Jeffrey Cobb (ジェフ・コブ　Jefu Kobu, born July 11, 1982) is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Cobb is also known for his work in Lucha Underground (as the masked wrestler Matanza Cueto), Ring of Honor (ROH) and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG).
He is a former PWG World Champion and is also the winner of PWG's 2018 Battle of Los Angeles tournament and a former one-time World Tag Team Champion with Matt Riddle.
He is also a former NEVER Openweight Champion in NJPW and former ROH Television Champion in ROH.
As an amateur wrestler, Cobb represented Guam at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he became the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony and competed in the men's light heavyweight freestyle category.
He transitioned to professional wrestling in 2009.
Amateur wrestling career
During his amateur wrestling career, Cobb trained for the Guam Amateur Wrestling Federation under his personal coach Neil Krantz.
Cobb qualified for the Guamanian squad in the men's 84 kg class at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens by receiving a continental berth from the Oceanian Championships in Dededo.
He received two straight losses due to technical superiority and no classification points in a preliminary pool match against Cuba's Yoel Romero and Germany's Davyd Bichinashvili, finishing 21st overall out of 22 wrestlers.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (2009–2014)
Cobb began professional wrestling in 2009 working for Action Zone Wrestling in Hawaii.
He won the AZW Heavyweight Title a record setting three times.
He made appearances for many independent promotions in Northern California such as All Pro Wrestling, Supreme Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Bushido, Fighting Spirit Pro, Phoenix Pro Wrestling and PREMIER Wrestling; where he held their heavyweight championship for 427 days.
In September 2014, he received a tryout at the WWE Performance Center.https://www.wwe.com/inside/wwe-tryout-at-performance-center-sept-2014-photos Lucha Underground (2015–2019)
Cobb signed to Lucha Underground in 2015.
He debuted for the promotion on March 22, 2016 under a mask and the ring name "The Monster" Matanza Cueto, the storyline brother of Dario Cueto, winning the Lucha Underground Championship in his first match.
Matanza remained undefeated until April 9, 2016, when he was pinned by Rey Mysterio in an Aztec Warfare match, losing the Lucha Underground Championship in the process.
His character was killed off in the fourth season, which aired in 2018.
Despite this, it was reported in April 2019 that Cobb was seeking legal action to be released from his Lucha Underground contract.
This came after similar motions from others on the show, including King Cuerno and Joey Ryan.https://www.f4wonline.com/news/three-more-wrestlers-seeking-releases-lucha-underground-282671 More days later, it would be confirmed that he had been released from the company.https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/report-jeff-cobb-comes-terms-lucha-underground-release Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (2016–2019)
thumb|left|upright|Cobb in 2017 On May 20, 2016, Cobb made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), losing to Chris Hero.
On September 2, Cobb entered the 2016 Battle of Los Angeles, from which he was eliminated in the first round by Ricochet.
On December 16, 2016, Cobb and Matthew Riddle defeated The Young Bucks.
Cobb and Riddle were later known in PWG as "The Chosen Bros."
On February 18, 2017, Cobb and Riddle would defeat the Unbreakable F'n Machines (Brian Cage and Michael Elgin).
On March 18, 2017, the team would beat OI4K (Dave Crist and Jake Crist).
On April 21, 2017, Cobb, in singles action, would defeat Keith Lee.
On May 19, 2017, The Chosen Bros defeated reDRagon (Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish).
On October 20, The Chosen Bros defeated the Lucha Brothers (Rey Fenix and Penta el Zero M) to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship.
They retained the titles until April 20, 2018, when they lost them against The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz and Dezmond Xavier).
On September 15–16, 2018, he went on to win the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles, beating Darby Allin in the first round, Rey Horus in the second round, Trevor Lee in the third round, and Shingo Takagi and Bandido in the final.
On October 19, Cobb defeated Walter at Smokey and the Bandido to win the PWG World Championship.
He then successfully defended it against Trevor Lee at Hand of Doom in January 2019.
He would also successfully defend his title against Johnathan Gresham and BOLA runner up Bandido during his reign.
He then competed in his 4th Battle of Los Angeles but fell in the second round to David Starr.
He would go on to drop the title after 421 days in a rematch with eventual tournament winner Bandido later that year.
Progress Wrestling (2017–2018)
On May 27, 2017, Cobb made his Progress Wrestling debut by defeating Nathan Cruz in the first round of the Super Strong Style 16 Tournament 2017.
The following day, Cobb lost his second round match to Matthew Riddle.
On May 29, Cobb received his first shot at the Progress World Championship, losing to Pete Dunne.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Early beginnings and championship reigns (2017-2019)
On November 6, 2017, Cobb was announced as a participant in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's 2017 World Tag League, where he would team with Michael Elgin.
Cobb and Elgin did not get along behind the scenes with Elgin making disparaging remarks about his tag team partner in private messages that were made public while the tournament was still in progress.
The two finished the tournament on December 9 with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals.
On June 11, 2018, it was announced that Cobb would return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling for Kizuna Road shows.
On June 17, it was announced that Jeff Cobb would face Hirooki Goto for his NEVER Openweight Championship.
He would go on to lose the match.
Cobb spent the bulk of late 2018 participating in the World Tag League tournament with partner Michael Elgin, winning eight matches, but failing to qualify for the finals.
