Backstage News On WWE Having Completely Different Ring Name Originally Planned For Jeff Cobb

Jeff Cobb officially made his WWE debut at Backlash two weeks ago, and he’s now competing under a new ring name: JC Mateo.

According to a recent report by Dave Meltzer in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter at F4WOnline.com, WWE initially intended to call Cobb JC Mantanza—a reference to his run as Matanza Cueto in Lucha Underground.

However, the company reportedly ran into questions surrounding the ownership of the “Mantanza” name. Although AAA had a financial stake in Lucha Underground, they didn’t actually own the promotion or its intellectual property.

The report also confirmed that WWE did not acquire the Lucha Underground tape library or trademarks as part of their purchase of AAA.

On top of that, Cobb himself was said to be unenthusiastic about using the Mantanza name again, which likely factored into the decision to go with JC Mateo instead.