Matthew Jason Bloom (born November 14, 1972) is an American retired professional wrestler. Bloom is best known for his in-ring appearances with WWE as Prince Albert, Albert and A-Train from 1999 to 2004, and as Lord Tensai and Tensai from 2012 to 2014, as well as for his appearances in Japan from 2005 to 2012 with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) as Giant Bernard (ジャイアント・バーナード, Jaianto Bānādo).
Bloom has appeared in twenty video games under his various gimmicks, such as Prince Albert in WWF WrestleMania 2000, as Albert in WWF SmackDown!, WWF No Mercy, WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role, WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It, WWF Raw, WWE WrestleMania X8, WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth, as A-Train in WWE Raw 2, WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain, WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw, as Giant Bernard in Fire Pro Wrestling 2,[103] Fire Pro Wrestling Returns,[104] Wrestle Kingdom and Wrestle Kingdom 2,[105] as Willy Pearce in Wrestling Empire, and as Tensai in WWE '13 (as DLC) and in WWE 2K14[106].
Early Life and Education
Bloom was born in Peabody, Massachusetts. He attended Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, where he earned three letters in football and basketball, two in track and field, and one in baseball. Bloom also attended Camp Tevya in Brookline, New Hampshire in the early 1980s, and went on to attend the University of Pittsburgh, where he played football as an offensive tackle and an offensive guard.[5] Bloom graduated in 1996 with a degree in sign language. He then became a schoolteacher,[6] teaching mathematics and English to children with behavioral problems and deaf children at Revere High School.
Professional Wrestling Career
After being introduced to talent scout Tom Prichard by George Steele, Bloom was hired by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). After receiving supplementary training from Dory Funk Jr., Bloom was assigned to the Power Pro Wrestling developmental territory in Memphis, Tennessee, where he wrestled as Baldo. Bloom wrestled his first match in the WWA on May 15, 1998, facing Tiger Ali Singh in a loss, during his brief time in WWA he wrestled notable names such as Sgt. Slaughter and Bart Gunn. In November 1998, Bloom made his NWA debut losing to Shawn Stasiak. During his stay in NWA, Bloom and Bull Pain challenged Nick Dinsmore and Rob Conway for the NWA OVW Southern tag team titles ending in a no contest.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (1999-2004)
Bloom debuted on WWF television on the April 11, 1999, episode of Sunday Night Heat, saving Droz from a beating at the hands of Big Boss Man.[9] Introduced as the personal body artist of Droz, Bloom was dubbed Prince Albert (a pun on the Prince Albert genital piercing). On the April 25 episode of Heat, Albert made his in-ring debut by teaming with Droz to defeat Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor.[10] Albert's first singles match occurred on the May 8 episode of Shotgun Saturday Night, in which he lost to Meat. Shortly after, Albert and Droz formed a short-lived trio with Key.[3] Albert picked up his first win in WWF on the June 27 edition of Heat, by defeating Val Venis in a street fight after assistance by Droz.
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Droz and Albert continued to team together and received several shots for the WWF Tag Team Championship against Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) but failed to win the titles.[13][14] Droz and Albert then resolved their rivalry with Venis and Godfather by losing to them in a street fight on the July 26 episode of Raw is War.[15] They also competed in a Tag Team Turmoil match at SummerSlam on August 22, to earn a future title shot, but were eliminated by Edge and Christian.[16] Albert received his first singles title shot against D-Lo Brown for his European and Intercontinental Championship on the August 21 episode of Shotgun.
On January 23, 2000, Albert competed in his first Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble as the #21 entrant. In March, Prince Albert was recruited by Trish Stratus to form a tag team with Test, with his name being shortened to Albert at WrestleMania 2000 on April 2 in a tag team match with Test against Head Cheese (Al Snow and Steve Blackman), which Test and Albert won.[22] The tag team, known as T & A, competed in the tag team division throughout 2000, and feuded with various rival tag teams. After moving to singles competition, Albert participated in the 2001 Royal Rumble as the #17 entrant, being eliminated by Kane. Over the following months, he wrestled primarily at house shows and on Jakked and Heat.
