Matthew Jason Bloom, born on November 14, 1972, is an American retired professional wrestler, currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as the head trainer at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. 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.
Before becoming one of the ring’s most imposing big men, Matt Bloom first terrorized opposing squads on the football field as a 6-foot-7 offensive lineman at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1996, Bloom graduated with a degree in sign language and became a schoolteacher teaching mathematics and English to children with behavioral problems and deaf children at Revere High School.
Turning his focus to the squared circle, Bloom learned the ropes under WWE Hall of Famer Killer Kowalski. He joined WWE shortly after, making his debut in 1999 during the height of WWE’s celebrated Attitude Era.
Bloom competed under various aliases throughout his career - Albert, A-Train, Giant Bernard - and found success wherever he went, by any name. Bloom also spent years as New Japan Pro Wrestling’s gaijin ace, which is a title bestowed upon the top non-native wrestler in the locker room. Bloom still holds the record for the longest IWGP Tag Team Title reign in history, along with Karl Anderson.
Ever the student, Bloom fine-tuned his mechanics and acquired new strong-style skills in Japan while also mentoring younger wrestlers, including current WWE Superstar Finn Bálor.
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Early Career and WWF Debut
Bloom wrestled his first match in 1997, facing Tim McNeany. After being introduced to talent scout Tom Prichard by George Steele, Bloom was hired by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). 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 debuted on WWF television on the April 11, 1999 episode of Sunday Night Heat, saving Droz from a beating at the hands of Big Bossman. Introduced as the personal body artist of Droz, Bloom was dubbed Prince Albert (a pun on the Prince Albert genital piercing). Albert's first singles match occurred on the May 8 episode of Shotgun Saturday Night, in which he lost to Meat. Droz and Albert continued to team together until Droz was paralyzed in October 1999, at which point Albert became the protege of the Big Bossman.
In March 2000, 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. The tag team, known as T & A, competed in the tag team division throughout 2000, and feuded with various rival tag teams.
In April 2001, Albert stepped out of obscurity and into the role of enforcer for the X-Factor faction. Alongside Justin Credible and X-Pac, he became one of the most despised villains on WWE programming. 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.
He held the Intercontinental Championship for a month before dropping it to Lance Storm. During this time, Credible left X-Factor and joined The Alliance. In late 2001, Albert adopted the nickname "The Hip Hop Hippo" and began teaming with Scotty 2 Hotty. Upon the introduction of the Brand Extension, both Bloom and Hotty were assigned to the SmackDown! brand. 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.
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A-Train and Departure from WWE
Albert then moved to singles competition, mainly competing on Velocity for the next several months. 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.
A-Train and Big Show 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 was traded to the Raw brand on March 22 before making his official Raw debut on June 7, losing to Chris Jericho. On November 1, 2004, six years after his debut with the company, he was released from his WWE contract and wished well on his future endeavors.
New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)
With his career in North America seemingly over, Bloom left the States to venture into Japan, where monstrous heavyweights his size could achieve great things as rare attractions. 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, Bloom entered a tournament for the title, losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi in the tournament final.
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On March 11, 2007, in Nagoya, Bloom and Travis Tomko defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. 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, 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.
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. 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". 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.
On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, Bad Intentions lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Ten-Koji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima), ending their record-setting reign at 564 days.
The Recycle Bin EP1: Matt Bloom
Return to WWE as Lord Tensai
Bloom returned to WWE the night after WrestleMania as the great Japanese warrior Tensai. On the April 2 episode of Raw, Bloom made his WWE re-debut as Lord Tensai, where he was accompanied by his follower Sakamoto before defeating Alex Riley. On the May 21 episode of Raw, Tensai dropped the "Lord" portion of his ring name and his Japanese outfit worn during his entrance.
Following this, Tensai began losing much more frequently throughout the rest of 2012, beginning with John Cena ending his winning streak before he also suffered a loss to World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus. 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, though the match was ultimately won by Dolph Ziggler.
On the January 28, 2013, episode of Raw, Tensai was tricked into wearing lingerie while participating in a dance-off with Brodus Clay. Two days later on Main Event, after being mocked for his lingerie dance, Tensai defeated Titus O'Neil in a singles match. Following this, Clay and Tensai formed a tag team and they went on to defeat established teams. Eventually, with the killer Japanese warrior gimmick no longer effective, he was paired with Brodus Clay in the tag team known as "Tons of Funk."
Tons of Funk
Brodus Clay would come out to support Tensai, which eventually turned Tensai face, forming a tag team with Clay called Tons of Funk, with Tensai, while not "officially" changing his name, being referred to now by the nickname "Sweet T". They were scheduled to have a eight-person mixed tag team match alongside The Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi) against Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow) and the Bella Twins at WrestleMania 29, but their match was cut due to time constraints, with the match instead taking place the following night on Raw, where Tons of Funk and The Funkadactyls emerged victorious.
In November 2013, Tons of Funk began to show signs of instability once Clay started a storyline where he became angry and jealous of the debuting Xavier Woods. As Clay began to exhibit more heel-oriented tendencies, such as repeatedly attacking Woods after he had defeated Woods in a match, Sweet T and the Funkadactyls slowly became alienated from him, eventually resulting in them leaving him, and to Sweet T defeating Clay on their eventual blowoff match.
Transition to Trainer
After Tons of Funk disbanded, Bloom was taken off television and, in January 2014, began working in WWE's developmental territory NXT as a commentator under the new ring name Jason Albert.
On August, Bloom announced his retirement from in-ring competition and that he would begin working as a trainer in the WWE Performance Center, resuming his teaching profession. On March 2015, Bloom was promoted to NXT head trainer following the departure of Bill DeMott.
Accolades
Throughout his career, Matt Bloom achieved the following:
- WWF Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
- IWGP Tag Team Championship (2 times)
- G1 Tag League (2009 with Karl Anderson)
- New Japan Cup (2006)
Matt Bloom's journey from a football player and teacher to a professional wrestler and eventually the head trainer of NXT showcases his dedication, adaptability, and passion for the sport. His contributions to both WWE and NJPW have left a lasting impact on the wrestling world.