10 Wrestlers WWE Wished They’d Debuted Differently

Originally debuting in 1999 as a heater for midcarder Droz under the inauspicious name of Prince Albert, Matt Bloom’s surprising power and speed were ignored in favour of bad body piercing puns and gags about his body hair. Bouncing around the lower card in mostly forgettable alliances and even more forgettable feuds, he was released while rehabbing a rotator cuff injury five years later.

But Bloom had a whole lot more to offer than that. Once he was fighting fit again, he headed to Japan, where he spent seven years making a name for himself. The stage was set for a triumphant return to the WWE, and for a few weeks his Lord Tensai character ran right over the competition like a giant bald steamroller.

Thing is, the live WWE crowd loves to repeat things it’s seen other WWE crowds do on TV: it’s a perpetual motion machine, a cycle that goes round and round. All it took was some bright sparks on RAW chanting “Allllberrrrrt” at him while he was playing the brutal monster heel, and within a week every crowd was into it, determined not to let him forget that he’d played a dude whose name was a euphemism for a pierced penis. Tensai’s push became lower card comedy performances soon afterwards.

There was money on the table there: Bloom had the size, intensity and talent to be the 21st century Bam Bam Bigelow, or even Vader. As it stands, the man’s current gig as NXT’s head trainer will have to be his wrestling legacy.