Jeff Cobb On If He Has WWE Tryout Regrets, Why He Turned Down Tough Enough, MLW, Lucha Underground
Jeff Cobb's popularity rose exponentially when he competed as Matanza Cueto in Lucha Underground. During a recent interview with WrestlingInc.com owner Raj Giri, Cobb revealed that his status for season four of Lucha Underground is currently up in the air. He said he's open to rejoining the promotion, but he would need some things to change.
"I haven't heard much about it and I'm still kind of negotiating season four – you know kind of the long break hasn't been helpful to anybody and its soured a lot of people that are involved with it," he said. "In a perfect world, I would love to come back but there's a couple of things that need to be ironed out. Not just with me but with everybody so we just need to figure something out and everybody needs to get on the same page."
Matanza Cueto became one of Lucha Underground's biggest superstars and cemented Cobb as a top talent on the indie scene. He said he originally didn't have creative input for the character but eventually he developed a strong working relationship with the promotion's writers that led to the character's success.
"Originally, no because it was supposed to be given to somebody else but it ended up coming to me and I had no clue at first so I kind of just ran with it. Then after the second season into the third they had more opinions on how the character should be and I got to put in my opinions and ideas," Cobb said. "Towards the end or the middle end of season three it was a nice back-and-forth kind of thing. For the most part I did go off of our writers. I kind of followed their lead and gave some input where I felt it needed to be."
Matanza Cueto's undefeated streak was ended by legendary luchador Rey Mysterio. Cobb said he relished the opportunity to work with a superstar of Mysterio's caliber.
"It was great. Rey is definitely – when people say, 'He's the best, he's the best," like, no he really is one of the best wrestlers in, God, forever," Cobb said. "If you want to call him a small guy he's definitely the best small guy on the planet in past, present, and maybe future. He's so good and so smart and like you said he's definitely a legend."
Prior to becoming a popular wrestler on the independent circuit, Cobb had a tryout with the WWE in 2014. He said he has no regrets about how it went because he's content with where he's at now. Not getting a shot with the WWE motivated him to work even harder to be successful on the indies.
"I think it's fine when I had it. Just cause sometimes I feel like WWE wants to just sign all the indie guys just to sign them, so they can have them in their collection. I'm kind of happy that they – I mean for lack of a better word they didn't want me at the time," he said. "Which is perfect because I wanted to – I mean I didn't leave there with a chip on my shoulder. I left there saying 'OK, you know what? I'm going to prove them wrong that I am a good commodity to have.' So, I took it as a challenge and I think after 2014 when I left the tryout, I think I made the correct decision and put a little more buzz in my stock. If they come around again we'll see where it takes me."
Cobb revealed he was offered a spot on a season of Tough Enough, but he didn't accept it. He said he stands by his decision.
"Originally they told me that they didn't have anything character-wise for me. They offered me Tough Enough but I really didn't want that," he said. "I'm not saying nobody's successful from Tough Enough but if you watch the last season of Tough Enough I think I made the right choice."
Cobb said he hasn't had contact with the WWE since then. He is open to negotiating with the company once his contract with Lucha Underground is up.
"I'm under Lucha Underground contract so I can't talk to WWE," he said. "If I ever got out of my contract we'll see where it goes from there."
Cobb is currently preparing for MLW: Zero Hour this Thursday, January 11th, where he will team with Matt Riddle to face "Filthy" Tom Lawlor and Seth Petruzelli. The full card from the event can be found here. He said he enjoys working with MLW because they have one of the best audiences on the independent circuit, which he experienced at the promotion's first event in October.
"It was great. I personally haven't seen the old MLW but I've heard stories. I've been working with guys that were involved with the original MLW and seeing how excited they were to have it come back and then have it actually go through at the first event. The positive response towards the event, now they're running on a regular basis I guess, it's just been great man," he said. "That first day in the night club atmosphere – but the fans were rowdy and the fans – you could tell that the fans wanted MLW back and it was definitely – you could definitely hear it in their reactions. They all had a good time. Supply and demand, right? The fans want it and MLW is bringing their A game and bringing some great action to Orlando."
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.