In March, Albert formed a faction with Justin Credible and X-Pac called X-Factor. The group feuded with the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray, D-Von and Spike), defeating them in a six-man tag team match at Backlash. On the June 28 episode of SmackDown!, Albert defeated Kane in a no disqualification match, following assistance by Diamond Dallas Page to win the Intercontinental Championship, his first and only title in the WWF. During this time, Credible left X-Factor and joined The Alliance. Albert held the Intercontinental Championship for a month, retaining the title against The Undertaker, Edge, Rhyno, former X-Factor teammate Justin Credible, and Tommy Dreamer. At Invasion, Albert represented WWF by teaming with Billy Gunn and Big Show against Alliance's Chris Kanyon, Hugh Morrus and Shawn Stasiak in a losing effort.
Albert would then begin teaming with Scotty 2 Hotty after defeating him in a match on the November 4 episode of Heat. On the November 10 episode of Jakked, Albert and Scotty teamed for the first time and defeated Alliance members Raven and Hugh Morrus, turning Albert into a fan favorite. Albert was nicknamed "The Hip Hop Hippo" as he danced with Scotty after matches and became a comical character. At Survivor Series, Albert participated in a battle royal, with the winner getting immunity from being fired regardless of the result of the match between WWF and Alliance. Albert was eliminated by Billy Kidman and Test.
At Vengeance, Zoo Crew defeated Christian and Test. On the December 13 episode of SmackDown!, Albert and Scotty's team was named Zoo Crew as they teamed with Tazz to defeat Christian and Dudley Boyz in a six-man tag team match. On January 20, 2002, Albert participated in the 2002 Royal Rumble match as the #17 entrant. He was eliminated by Christian and Chuck. On the January 24 episode of SmackDown!, Zoo Crew unsuccessfully challenged Spike Dudley and Tazz for the WWF Tag Team Championship. At No Way Out, Zoo Crew participated in a tag team turmoil match to determine the #1 contenders for the Tag Team Championship. The APA won the match. In March, the WWF roster was divided into two brands, and both Albert and Scotty were assigned to the SmackDown! brand.[8] They disbanded on the April 4 episode of SmackDown! when Albert attacked Scotty after the duo failed to defeat Billy and Chuck for the WWF Tag Team Championship, turning Albert into a villain. Albert defeated Scotty on the following episode of SmackDown!.[8]
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Albert then moved to singles competition, mainly competing on Velocity for the next several months. Albert competed in his first match on SmackDown! since July, on the December 5 episode of SmackDown! by defeating Rey Mysterio in a short match. Albert continued to attack Mysterio after the match, until Mysterio's tag team partner Edge made the save. The following week, on SmackDown!, Albert joined forces with Paul Heyman and Big Show, which saw Heyman persuade him to rename himself to A-Train and debut new attire, the latter of which saw fans often chant "Shave Your Back!" at him during his matches due to his hairy torso.[36] Following the name change, A-Train continued his rivalry with Edge, losing to him via disqualification after a chair shot at Armageddon on December 15.
On January 19, 2003 at the Royal Rumble, A-Train participated in the Royal Rumble match as the #25 entrant. He was eliminated by Kane and Rob Van Dam. A-Train would then continue his alliance with Big Show as they lost to The Undertaker in a handicap match at WrestleMania XIX on March 30, after assistance by The Undertaker's originally supposed partner Nathan Jones, who was attacked earlier in the show. A-Train continued the feud with The Undertaker by costing him a match against John Cena on the August 7 episode of SmackDown!. This culminated in a match between A-Train and The Undertaker at SummerSlam on August 24, which A-Train lost. A-Train then lost to Chris Benoit at No Mercy on October 19 and, at Survivor Series on November 16, was on Brock Lesnar's team in a ten-man Survivor Series match in a losing effort to Kurt Angle's team, in which he was pinned by Bradshaw.[8]
On the January 22, 2004, episode of SmackDown!, A-Train defeated Shannon Moore to qualify for the 2004 Royal Rumble match, which he failed to win after being eliminated by the eventual winner, Chris Benoit. After Benoit decided to wrestle Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship on the Raw brand, General Manager Paul Heyman held a SmackDown! brand-exclusive Royal Rumble on the January 29 episode of SmackDown!, to determine who would meet Lesnar for the WWE Championship at No Way Out. A-Train was traded to the Raw brand on March 22 before making his official Raw debut on June 7, losing to Chris Jericho.
