By Akira Kagami
TWG Writer

Good day to all you Balistik Buddies & Babes and welcome to another nostalgia-filled edition of the BALISTIK BLABBER! I am your host Akira Kagami, and this is my “Ex-WWE Talent” article series: bringing both memorable and forgettable wrestlers back to the spotlight! Today, I present my 14th “Ex-WWE Talent”…


GIANT BERNARD






Since we started nearly 2 months ago, we’ve seen men and women from all walks of life enter the world of professional wrestling. Most of you are aware Extreme Championship Wrestling’s Matt Striker used to be a social studies teacher. Well, he isn’t the only one!




Matthew Jason Bloom was already an athlete during his high school years, earning his letters (unique awards or recognition given to high-performances in a particular sport) in basketball, American football, track and field AND baseball! He went on to attend the University of Pittsburgh where he graduated with a degree in sign language (yes, it exists) on 1990. He tried his hand in the National Football League playing for the San Diego Chargers but not much came from it and so he pursued a career as a schoolteacher! Bloom wasn’t just your regular teacher, he taught both English AND math to kids at the Revere High School (one of America’s top 505 schools) in Ohio. Like the booking done in professional wrestling today, the school supervisors didn’t know what to do with the 6 feet 7 inches high educator! So they tasked him to the naughtiest students as well as those with hearing problems or were deaf where his sign language skills were put to good use. It was an honest living and Bloom was quite content with that. Or course, Bloom was a HUGE fan of wrestling just like we are and one day he gave his class a little contest: the top 3 best students will get to join him to go see the local wrestling show! Maaan, I wish my teacher was like that! Moving on… So he takes his three lucky students to see the show but they got there too early! Rather than sit around doing nothing, they explore the backstage where Bloom meets the man who will change his life forever… the legendary Killer Kowalski! He tells Kowalski of his fandom and childhood dreams to wrestle. Seeing that Bloom had potential, Kowalski invited him to his wrestling school which wasn’t far from where Bloom lived. After sparring around the squared circle, Bloom could no longer resist… he struck a deal with Kowalski and began training four days a week, much to the chagrin of his parents. They thought he was wasting his college degree but after defending his position, they eventually mellowed to the idea and in some ways, gave him their blessing.




Thus Matt Bloom made his way into the professional wrestling business with the prowess that only a hardened sports athlete with the brains of a teacher can produce. After being introduced from one company to another, he got to meet George Steele who eventually took him to see the McMahon family. Bloom was sent to training camps to work on his moves and how to work the crowd as well as perform in Power Pro Wrestling as “Baldo”. During his time in the developmental territory, he earned both the PPW “Young Guns Title” AND the PPW “Heavyweight” title (defeating Jerry Lawler!) in January of 1999! He would later lose the heavyweight title to Michael Hayes in March before his eventual debut in the World Wrestling Federation as…


PRINCE ALBERT



On April that year, Bloom made his Sunday Night HEAT debut alongside good friend Darren Drozdov aka “DROZ” with the gimmick of being Droz’s personal tattoo artist. Together they competed in the tag team division facing some of the biggest names in tag team history such as: Edge & Christian, the Dudleyz and The Acolytes. However, tragedy struck one fateful day when Droz was paralyzed in a match later that year… don’t worry, Droz is still alive and well but that is a different story for a different time~ but just in case you didn’t know, Albert was there when it happened and it literally changed his perspective of his job. The accident taught him the valuable lesson to never take their job for granted because even professionals could get hurt while in the ring… and with that newfound mentality, he was thrust into singles competition. Prince Albert was usually on the losing end but he was able to work with a lot of guys including Shawn Stasiak, The Godfather, Hardcore Holly, Mark Henry and VAL VENIS. He also aligned himself with the Big Bossman until Bull Buchanan showed up. In March 2000, Prince Albert was approached by the lovely Trish Stratus and the imposing Test with an offer… and the “T & A” stable was born! Ditching the “prince” part, he was now known as “ALBERT” and together the trio fought dozens of tag matches but always fell short to grab the tag titles. In an interview, Bloom says the formation of the stable was to help them all in improving their in-ring skills as well as give them a small push into the spotlight. The team later disbanded in that year’s Christmas season after Albert blindsided Test under direct orders from Stephanie during the McMahon-Helmsley story arc. Around April the following year (2001) Albert allied himself with a returning X-Pac and Justin Credible to form the “X-Factor” stable and it was during this time that he earned his most prestigious title yet… In a Smackdown! show on June, he defeated Kane to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship belt! Albert would take on the likes of Rhyno and Tommy Dreamer and keep the title until July when he defended it against “Alliance” member Lance Storm to a losing effort, mostly due to outside interference. The X-Factor stable slowly crumbles as Credible jumps ship to the Alliance and X-Pac gets sidelined yet again with another injury… this turn of events led Albert to adopt a new moniker…


