Jeff Cobb Leaving NJPW As WWE Rumors Intensify (WWE News)
Jeff Cobb's imminent NJPW departure sets off chain reaction of booking changes.
NJPW has announced that Jeff Cobb is leaving the promotion, with the IWGP Tag Team Titles being vacated in the process.
The promotion held a special press conference to break the news today. Cobb, 42, is being allowed to depart at his own request, meaning he and Callum Newman are vacating the IWGP straps they'd won from Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi on 5 April.
Cobb will work his final NJPW match this Saturday, 19 April, against Hiroshi Tanahashi.
NJPW wrote:
“New Japan Pro-Wrestling has come to terms with the departure of Jeff Cobb at his request. With Cobb one half of the IWGP Tag team Champions, those titles have now been vacated. Cobb’s final match in NJPW will take place in Korakuen Hall on April 19 against Hiroshi Tanahashi. New Japan Pro-Wrestling profoundly apologises for the sudden nature of this news and joins fans in wishing Cobb the best in all his future endeavours.”
Cobb had been expected to challenge IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hirooki Goto at 4 May's Wrestling Dontaku event. Newman has now taken that spot, as confirmed during the press conference.
A former IWGP Tag Team, NJPW World Television, and NEVER Openweight Champion, Cobb has been with NJPW since 2017. While there was no confirmation that he had signed with another promotion as of this writing, Fightful reported in March that WWE was interested in the free agent, with one source going as far as claiming that Jeff's name had shown up on an internal roster. Fightful was unable to confirm this at the time of reporting.