Matt Bloom (person)

Matt Bloom is a wrestler in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. He has been known as Prince Albert, Albert, The Hip Hop Hippo, and most recently, the A-Train. He weighs in at over 300 pounds. Although he has played both babyface and heel roles in the course of his career, he is most often a heel. His thickly-haired chest and back, combined with his gigantic head, give him the appearance of a gorilla. Wrestling crowds often chant the phrase "Shave your back" at him. His finisher is a sit-out powerbomb dubbed "The Baldo Bomb."

Matt Bloom made his World Wrestling Federation debut on an edition of WWF Superstars. He appeared at ringside with Darren Drozdov (also known as Droz). Droz introduced his personal tattoo artist, the pierced, hairy-backed Prince Albert. The pun of Prince Albert's name was apparent to anyone who knows the meaning of the term.

After Droz's untimely paralysis, Bloom was paired up with the Big Boss Man, still under the Prince Albert gimmick. After that team was broken up, Bloom joined up with Test and Trish Stratus. At that point he dropped the "Prince Albert" gimmick, becoming simply Albert, and the team of Test and Albert was referred to as "T&A" (which was an obvious play on Trish Stratus' main assets to the team). Although Albert played a strong role in this team, most of the time the real emphasis was on Trish, and so Bloom never was really in the spotlight.

After that tagteam was broken up (mostly so that Trish and Test could pursue solo wrestling careers), Albert was largely a midcarder on the less popular shows such as WWE Velocity or WWE Metal. But soon after, he joined up with X-Pac and Justin Credible to form X-Factor. Again, he was not the spokeman of the team, but was billed as the unstoppable monster, the team's true power.

On June 26 2001, from Madison Square Garden, on an edition of Smackdown, Albert gained the biggest victory of his career, securing the Intercontinental Championship from Kane. He later lost the title to Lance Storm (with help from the WCW/ECW Alliance).

After X-Factor broke up, Bloom was once again stuck in the midcard. He was traditionally a heel, but at the time, storylines were focusing on the conflict between the WWF and the Aliiance. As he was not a member of the Alliance, which contained essentially all the other heels in the WWF, but was not viewed by the fans as a face, he had little to do. But soon after, he broke out of his heel role by teaming with Scotty 2 Hotty, mimicking the dance moves of the smaller man and creating a mismatched and comical team. At this point, Bloom was dubbed "The Hip Hop Hippo" by the commentators. The team did not go far, however, quickly losing momentum as the storylines were focused on the fast-rising (and ambiguously gay) team of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumblo, also known as Billy and Chuck.

The team was broken up when Albert turned on Scotty 2 Hotty. Albert was once again relegated to the midcard, and many insiders predicted he would be released from the WWE.

But, Bloom has had a recent resurgance in exposure in the WWE. In early 2003, he returned as the "A-Train," becoming an ally to Paul Heyman. Heyman at the time had The Big Show and Team Angle as his clients. Although the A-Train was initially not an official member of Heyman's stable, he has assisted The Big Show or Team Angle on several occasions. Most notably, the A-Train tried to help The Big Show defeat The Undertaker at No Way Out in February of 2003. Although The Undertaker still defeated The Big Show via a triangle choke submission hold (after an impressive no-hands over-the-tope-rope flying tope which momentarily stunned the A-Train), the A-Train subsequently got the upper hand by powerbombing The Undertaker after the match. On the following Smackdown, A-Train was announced as an official client of Paul Heyman, and teamed up with The Big Show to attack the Undertaker. Undertaker was saved by Nathan Jones. This indicates a possible feud between the A-Train and The Undertaker which could culminate at a match at Wrestlemania in March of 2003.