By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Jeff Cobb
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
How’d you get put with the MFTs? What was the pitch? “I didn’t even know there was a pitch to begin with because I heard a couple other rumors out there as well. I mean, just rumors from fans’ fantasy booking that I was like, oh, they’re gonna put you with Bronson Reed and be like the new Natural Disasters. I was like, so it would be like Tsunami and Volcano or something? That would have been fun, just beat some people up and collect some belts.”
Were you told what MFT stood for because fans had their own ideas and probably still do to this day? “Well, eventually we were backstage, it was My Family Tree, and I was like, okay. But then I was like, dude, you know what? The internet fans are very meticulous. They’ll be like, ‘He’s not even part of the family tree.’ I was like, well, the roots can go super far away to like, Micronesia, Polynesia. Yeah, my brother’s cousin’s third uncle’s aunt. I mean, that’s like the regular Samoan tree, anyways. Because I sat down one time with Jacob [Fatu], ‘Hey, man, explain this. Can you help me with your family?’ He had a hard time, and this was pretty funny. So I’m like, oh man. I saw Zilla [Fatu] trying to answer that too.”
How’d you get along with those guys? “It was great. I knew Tama [Tonga]. Well, I know him as T, and Tonga Loa and Hikuleo (a/k/a Talla Tonga) from New Japan days. Solo, I feel like I met him at least once or twice before, just messing around at FSW. But I knew his dad more than him, so it was cool. So Rikishi, because I worked for him a few times down at KnokX Pro. So yeah, and then Solo was so cool, man. He was very open. Tama and T were hurt, and Hikuleo was still in NXT, or just he was in NXT, but not on TV on there. So, it was just me, Jacob, and Solo. That was pretty cool. So I got to know him. He’s super cool.”
You debuted without face paint. At what point did they say, ‘Hey, if you’re gonna be part of the group, you gotta wear face paint.’ “I want to say they all sat us down. It’s like, ‘We gotta make you more vicious. So we’re gonna go with face paint like you guys had in New Japan.’ I remember sitting there like, ‘That wasn’t me. I didn’t have face paint in Japan. That was those guys over there.’ They’re like, oh, it’s okay, it’s okay. I was like, you do realize I never even teamed with them in Japan. I was fighting against them; they were in Bullet Club. I can’t be friends with them. So yeah, they were like, we’re gonna put your face paint. I was like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be rough. I don’t know what Ultimate Warrior used for his face paint, or Sting. So I was like, this is like learning on the fly. I just bought a whole bunch of random things.”
You guys weren’t using the same stuff? “No. I was originally getting the stuff from Target.”
Do you regret signing with WWE? “Not at all, not at all. I just feel like you can’t stay in one place the whole time, and so I wanted to test it out. Because I did AEW, I’ve been at New Japan for a while. WWE is a totally different thing. So I wanted to try that and see. You never know until you try, and I don’t want to be ten years down the line and be like, oh man, I could have went there. I don’t want to be that could have, should have, would have guy.”
When you got let go from WWE, did you immediately know, all right, I’m going back to Japan? “A part of me, yes, but then a part of me was kind of like, I don’t really like wrestling anymore.”
Really? “Yeah. So May was rough. I didn’t work out. I didn’t do anything. I was just like, I didn’t like wrestling. The first time I have ever been like that, where I was like, man, what the hell? I’m not blaming WWE.”
What do you think that’s from? “I mean, you know, us as wrestlers, we’re kind of our biggest critics. If I do a match or something, and I come back and like, oh, that was good, and I was like, we could have done this a little bit better, whatnot. So, we’re always our harshest critic, right? So, I mean, I don’t know if that’s the same in your world.”
Were you thinking about retiring? “Yeah, I was like, man, was that it? But then at the same time, I was like, I don’t want to really end on that note. So, I kicked out.”
What brought you back around? “Honestly, watching some New Japan stuff kind of got me. I was like, oh, this is good. This is good. Then I was like, maybe I have some unfinished business here. So I started thinking about it more and more. Then honestly, G1 season always gets me hyped because New Japan always puts out before the shows, especially the G1 history, and that always gets you so hyped. Video packages that can tug at your heartstrings. Dude, this is dope. I was like, you know what? I got to be on this one day. I got to be on the G1 package. Then the only way to do it is to go back to New Japan.”
