Jeff Cobb had to make a long journey to make his Backlash appearance happen.
The former NJPW and AEW star had announced ‘retirement’ after ending his run with the Japanese promotion in April, and had stayed away from the wrestling scene for the past few weeks. The heavyweight star finally returned this week at the WWE PPV.
He made a surprise appearance during the Fatal Four-way US Championship match among Jacob Fatu, Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest, and LA Knight. Cobb, taking orders from Solo Sikoa, took out LA Knight during the bout. This allowed Fatu to retain the US title in the end.
PWinsider provided some updates on how this appearance came about. They revealed Jeff Cobb had been in Japan up until this week, and he had to take ‘somewhere in the area of 4-5 flights’ to make it to St. Louis for tonight’s show. He was then hidden by the management until the match.
The site unsurprisingly also confirmed that the former NJPW TV Champion is going to be part of the SmackDown roster going forward. This was expected as both Knight and Sikoa are part of the Blue Branded show as well.
While Jacob Fatu retained his title at the PPV, he seemed unsure about the involvement of Cobb and refused to comment on it in the post-show press conference. We’ll have to see how the things proceed and if the two heavyweights are able to work together under Solo Sikoa.