WWE’s handling of the rumor that a pack of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s top stars have given their notice and are WWE-bound is so interesting. They’re playing it as though WWE is a third party reporting on WWE news, and can’t reach anyone to confirm or deny. “What will happen in WWE? We, WWE, hope to find out from WWE soon!” It’s mostly to keep the hype up for a situation that is not totally legally cleared yet, and still relies on stars finishing up their contracts and passing physicals.
Still, WWE wants that sweet aggregated traffic like the rest of us. Daniel Bryan’s reading WWE.com articles about New Japan and begging to be cleared to compete, and now Dot Com’s sitting down with former New Japan star Matt Bloom, aka Giant Bernard — you may know him as Prince Albert, Albert, A-Train, Jason Albert, Lord Tensai, Tensai, Sweet T, the current head coach at the WWE Performance Center or the “Hip-Hop Hippo” … no, really — to talk about it.
Spoiler alert: He’s excited, because he’s a human being.
WWE.COM: What was your reaction when you heard that some members were potentially coming to WWE?
BLOOM: It’s about time. WWE is the largest platform in the world to do what those guys love to do. They deserve to be here because they paid their dues, they worked really hard, and they made names for themselves. The best of the best come here to flourish. They’re gonna take all those years of experience, hard work and dedication, and now show it to the world on an even grander scale.
As the article mentions, Bloom competed in NJPW from 2006-2012, teaming with Karl Anderson in “Bad Intentions” and even co-founding CHAOS with Shinsuke Nakamura and others. He’s a New Japan Cup winner, a two-time G1 Tag League winner and a two-time IWGP Tag Team Champion. He’s the perfect guy to not only react to the signings, but to put it into perspective for newer fans.
[Finn Balor’s] excited. He’s stoked. Finn is doing big things on his own right now, but I’m sure he knows that becoming the champion is difficult and staying the champion is even more difficult. He’s got an ace in his back pocket because he might have some friends coming in that have been known to watch his back. I’m sure that’s very comforting for Finn Bálor.
… You hear the boss always say, “You need to reach for that brass ring.” The Bullet Club do things outside the box to continually reach for that brass ring. They’re not afraid to buck the system and be different. They’re not afraid of trying new things. The fans, the locker room, and us as coaches are very excited to see what The Bullet Club might do.
In other words, it’s reeeeeal.