THE HIP HOP HIPPO



Albert not only turns babyface, he joins Scotty to form the “Scotty & Albert” tag team! Just like his former tag team “T & A”, Albert picked up quite a lot of tag victories with Scotty and won nearly all his singles matches during this time. They were a fine combination of strength and… “quirkiness” until April 2002. They were up against the team of Billy Gunn & Chuck Palumbo for the World Tag Team titles but fail to get the win… after the match, Albert loses it and goes ape on Scotty turning him back into a heel! The rest of the year would be filled with lots of jobbing to other wrestlers until the Christmas season where once again luck shone on Albert like a flashlight pointed at an ant! He joins the Big Show and Paul Heyman and gets repackaged as “A-TRAIN”. During this arc, A-Train took on the top guys in the company such as The Undertaker, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Brock Lesnar! He didn’t win any more titles but the mere fact he wrestled with these guys made him the happiest guy on the planet and he had no regrets. In June of 2004, he suffered an injured shoulder and took time off to heal. However, before he could even attempt any sort of comeback, he was released from his contract with the WWE.


So was this it? Should he go back to teaching? The answer was a clear NO and not long after, he was back to the indies. He joined the Impact Zone Wrestling group and even won its top heavyweight title! Then the following year, he was off to JAPAN! Apart from wrestling for IZW, he began performing for the All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) promotion under the ring name…


GIANT BERNARD



The name was a reference to fellow American talent Brute Bernard and it was here he was reunited with other former WWE wrestlers who had made their way to the land of the rising sun such as D’Lo Brown, Bull Buchanan, Jamaal (UMAGA), RO-Z (superhero Rosey), Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli! Bloom joined the “Voodoo Murders” stable, known for its uber heelish ways and wrecked havoc to the delight of the Japanese crowds!




Say hello to “Gaijin” Big Boot!





Highlights in Japan include:

1) A failed attempt to fight for the invaluable AJPW TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP against Satoshi Kojima...

2) Moving on to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and winning the 2006 New Japan Cup tournament to earn a shot at the International Wresting Grand Prix (IWGP) Heavyweight title!

And who held the IWGP title at that time? Why, none other than the prodigal son Brock Lesnar! To those of you who were wondering where the heck he vanished to after his last (and lousy) WWE match with Goldberg, well, here he is! Bloom of course, lost to Brock for his title shot.




Sort-of-Epic Match!




Bloom tried to fight for the title after Brock vacated it by joining a tournament for it but lost in the finals. He also participated in the 2006 G1 Climax tournament but again lost, this time in the semis. Finally in March of 2007, Bloom earned his first title on Japanese soil by teaming up with Travis Tomko (yes, THE SAME “Tyson Tomko”) and winning the IWGP Tag Team Championship by beating the team of Omori Takao and Manabu Nakanashi! Of course we all know Tomko went back to the USA to perform for TNA so Bloom found himself a new partner in Rick Fuller! Bloom still actively wrestles for New Japan (as “Giant Bernard”) to this day as well as occasionally for Wrestle Land (as “Rusher Road”).




This man who idolized his heroes from World Class Championship Wrestling (the “Von Erichs”, the “Fabulous Freebirds” and the legendary Bruiser Brody) is now himself, a bonafide professional wrestling superstar! Doing this article, I had gained the utmost respect for him especially when he said these words to defend his decision to go into pro wrestling:



"You never regret what you do; you regret what you don't do. I figured if I fall on my face, it's not the first time I've fallen on my face, just gotta get up and get back into teaching."




Last tidbits: Bloom only shaved his body hair when he was in Japan to get new tattoos and
he currently has 28 piercings all over his body and is happily married~





This has been a Kagami presentation! Thanks to “Blabber Brother” Dominator for suggesting this ex-WWE star in the wayback 11th issue! Remember my American friends: make sure to vote for the presidential candidate who you believe will truly make a difference!