Matthew Bloom

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Matthew Bloom
Statistics
Ring name(s)	The Mongolian Baldo Prince Albert Albert A-Train / Train Giant Bernard Rusher Road
Billed height	6 ft 7 in (201 cm)
Billed weight	353 lb (160 kg)
Born	November 14, 1972 Peabody, Massachusetts
Resides	Arizona
Billed from	Boston, Massachusetts
Trained by	Killer Kowalski Dory Funk, Jr.
Debut	1997

Matthew Jason Bloom (born November 14, 1972), better known by his ring names, Albert, Prince Albert, A-Train and currently Giant Bernard and Rusher Road (used in the New Japan spinoff promotion WRESTLE LAND), is an American professional wrestler who previously performed for World Wrestling Entertainment on the RAW and SmackDown! brands and All Japan Pro Wrestling. He currently wrestles for New Japan Pro Wrestling. One of his trademarks was that he had thick black hair all over his chest and back, but he has since replaced his body hair with tiger stripe-like tattoo patterns, covering his entire chest, upper back and spanning along both arms from the shoulders down to the wrists.

1 high School Years
2 Career
3 Wrestling facts
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 References
6 External links

[edit] high School Years

Bloom attended Peabody High School and earned three letters in football and basketball, two in track&field, and one in baseball.

[edit] Career

Bloom played football at the University of Pittsburgh as an offensive tackle, then an offensive guard. After graduating, he briefly played in the NFL for the San Diego Chargers. He then became a schoolteacher, working with children with behavioral problems and deaf children.

[edit] World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment (1997-2004)

Bloom portrayed several characters throughout his career since making his debut in 1997. This included a few runs in Power Pro Wrestling in Memphis as Baldo and in the WWF as the bizarre Prince Albert (named after the Prince Albert piercing). The piercing-themed gimmick complemented tag team partner Droz's tattoo-artist gimmick. He made his WWF TV debut on the April 11, 1999 episode of Sunday Night HEAT, saving Droz from a beating from the Big Boss Man. In 2000, he was repackaged as "Albert, the wrestler formerly known as Prince."

The Albert character was in a tag team with Test. T & A (Test and Albert) fell under the tutelage of the vivacious Trish Stratus. In December 2000, Albert turned on Test, causing (kayfabe) internal injuries which resulted in bleeding from Test's mouth.

Before Backlash 2001 in Chicago, Bloom joined forces with X-Pac and Justin Credible, forming the team known as X-Factor. On the June 28, 2001 Albert defeated Kane to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. With X-Pac holding the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship and Albert holding the WWF Intercontinental Championship, Justin Credible became jealous and left to join Paul Heyman's ECW revolution, thus joining The Alliance. Albert lost his Intercontinental title to Lance Storm on the July 23, 2001 edition of RAW. In late October, 2001 X-Pac suffered an injury thus breaking up X-Factor.

Albert then briefly took on the nickname "The Hip Hop Hippo" and joined forces with Scotty 2 Hotty in a tag team known as the Zoo Crew. After a short run together, Albert turned heel once again by betraying and attacking Scotty on the April 4, 2002 edition of SmackDown! after losing a tag team championship match to Billy and Chuck in which Scotty was pinned.

From here Albert changed his ring attire and was used mostly on WWE Velocity, during which he had a minor feud with Funaki. The December 5, 2002 edition of SmackDown! began Albert's longest and biggest push in his WWE career. Albert defeated Rey Mysterio and attacked and destroyed Rey's knee after the match. Later that night, as Rey Mysterio's friend Edge was entering the ring, Albert attacked him with a chair from behind, injuring Edge's knee as well.

The following week on the December 12, 2002 edition of SmackDown!, Bloom joined forces with Paul Heyman and his client at the time The Big Show. Albert was given a new name: A-Train by Paul Heyman, who described him as "A runaway Train" (A-Train was also the name D-Von Dudley used in his pre-WWE career). That same night A-Train and Big Show defeated Edge and Kurt Angle. Bloom would continue his alliance with the two through the entire administration of Paul Heyman as SmackDown! General Manager and in July, 2003, A-Train became one of Vince McMahon's hired henchmen. This was probably Bloom's highest profile run in the WWE, as he had a number of matches with main-event wrestlers, such as The Undertaker, Edge, Brock Lesnar, and Chris Benoit. A-Train was also picked to join Team Lesnar, along with teammates, Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Matt Morgan and Nathan Jones, to face off against 'Team Angle', which consisted of, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, John Cena, Bradshaw and Hardcore Holly in a ten person elimination tag team match at Survivor Series 2003. A-Train continued to be a lackey for Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon until March 22, 2004. During the WWE Draft, A-Train was drafted to the RAW roster along with Chuck Palumbo and in exchange for Rico Constantino and Jackie Gayda, who were then drafted to SmackDown!.

A-Train's appearances on RAW were very seldom for a 3 month tenure before being sidelined with a torn rotator cuff in June, 2004. Though, he did have one match on RAW against Chris Jericho on June 2004, which he lost, this would turn out to be his last WWE match.

On November 1, 2004, Bloom was released from the WWE. Bloom was not being used in any meaningful storylines and had been injured for a while.

[edit] All Japan Pro Wrestling (2005)

Bloom started wrestling in Japan, where he uses the name Giant Bernard, a takeoff on an older performer who used the name Brute Bernard. When Bloom debuted in Japan, he also debuted a new look, sporting tiger stripe-like tattoo patterns, covering his his entire chest, upper back and spanning along both arms from the shoulders down to the wrists.

In 2005, Bloom appeared on an All Japan Pro Wrestling card, running in to aid two other former-WWE wrestlers, Johnny Stamboli and Chuck Palumbo. He proceeded to join Voodoo Murders, AJPW's main heel group.

On October 18, 2005, Giant Bernard challenged Satoshi Kojima for the AJPW Triple Crown but Kojima successfully defended his title.

[edit] New Japan Pro Wrestling (2005-)

In late 2005, Bloom left AJPW and joined the rival New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion.

In April 2006, Bloom entered the New Japan Cup, beating Yuji Nagata in the final to become one of the rare foreigners to win a tournament in Japan. As a result of this victory he received a shot at Brock Lesnar's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on 3 May, 2006 at the Fukuoka International Center, where he suffered a defeat.

On June 28, 2006, Giant Bernard was announced as a participant in the 2006 G-1 Climax, his first appearance in the tournament. He went onto the semifinals of the tournament, losing to the tournament's eventual winner, Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Beforehand, Bloom entered into another tournament, this time for the vacant IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Bloom reached the finals of the tournament, until being defeated in the final by Hiroshi Tanahashi.

On March 11, 2007 Bloom and partner Travis Tomko defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori to win NJPW's IWGP World Tag Team Championship, Bloom gaining the pinfall on Nakanishi with his new finisher, the Bernard Bomb.

Bloom appears as the 3rd member of the "The Roads" stable in WRESTLE LAND under the name "Rusher Road".