United Empire, Jeff Cobb leaving NJPW and more delved into by Akira.
There's a new interview with Francesco Akira that was conducted by Great-O-Khan on Royal Palace Life Radio.
Among the subjects they delved into was Jeff Cobb's departure from New Japan Pro-Wrestling. As that conversation started up, Akira joked that he gets scared whenever he sees a tweet from the official NJPW X account and the image of the tweet is NJPW's logo. He said there's always bad news when he sees that.
"So, I remember I was riding my bicycle to go probably to the station and I open X and I saw the New Japan logo image. Now, the New Japan logo image… very scary. Because every time you open, it’s bad news. Two days before, Jeff (Cobb) left. Then two days after, Naito-san, then BUSHI-san and now, if it appears one more time, I’m scared of reading… If I want to wear a scary costume for Halloween, I wear New Japan (logo)."
He went on to compare Will Ospreay and Cobb's respective exits from United Empire and New Japan. Akira said with Ospreay, it was known that he was leaving for AEW so it was a congratulatory feeling.
In Cobb's case, Akira thinks he wanted to remain with NJPW but it did not work out that way.
"I feel like I think same as Oka (Great-O-Khan). When (Will) Ospreay left, he left for AEW and that was the point of saying congratulations to him. But Jeff (Cobb), I think he really wanted to stay in New Japan. He loved New Japan and he wanted to be here but unfortunately, it didn’t work out so…"
As for where United Empire is as a faction, Akira feels they need to add a new member to bring some fresh energy into the group.
"Oh yeah, we definitely need a new member and a new energy inside the group because recently, it’s been going a lot of sad things so we need somebody new that can bring fresh air."
Akira is competing in the Best of the Supers Juniors tournament. As of this writing, he is sitting at four points.
Cobb is with WWE and is now going by 'J.C. Mateo.' He made his in-ring debut for the company on Friday Night SmackDown and scored a win over L.A. Knight.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Royal Palace Life Radio with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
