by Alex Archer
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| T&A (Albert, Trish Stratus, and Test) |
Matt Bloom, known currently in the WWE as Lord Tensai, debuted with the WWE back in 1999 on Sunday Night Heat (remember that show?) as Prince Albert. Upon entering the WWE, he was teamed up with Droz and Key (Vic Grimes), and dubbed The Pierced Pals. After a short time, Key was dropped from the group, while Albert and Droz continued to team. Early in 2000, Trish Stratus united Albert with Test, to form a tag team named T & A. After an unsuccessful run with T & A, he joined a stable with Justin Credible and X-Pac, known as The X Factor. In late 2001, after The X Factor disbanded, Albert teamed with Scotty 2 Hotty and adopted the nickname "The Hip Hop Hippo" (yes, really). Luckily for everyone involved, Albert turned on Scotty in early 2002 and joined forces with Paul Heyman and The Big Show, and was renamed A-Train. He would go on to find mild singles success before being released by the WWE in 2004 after suffering a torn rotator cuff.
After recovering from the injury that ultimately cost him his WWE career (couldn't have been the gimmicks, could it?!), Bloom debuted with Japanese All Pro Wrestling in March of 2005, wrestling under the name Giant Bernard. Although he was awarded a shot at the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, he was unable to defeat the then champion Satoshi Kojima.
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| Bloom as Giant Bernard in NJPW |
In early 2006, he made the move to New Japan Pro Wrestling, AJPW's rival. This is where Bloom truly found success. He won the 2006 New Japan Cup in April, earning himself a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar. Although he was defeated by Lesnar, Bloom would make it to the finals of the tournament that decided the new IWGP Champion (after Lesnar had vacated the title). He would lose to Hiroshi Tanahashi, but title belts were now within Bloom's grasp.
Bloom would go on to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Travis Tomko on March 11, 2007, by defeating Manabu Nakanishi and Tako Omori. The duo would hold the titles for almost a year, dropping them to Togi Makabe and Toru Yano on February 17, 2008.
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| Bad Intentions |
On November 1, 2009, Bloom and his new tag team partner, Karl Anderson, collectively known as "Bad Intentions", would defeat Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) to win the 2009 G1 Climax Tag League tournament. After a short stint in Mexico, wrestling as Gigante Bernard, Bloom returned to Japan to team once again with Anderson. The duo would win their first IWGP Tag Team Championship together on June 19, 2010, by defeating Blue Justice Army (Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue) and No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi) in an elimination match.
Bad Intentions would go on to successfully defend their titles for over a year, winning the GHC Tag Team Championship and breaking the IWGP record for consecutive successful title defenses by a tag team along the way. On January 4, 2012, Bad Intentions would lose their titles to Ten-Koji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima), putting and end to their record setting title reign of 564 days.
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| And now this... |
Bloom made his WWE re-debut, as Lord Tensai, on March 17, 2012, just two months after his historic tag title reign in Japan came to and end. It'll be interesting to see if the WWE Universe is more accepting of the big man this time around. It's clear that Bloom thrives in Japan and Mexico, and hopefully this character can get him over here in the US.
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@TheAlexArcher |
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