Matt Bloom had a good career in WWE, first as Albert, then as A-Train. When he was released in 2004, he kept at his craft, heading to Japan -- first to All Japan Pro Wrestling, then to their primary competitor, New Japan Pro Wrestling. In New Japan, Albert -- now known as Giant Bernard -- began experiencing real growth. He won the New Japan Cup in 2006, and would go on to challenge for all three of the country's major wrestling championships. Eventually, he settled into a tag team with Karl Anderson, Bad Intentions, which set records with their IWGP Tag Team Championship reign. In March of 2012, word broke that he had signed with WWE once again. Immediately, vignettes began airing on Raw promoting the debut of Lord Tensai. When he made his in-ring return the night after WrestleMania XXVIII, announcers acknowledged that the man had been a WWE Superstar in the past, but an excursion to Japan had brought out the true competitor in him. He squashed Alex Riley, looking primed for what was rumored to be a main-event program with John Cena. Plans quickly changed when Tensai failed to get over -- matches with Cena and CM Punk were ugly, and the only reaction he received were chants of "Albert." The Big Show received Tensai's push, and by the summer, he was losing matches to Tyson Kidd. He ended up forming an undercard comedy tag team with Brodus Clay, then transitioning to a role as an announcer when the team was split up.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