All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2005-2012)
In March 2005, Bloom began wrestling for the Japanese All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, adopting the ring name "Giant Bernard" (a reference to wrestler Brute Bernard). He went on to join the Voodoo Murders stable alongside fellow WWE alumni Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli. In January 2006, Bloom left AJPW and joined the rival New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. In April 2006, he defeated Yuji Nagata in the finals of the 2006 New Japan Cup. As a result of his victory, Bloom received a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. In July 2006, following the abdication of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by Lesnar, Bloom entered a tournament for the title, losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi in the tournament final.
On March 11, 2007, in Nagoya, Bloom and Travis Tomko defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[7] At the February 17, 2008, New Japan show, they lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Togi Makabe and Toru Yano. Following Tomko's departure for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on a full-time basis, Bernard began teaming with former World Championship Wrestling wrestler Rick Fuller in another powerhouse tag team. In 2009, after betraying Togi Makabe, Bernard and the rest of GBH left the stable to join Shinsuke Nakamura and form the new stable known as CHAOS. Bernard formed the tag team Bad Intentions with CHAOS partner Karl Anderson and together the two of them went on to win that year's G1 Tag League after defeating Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) in the finals of the tournament on November 1.
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Through NJPW's working agreement with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, Bloom did his first tour of Mexico in May 2010, where he and Anderson managed to win six successive Two-out-of-Three Falls tag team matches in two straight falls, before he lost his final match of the tour on June 11 via disqualification.[40] Upon his return to Japan, Bernard and Anderson defeated the teams of Seigigun (Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue) and No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi) in a Three-Way Elimination match on June 19 at Dominion 6.19 to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[41] Bad Intentions made their first successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship on July 19, defeating Seigigun and No Limit in a three-way "Dogfight".[42] In late October, Bad Intentions entered the 2010 G1 Tag League, where, after three wins and two losses, they finished second in their block.
On July 23, Bad Intentions made an appearance for Pro Wrestling Noah, making their first successful defense of the GHC Tag Team Championship against the team of Takeshi Morishima and Yutaka Yoshie.[52] On September 9, Bad Intentions became the longest reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions, breaking the previous record of 446 days set by Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masahiro Chono in 2003.
| Championship | Times | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IWGP Tag Team Championship | 2 | With Travis Tomko (1) and Karl Anderson (1) |
Return to WWE (2012-2014)
On the May 21 episode of Raw, Tensai dropped the "Lord" portion of his ring name and his Japanese outfit worn during his entrance.[67] Following this, Tensai began losing much more frequently throughout the rest of 2012,[68] beginning with John Cena ending his winning streak before he also suffered a loss to World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus.[69][70] His losing streak caused Tensai to often vent his frustrations by abusing and attacking Sakamoto, who eventually ceased appearing with Tensai.[71][72] On the June 29 episode of SmackDown, Tensai defeated Justin Gabriel to break his losing streak and also qualify for a spot in the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match at Money in the Bank,[73] though the match was ultimately won by Dolph Ziggler.[74] Over the next three months, Tensai's losing streak resumed, as he lost to the likes of Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara, Randy Orton, and Ryback.[68] Tensai finally ended his losing streak on the October 5 episode of SmackDown, defeating Big Show by disqualification after Sheamus interfered.
On the January 28, 2013, episode of Raw, Tensai was tricked into wearing lingerie while participating in a dance-off with Brodus Clay.[80] Two days later on Main Event, after being mocked for his lingerie dance, Tensai defeated Titus O'Neil in a singles match.
Dutch Mantell on Why Matt Bloom Flopped in WWE (A-Train/Albert/Tensai, etc)
