Jeff Cobb is back in NJPW after leaving WWE this past May, and looking back on his time there. One thing stands out to him more than anything else and that is just how far pro wrestling’s global reach actually extends.
Speaking with the NJPW website, Cobb recalled a moment from a WWE trip to Saudi Arabia that stuck with him. At a meet-and-greet there, fans approached him specifically to talk about his time in NJPW, which caught him off guard given how far removed Saudi Arabia is from Japan geographically.
The first time I went to Saudi Arabia was very interesting. being on a chartered jet to go from Miami direct to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, 16-17 hours on a chartered jet was crazy, the first time I’d been in one,” Cobb said.
“But it was interesting to see how pro-wrestling across the world, and not just WWE, but pro-wrestling affects people all over the world. We did a meet and greet there and people came up to me and said, ‘Oh, I loved your stuff in New Japan.’
He said the moment drove home that while WWE may be the biggest company in wrestling, that doesn’t diminish just how far NJPW’s own influence reaches around the world.
That was a shock, because not to downplay NJPW’s popularity or influence, but to hear people in Saudi Arabia say that they watched me in New Japan Pro-Wrestling was very surreal.
It was eye opening, it was very touching, actually. People say that WWE is the biggest company in the world, and it is, but that doesn’t negate the fact that NJPW has a huge global reach as well.
Asked to name the single biggest lesson he’s carrying forward from his WWE run, Cobb pointed to fan interaction specifically. He contrasted the passionate but sometimes overwhelming American fan experience. He described the wrestlers being tracked down and waited for at airport baggage claims, even for early-morning or late-night flights.
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,” he said.
“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.
He talked about the most wonderful fans he’s dealt with in his career, in Japan. Despite occasionally finding the airport encounters intrusive, he said it ultimately deepened his appreciation for how much fans care.
So that made me appreciate fans more, and Ryogoku [Sumo Hall], 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.
Cobb is set to face Callum Newman at Destruction in Kobe on September 27.