On April 6, 2019, Cobb won the NEVER Openweight Championship in a Winner takes all match against Will Ospreay at G1 Supercard.
Cobb's ROH World Television Championship was also on the line.
Cobb would eventually lose the NEVER Openweight Championship to Taichi in the first night of Wrestling Dontaku 2019.
Cobb then competed in his first 2019 G1 Climax Tournament where he finished with 8 points thus failing to advance to the finals.
On November 6, 2019,  Cobb was announced to be in one of the teams in the 2019 World Tag League Tournament with tag partner Mikey Nicholls where they finished with 16 points failing to advance to the finals.
United Empire (2020-present)
In August 2020, Cobb competed in the New Japan Cup USA where he defeated Tanga Loa in the first round before losing to Kenta in the semi-finals.
Cobb was also announced to be competing in the 2020 G1 Climax tournament where he again finished with 8 points, failing to advance to the finals.
It was also reported that Cobb had signed a contract with New Japan, officially joining the roster full time.
He would join Will Ospreay's The Empire stable at the November 15 show, teaming with The Great O-Khan in the annual World Tag League thus turning heel in the process.
At Wrestle Kingdom 15 in Tokyo Dome he challenged Shingo Takagi for the NEVER Openweight Championship but lost the match.
Ring of Honor (2018–2020)
On July 21, 2018, Cobb made his Ring of Honor debut by attacking Eli Isom and FR Josie at a television taping.
At Death Before Dishonor XVI on September 28, Cobb confronted Punishment Martinez following his defense of the ROH World Television Championship.
At a television taping the following night, Cobb, in his first official match, defeated Martinez to win the ROH World Television Championship.
Cobb then would win both of his matches during the two-day Glory By Honor XVI event in October, all three of his matches during the Global Wars 2018 tour in November, and defeated Adam Page at Final Battle in December to round out the year.
2019 began with Cobb winning a four-way match at Honor Reigns Supreme, and then winning all three of his matches (two of them being tag team matches) during the Road to G1 Supercard tour.
At ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds Night 2, Cobb would lose the World Television Championship to Shane Taylor.
After Cobb’s contract ran out in 2020, Cobb stated he would still wrestle for ROH, albeit a lot less.
On October 2020, his profile was moved to the alumni section.
All Elite Wrestling (2020)
Cobb made his debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on the February 12, 2020 episode of AEW Dynamite, attacking Jon Moxley alongside The Inner Circle.
He wrestled his AEW debut match on the following week's episode of Dynamite, in a losing effort to Moxley.
Professional wrestling style and persona
Cobb's finishers are a spinning Scoop powerslam variation called "The Tour of the Islands" and a Gachimuchi-Sault.https://411mania.com/wrestling/keith-lee-says-he-didnt-steal-jeff-cobbs-finish-explains-how-his-is-different/
During his work in Lucha Underground, Cobb performed as "The Monster" Matanza Cueto, using a mask and a boilersuit.
He described his character like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers.https://411mania.com/wrestling/jeff-cobb-matanza-cueto-lucha-underground-season-four/ During this time, his finisher was called "Wrath of the Gods".https://solowrestling.mundodeportivo.com/new/65073-resultados-lucha-underground-18-de-octubre-de-2017 Personal life
Cobb is of Filipino descent on his mother's side.
His mother, Elaine was born in Guam to Filipino immigrants.
Cobb's parents later moved to Hawai'i, where he was born, but moved back to Guam when he was 11.
Championships and accomplishments
AAW Professional Wrestling
AAW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with David Starr and Eddie Kingstonhttps://www.cagematch.net//?id=5&nr=567
Action Zone Wrestling
AZW Heavyweight Championship (3 times)https://www.cagematch.net//?id=5&nr=3390
All Pro Wrestling
APW Universal Heavyweight Championship (1 time)https://www.cagematch.net//?id=5&nr=49
Young Lions Cup (2012)
Big Time Wrestling
BTW Tag Team Championships (1 time) - with Kimohttps://www.cagematch.net//?id=1&nr=119270
Cape Championship Wrestling
CCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Blaster
Fighting Spirit Pro
FSP Championship (1 time)
Lucha Underground
Lucha Underground Championship (1 time)
Aztec Warfare II
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
NEVER Openweight Championship (1 time)
Premier Wrestling
Premier Heavyweight Championship (2 time)https://www.cagematch.net//?id=5&nr=2015
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
PWG World Championship (1 time)
PWG World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Matthew Riddle
Battle of Los Angeles (2018)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Ranked No. 23 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2019
Ring of Honor
Move of the Year (2018) for Tour of the Islands
ROH World Television Championship (1 time)
Ring Warriors
Ring Warriors Grand Championship (1 time)
Freestyle record
|- !
colspan="7"| Olympic Games Matches |- !
Res.
!
Record !
Opponent !
Score !
Date !
Event !
Location |- |Loss |0–2 |align=left| Yoel Romero |style="font-size:88%"|Tech.
Fall (0–10) |style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|August 26, 2004 |style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|2004 Summer Olympics |style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2| Athens, Greece |- |Loss |0–1 |align=left| Davyd Bichinashvili |style="font-size:88%"|Tech.
Fall (0–10) |- References
External links
Profile – International Wrestling Database
Profile – Premier Wrestle
