Former WWE star Jeff Cobb has revealed the bizarre name he was almost given during his time with the company.
Although commentary referred to him as Jeff Cobb when he arrived in WWE, the former New Japan star was unable to retain the name that had made him famous in pro wrestling. While AJ Styles and Penta were among those allowed to keep their established ring names, others, including Powerhouse Hobbs (Royce Keys) and Mike Santana (Cruz Montana), were given new identities.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Cobb stated that while he did not pitch JC Mateo, there was an advantage to using it:
“It was great because a bunch of my singlets had the giant JC on the front. I don’t have to buy new singlets. This is great. The day that I flew into St. Louis, well, actually the day of the PLE, Backlash, I went backstage and met everybody, met the writers, and then they gave me two pages of names. I haven’t released them yet, but I think it’s pretty funny. At that time I was like what the hell?”
One of the names on the list was JONAH, which Cobb recognised as the non-WWE name of Bronson Reed:
“The first page, I’ll say it was maybe 60 names on there. I was like okay, this is pretty cool, pretty cool. They’re trying to go into my background with Guam, my background in Hawaii. I was like, okay. Second page, I don’t know what happened. It just started doing random names. I was like, How are they choosing this? One that stuck out made me giggle because it was all caps, JONAH.”
Jeff Cobb Could Have Been Called “Jafar Smash” In WWE
After pointing out that JONAH had already been used by Bronson Reed, Cobb recalled the most ridiculous name on the list: Jafar Smash. Cobb added that he showed the list to Drew McIntyre, who immediately took a liking to the unusual suggestion.
“Yeah, by Bronson Reed. The guy that’s in your company. I was like, wait a minute, are you guys even trying now? This is why I really like Drew. After I narrowed it down, I chose the name out of the sheets. I was like, ‘Hey, can I have a copy of this?’ They’re like, why? I was like, ‘Well, I just want to keep it for mementos because I like collecting random, silly things.’ So I brought the list back to the locker room, and Drew was like, ‘Oh, what’s this?’ I was like, ‘Oh, this is my list of names.’ He’s like, ‘Can I see this?’ Yeah, sure.
He looked at them, he’s on the second page. He saw one. He’s like, ‘I like this one.’ I was like, ‘Well, we’re not using that.’ He signed it, so it’s a Drew McIntyre authentic signature, which I’m not gonna sell because it’s funny, but it was Jafar Smash. I said, ‘What?’ So every time I saw Drew without hesitation I was like, ‘What’s up, Drew?’ He’s like, ‘What’s up, Jafar?’ So, if he changed my name in his phone to Jafar Smash, please, please do. I was like wait, Jafar is neither a Polynesian name, a Hawaiian name, nor a Guam name. I don’t know where that came from.”
The former WWE star was a part of the MFT faction that was led by Solo Sikoa while a part of the company. Cobb also noted in the interview that he wasn’t related to anyone in the group despite the links to the Anoa’i family.
Cobb was released from his contract in May 2026. He has since returned to New Japan.
Featured image: WWE
