Former WWE star Jeff Cobb, also known as JC Matteo, appeared on “Insight with Chris Van Vliet,” where he discussed various topics, including his association with the MFTs.
Cobb said, “Well, my strong family lineage, right? I didn’t even know that was the 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, oh man, so it would be like tsunami and volcano or something?”
On whether he was told what MFT stood for:
“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, ‘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 trying to answer that too.”
On how the group got along backstage:
“It was great. I knew Tama. Well, I know him as T, and Tonga Loa and Hikuleo 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. So, and that was pretty cool. So I got to know him. He’s super cool.”
On when they decided to give him 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.”
On whether he regrets 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 10 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.”
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