Jeff Cobb says one of WWE’s attempts to sign him fell apart over a Zoom call with a WWE executive who was in bed.
Cobb told Chris Van Vliet on Insight that WWE approached him three times before he signed in 2025. The second time came in 2021, through Canyon Ceman, who was then a WWE talent development executive.
“The first thing that turned me off was like Zoom call, and he was in a bed just wearing like a white T-shirt and shorts,” Cobb said. “When he called me and he was in the bed in a boxer shorts and a T-shirt, I was like, ‘What the hell?'”
Cobb said Ceman explained that NXT had three pay tiers at the time, but one comment ended the conversation for him.
“The one line that got me that made me say no was he’s like, ‘Well, you know, like, unlike other companies, we pay our talent during the pandemic,'” Cobb said. “And I said, you know, like, ‘You didn’t have to say that line.’ Like, that turned me off. I was like, ‘Well, I don’t really want to work with somebody like that who’s going to make a statement like that.’ So, I said no.”
Ceman, WWE’s vice president of talent development at the time, left the company in 2021.
WWE’s other approaches
Cobb said WWE first called him the day after his AEW Dynamite debut in February 2020, when he attacked Jon Moxley, but he had already signed a one-year deal with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. By the third approach, he had signed a three-year deal with NJPW.
“They’re like, ‘Okay, we’ll come back in 3 years,'” Cobb said.
When WWE came back, Cobb said William Regal called and told him Triple H wanted him, then set up a Zoom call with Triple H.
“He’s like, ‘Yeah, you know, you’re not getting any younger. It’s like, could be now or never,'” Cobb said of Triple H. Cobb said he was more than 10 years older than when WWE passed on him in 2014 and thought, “This could be my last chance to go.”
Cobb said in August that he said no to WWE four times before saying yes on the fifth. When Van Vliet brought that up, Cobb said, “Maybe three. May have exaggerated that.”
He debuted at Backlash on May 10, 2025, helping Jacob Fatu retain the United States Championship, and worked as JC Mateo alongside Solo Sikoa’s group. WWE released him on May 2, 2026, and he returned to NJPW at the G1 Climax 36 final in August.
