Jeff Cobb said fan interaction was the biggest lesson he took from his time in WWE.
In an interview published by NJPW on Tuesday, Cobb said the airport encounters with fans, even the inconvenient ones, gave him a deeper appreciation for their dedication.
Asked about his biggest takeaway from WWE, Cobb compared the fan cultures in the U.S. and Japan.
“Fan interaction, definitely. It’s definitely huge in Japan, and Japan has the most wonderful fans I’ve ever dealt with in my career. In WWE it’s a little more strange, because fans will wait at airports.
There are times, with an early morning flight or a late one, and I have no idea why the fans know when these flights come in, but fans will wait at baggage claim. Part of me can be annoyed by that, but another part of me makes me appreciate fans more, because they’re so passionate that they want to come to the airport at 5 in the morning for a chance to interact with one of us.”
Cobb also tied that shift in perspective to the reception he got when he returned to NJPW on August 16 at Ryogoku Kokugikan, during the G1 Climax 36 final.
“So that made me appreciate fans more, and Ryogoku, when I came back- I’d fully expected there to be crickets, or even for some fans to be angry that I left, but the feedback that I got was 99 percent positive. So many people were thanking me for coming back and it just confirmed to me I was making the right decision in not coming back with United Empire, and joining Unbound Co.”
At the show, Cobb appeared after United Empire beat Unbound Co. and stopped Callum Newman from continuing his attack on Daiki Nagai. He then confirmed he was joining Unbound Co. rather than returning to United Empire.
Cobb had requested his release from NJPW in April 2025. He and Newman had just won the IWGP Tag Team Championships shortly before that, and the titles were vacated once he’d left.
Cobb made his WWE debut at Backlash in May 2025 under the name JC Mateo, joining Solo Sikoa’s stable (later rebranded as the MFTs) before being released on May 2, 2026.