if they snuck him into the building: “Um no, actually. So it was weird, because nobody knew that I was coming. There’s maybe five or six people that knew I was coming. Cody Rhodes knew, because I was in contact with him. And Moxley knew because I was, you know, beating him up. There’s maybe five people that knew. And I was pretty much, I came early because I had to do some behind-the-scenes stuff. And then you know, everybody that came in during call times are like, ‘What are you doing here?’ kind of thing. And it was fun. It was fun messing with them, so it was a fun time.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit ROHStrong with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.