Jeff Cobb’s WWE run didn’t end the way he hoped, and the fallout hit him much harder than simply wondering where he would wrestle next. For the first time in his career, Cobb found himself questioning whether he even wanted to keep doing this anymore.
During an interview with Chris Van Vliet on INSIGHT, Cobb was asked whether he immediately knew he would return to NJPW after WWE released him. Cobb admitted Japan was in the back of his mind, but his initial reaction was much darker because he had temporarily lost his passion for wrestling altogether.
“A part of me, yes. But then a part of me was kind of like, I don’t really like wrestling anymore. Really? Yeah. So I like, like May was rough. Like I didn’t work out, I didn’t do anything. I was just like, like I didn’t like wrestling. That was like the worst, the first time I’ve ever been like that, where I was like, man, what the hell? And it’s not, I’m not blaming WWE.”
Cobb made it clear he wasn’t blaming WWE for putting him in that headspace. Instead, he started questioning himself and wondering whether joining the company had been the right decision in the first place.
“Stuff like that. And so like, I was, I was like, man, did I, did I, did I make a mistake going? Just a lot of second guessing myself. So, and that kind of helped too, ’cause like, just being, just trying to think. Maybe taking a step back and kind of looking at, I mean, I had a good bunch of friends that were kinda like talking me out of it. Like, it wasn’t like talking me off a ledge or anything like that. I was just, I was just like, ugh, I don’t know what I’m doing. Like, did I make the right choices and whatnot.”
Things got bad enough that retirement actually crossed Cobb’s mind. When Van Vliet directly asked whether he had considered walking away from professional wrestling, Cobb confirmed it.
“Yeah, like, I was like, man, like, like was that, was that it? Like, but then I was at the same time I was like, I don’t wanna really wanna end on that note, you know, so I kicked out of it.”
Cobb eventually realized he still loved professional wrestling, even if he wasn’t interested in obsessing over it every second of the day. Conversations with friends working across different companies also helped him get through the rough stretch and take some time away instead of making a permanent decision. What finally lit the fire again was NJPW. Cobb started watching the promotion’s programming and eventually got sucked back in by the G1 Climax season and the video packages chronicling the tournament’s history.
“Just watching, honestly, it was like watching some New Japan stuff, like kind of got me, I was like, oh, this is good, this is good. And I was like, oh man, maybe I have some unfinished business here. So I just started thinking about it more and more.”
Cobb had joined WWE at Backlash in May 2025, wrestling as JC Mateo alongside Solo Sikoa’s faction. WWE released him on May 2, 2026, following WrestleMania 42, before Cobb eventually resurfaced in NJPW at the G1 Climax 36 finale on August 16 and joined Unbound Co.
For a brief period, Cobb genuinely wondered whether his wrestling career was finished. Instead, watching the company where he had already built so much history reminded him why he loved wrestling in the first place — and gave him a reason to kick out one more time.
Do you think Jeff Cobb made the right call returning to NJPW after his WWE release instead of walking away from wrestling? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
