For the last month, The United Empire of NJPW has been running rampant on AEW television.

Fans have watched Will Ospreay interrupt segments between FTR and Trent Beretta, watched Aussie Open throw down against FTR and Beretta alongside Ospreay, and even watched Ospreay take care of business against Dax Harwood in a segment that ended with the entire faction storming the ring, only to be stopped and run off by a returning Orange Cassidy. To many an AEW fan, this faction is brand new, with the majority of the members having largely wrestled for New Japan, but eagle-eyed watchers might have recognized one member filling a secondary role behind Ospreay: Jeff Cobb.

Yes, Jeff Cobb, The Inner Circle's mercenary from all the way back in 2020 who beat up on and then was defeated by Jon Moxley in the lead-up to Mox's title match versus Jericho. For AEW-only fans who are maybe just getting into NJPW, Cobb's presence in the segment might have been a bit confusing, especially when it was announced that he and Great-O-Khan would take part in a three-team, winner-takes-all tag team match with FTR and Roppongi Vice at Forbidden Door despite having never tagged in the Tony Khan-owned promotion before.

If you fall into that camp, then you're in luck: Forbidden Door is still a week away, and there's plenty of time to catch up on what Cobb has been up to since his two-week stay in AEW between contracts with Ring of Honor.

Jeff Cobb's return to AEW took a long and winding road.

It took a perfect storm for Jeff Cobb to appear in AEW back in 2020 before the hinges of the Forbidden Door swung wide open.

After successful runs in PWG, NJPW, Ring of Honor, and Lucha Underground, where he performed as the “Monsterous” brother of Dario Cueto, Matanza, Cobb was a free agent. Though many expected the 2004 Olympic wrestler to return to Ring of Honor, Tony Khan exploited the small period in time where Cobb was without a deal to bring him onto Dynamite, which, at the time, was a fairly revolutionary thing. Though Cobb ultimately did the job and was reportedly paid very well for the honor of doing so, he appreciated the opportunity immensely, as he felt it benefitted all parties involved, as he detailed to ProWrestlingSheet as per The Sportster.

“To be honest with you, on January 1st, my contract did expire with Ring of Honor. I made it very clear that I would like to stay and work with Ring of Honor. I believe in the company and I believe in the direction that we're going, especially the talent. The talent is ridiculous. My goal was to stay, but this opportunity came up and I took it. I feel it was good for both parties. Because now people that only watch AEW are like ‘well, I thought Jeff is Ring of Honor?' or some people are like, ‘what's Ring of Honor?' Then they come over and look at Ring of Honor and now there's more eyes that wouldn't have been on Ring of Honor that are going over now. I think it helped everybody in the grand scheme of things. It was fun. Good pay day.”

Once that date was done, Cobb did return to ROH, but largely turned his attention to NJPW, where he joined the United Empire midway through the 2020 calendar year. While he continued to wrestle as a solo performer upon joining Will Ospreay's faction, he also turned his attention to the tag team division, where he joined forces with Great-O-Khan as the second tag unit in the faction alongside Aussie Open.

Since their first match together in November of 2020, Cobb and Khan have wrestled together 99 times to an 84-15 record and have won the IWGP Tag Team Championship twice, first in April of 2022 and again in June of 2022, when they began a title run that continues to this day. They've feuded with Los Ingobernables de Japon, with Bullet Club, and even with CHAOS – a feud that will technically continue at Forbidden Door, as Roppongi Vice are still members of the faction, as are the rest of the Best Friends.

Fun fact: Did you know that Cobb and Trent Beretta have only wrestled once despite being fixtures of many of the same promotions? It's true, it happened at PWG back in 2017, and the match, which was very good, can be watched below.

Goodness, old PWG was like pre-AEW when Tony Khan's biggest concern was getting the Jacksonville Jaguars a winning season.

Did Jeff Cobb make the right decision re-signing with Ring of Honor instead of coming to AEW? Who is to say; few people other than Cobb knew exactly what each promotion was offering up, and it's hard to argue that his current run in the United Empire hasn't been incredibly impressive. Still, after years away, it'll be interesting to see Cobb back in an AEW ring at Forbidden Door, even if he'll be doing so on the wrong side of the promotional divide – at least if you're a proud member of Team AEW.