WWE’S Original Plans For Recently Released Star Will Surprise You!
Original plans for a recently released WWE star have been revealed.
JC Mateo, fka Jeff Cobb, made his first television appearance for the Stamford promotion at the 2025 Backlash PLE, where he helped Jacob Fatu retain his United States Championship in a four-way match.
Mateo subsequently joined the then-nameless faction led by Solo Sikoa, which later came to be known as the ‘MFT’ (My Family Tree).
After having him compete in a handful of singles matches, WWE either began featuring him in tag matches or as a ringside member who acted as the group’s muscle.
Despite achieving success in other promotions like New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Mateo never really got over with the fans in the Stamford-based company.
During the March 20 taping of SmackDown, Mateo defended the WWE Tag Team Championship under the Freebird rule despite Solo Sikoa being one-half of the champions with Tama Tonga.
Unfortunately, Mateo was pinned by Truth, losing the titles and inviting the wrath of the MFT leader in a backstage segment.
WWE Planned A Major Singles Push For JC Mateo Initially
WWE’s signing of Jeff Cobb (JC Mateo) was seen as a significant boost to the SmackDown roster, which was performing at a subpar level compared to Raw.
Furthermore, Mateo’s past success placed him in a better position to be featured as one of the central figures in major storylines.
Turns out that the company’s creative team had initially planned a big singles push for him. While writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, veteran journalist David Meltzer also noted that Mateo got lost after he aligned with the MFT, as the group was centered around Solo Sikoa.
Cobb was at first planned for a big push as he was to work with key people in singles in plans that never ended up happening. For whatever reason, after seeing him, he became a face in the crowd of the MFTs, a group built around Sikoa, and with Tama Tonga getting the screen time and Talla Tonga as the monster. [H/T: PWInsider]
Mateo was eventually released on May 2 as part of the post-WrestleMania 42 roster cuts. Tonga Loa, another member of MFT, was also let go with him.
MFT Continue The Pursuit Of Royce Keys
Royce Keys has been a key person of interest for Solo Sikoa.
With JC Mateo and Tonga Loa gone from WWE, his pursuit of the East Palo Alto native has become more urgent.
There were multiple backstage segments between Keys and different members of My Family Tree during the May 8 episode of SmackDown.
During his interaction with Keys, Sikoa told him that time was running out if he wanted to work alongside him and that he needed an answer soon.
Keys was also in a match against MFT’s Tama Tonga, which he won by hitting his Ultimate Spinebuster finisher. Earlier in the night, Keys prevented an attack by the MFT members on Damian Priest and R-Truth.
While Talla and Tama Tonga looked eager to attack Keys, Solo Sikoa called off the attack, hoping that might help him change his mind about their possible alliance.