JEFF COBB’S UNEXPECTED ROAD TO STARDOM
IT’S A FRIDAY morning in early September 2014 at WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando. A roomful of eager yet exhausted recruits are there to prove to trainers like Bill DeMott, Norman Smiley, and Robbie Brookside why they deserve a contract with the world’s preeminent pro wrestling company. By the end of the tryout, six of the 20 would be hired, among them future WWE cruiserweight champion Rich Swann. Not among them was Jeff Cobb, the stocky Hawaiian powerhouse who had represented Guam in light heavyweight freestyle wrestling a decade earlier at the Athens Summer Olympics. It was a disappointing setback that would have dashed the hopes of many young grapplers. But Cobb was also not among those.
