Jeff Cobb On Michael Elgin Making Disparaging Comments About Him, Matt Riddle, MLW: Zero Hour, NJPW
Indie superstar Jeff Cobb recently spoke to WrestlingInc.com owner Raj Giri about the upcoming MLW: Zero Hour event and much more. Cobb discussed his experience in New Japan Pro Wrestling where he recently participated in the 2017 World Tag League, saying it was an enjoyable experience.
"It was great. New Japan, they treat their wrestlers like stars. Everything is catered towards the wrestlers," Cobb said. "Our main focus, we don't have to worry about merch or anything like that, our main focus is to wrestle and put on the best damn match we can. It's so cool when a company treats their wrestlers like legit athletes, which everybody at New Japan is. So just being around that is definitely an eye opener for me."
Cobb's time in NJPW didn't go completely smoothly, however. It was revealed that his tag partner Michael Elgin made some disparaging comments about him in a private conversation. The woman tweeted the private messages where Elgin said he didn't enjoy teaming with Cobb. Cobb brushed off the comments, saying he doesn't like to focus on negativity.
"You know what, those kind of things – I try not to get involved in that. Wrestling, you know, even though you're not a wrestler yourself you've heard all the negativity of being a part of pro wrestling. There's so much negativity in it. I just take it for what it is and I just go on. I'm not going to dwell on it. In my opinion, you can't please everyone," he said. "If someone doesn't like you then they don't like you, it's not a problem. I personally don't care, I'm not going to lose any sleep – I didn't lose sleep over it. In fact, I kind of turned it into a T-Shirt and made some good sales off of that (laughs). I just kind of took it in stride, it's just not going to do anything to feed the negativity. I just kind of went about my ways – I think what really helped me too was being born and raised in Hawaii where we're all laid back and we don't really dwell in the stupidity of certain things. I definitely attribute that to being from Hawaii."
Fortunately for Cobb, his regular tag partner is fond of him. He is currently one-half of the PWG world tag team champions with Matt Riddle. Cobb explained that they were randomly paired together and they got over when they defeated one of the most popular teams in the world.
"We actually got put together. It was, I believe it was a show or two after BOLA of 2016 when myself and Matt Riddle interacted and we had a minute skirmish and people lost their minds off of that, which is weird. A show or two later PWG randomly teamed us up together to see how we would mesh as a team and the fans at PWG went crazy and at that show we beat The Young Bucks, which was very rare that they lose," he said. "They're so good. They're brothers, they know each other like the back of their hands and they team all over the world, and for us to beat them it was a huge deal. They found something that clicked and we've been teaming regularly since and we just won the PWG Tag Team belts at All Star weekend. We plan to hold onto those for a very long time."
Cobb said he enjoys teaming with Riddle because even though they share similar backgrounds, they also have different styles and are able to balance each other out.
"It's great, getting to team with a legit athlete and a UFC fighter and a very accomplished amateur wrestler. We mesh well but we're not the exact same person," Cobb said. "We mesh well in the fact that we're both, as Riddle has stated, we're stallions. We have legit backgrounds, when we want we can choke you out or throw you across the room. But we're not the same where we're not both strikers. We're both ends of the spectrum. I'm very happy and excited to team with someone like Matt Riddle where if I have an off day he's definitely picking up the slack and vice versa."
Cobb and Riddle will face fellow former MMA fighters Tom Lawlor and Seth Petruzelli at MLW: Zero Hour on Thursday, January 11th in Orlando at Gilt Nightclub (tickets can be purchased at this link). Cobb said he enjoys working with MLW and recommends that fans tune in to the event.
"Oh, definitely a grade A show from top to bottom. MLW puts on a great show," he said. "The first show I was a part of was phenomenal. I unfortunately had scheduling problems so I couldn't do the second show because I was in Japan. I did get to watch the playback and it was a great show from top to bottom as well. If you're looking for great value for your money, MLW is definitely worth every penny."
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.