Gary Albright, a former world class amateur wrestling star and headliner on many big shows as a pro in Japan, died after collapsing in the ring at an independent show in Hazleton, PA before about 100 fans on 1/7. He was 36.

The preliminary reports from the corner attributed the death of the 6-foot-4, 340-pound powerhouse to a heart attack, technically speaking a combination of severe atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus and acute pulmonary edema. Albright was a known diabetic for years. Funeral services were scheduled for 1/14 in Pensacola, FL, where he had resided for many years.

He was a current regular with All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he was scheduled to return on 2/12 after being given the current tour off. Since he had time off, he decided to take a vacation in Pennsylvania where many members of the Anoia family had moved, and work a few shows while there.

The peak of his pro wrestling fame was in the mid-90s as the monster foreigner with the now-defunct Union of Wrestling Force International (UWFI) promotion and the beginnings of his stay with All Japan. He was wrestling along with several members of his family on the first of two weekend shows for his father-in-law, Afa Anoia of Wild Samoans fame, and his promotion called World Xtreme Wrestling. On the fifth match of the card at the local American Legion building, during a match against Lucifer Grimm, real name Bill Owens of Wilkes-Barre, PA, he collapsed after receiving an Ace crusher, a move somewhat similar to a stone cold stunner or a diamond cutter. He apparently suffered a heart attack at that point. Owens, who is said to have idolized Albright, told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader that he sensed that Albright lost power. Since he sensed something was wrong, and knew he was supposed to lose the match, Owens rolled to his back, and Albright instinctively put his arm on top of Owens. Owens told the ref to count to end the match, and then he started yelling for help. Albright was reportedly still breathing at this point.

"He was trying to get up," Owens told the local newspaper. "I grabbed him by the head and said, `Are you all right? Are you all right?' He was going through the motions. I rolled onto my back, and he put his arm on me and I told the ref to count the pin."

Jack Hill, who wrestled on the show as The Mad Russian, who was the show's EMT, performed CPR on Albright until paramedics arrived. Afa Anoia said that Albright had died in his brother-in-law's (Sam Anoia's) arms. One paramedic told the newspaper that Albright was dead when they tried to revive him. Live witnesses said when a monitor was put on Albright's heart, it "flatlined." He was officially pronounced dead at the Hazelton General Hospital.

"You can imagine the horror that my family and myself were facing, watching Gary passing away right in front of our eyes," Afa Anoia continued. "That was one of the hardest things I ever experienced. The hardest thing was making the phone call from the arena to my daughter to tell her what was happening to her husband."

Afa Anoia, whose daughter Monica was married to Albright, immediately canceled the rest of the show, as well as his show scheduled the next night in Allentown, PA. Monica Anoia Albright was at the couple's home in Pensacola, FL and was going to fly into Pennsylvania in a few days. He was survived by three children, named Sam, Angel and Ali.

"I had personally known Gary for many years as we all lived in Pensacola, FL," wrote Afa Anoia on the ISPW web site. "Gary and my oldest son Sam were very good friends who called each other brother. You can imagine how delighted I was when Gary asked for the hand of my daughter Monica. Throughout their courtship, he made my baby very happy and soon after, I was proud to walk my daughter up the aisle as she became Mrs. Gary Albright in a very romantic Samoan style wedding on the island of Maui."

GARY ALBRIGHT



CAREER TITLE HISTORY



Source: Wrestling Title Histories third edition; Wrestling Observer Newsletter archives



UWFI WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT: def. Nobuhiko Takada May 8, 1992 to become first champion; lost to Nobuhiko Takada September 21, 1992 Osaka



PWF WORLD & INTERNATIONAL TAG TITLES: w/Stan Hansen def. Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada January 24, 1996 Matsumoto; lost to Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada February 20, 1996 Morioka; w/Steve Williams def. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace July 25, 1997 Tokyo; lost to Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace October 4, 1997 Nagoya



STAMPEDE INTERNATIONAL TAG TITLES: w/Makhan Singh (Mike Shaw) def. Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith December 30, 1998 Calgary; lost to Chris Benoit & Biff Wellington April 8, 1989 Calgary



WRESTLING OBSERVER AWARDS

1988 - Rookie of the Year



AMATEUR WRESTLING AWARDS (all as a heavyweight)

1981 - Montana High School state champion

1982 - U.S. freestyle nationals (first place), U.S. Greco-roman nationals (fifth place), NCAA tournament (seventh place), AAU freestyle nationals (third place)

1983 - World Espoir (age 20-and-under) freestyle championships (second place), World Espoir Greco-roman championships (third place)

1984 - Big Eight champion, NCAA tournament (second place), U.S. Greco-roman nationals (first place), U.S. freestyle nationals (third place)

1986 - NCAA tournament (third place)

Sam Anoia arrived in the building at 9:35 p.m. because he had worked a show earlier that night in Reading, PA, and saw his brother-in-law already in the ring. He said he could notice that something wasn't right because he didn't seem to have the strength to take his opponent over in a powerslam, and he was coughing in the ring.

"I ran to the ring and my brother was having trouble," Sam Anoia wrote in the ISPW web site. "He had a tight fist in one arm and his eyes just couldn't seem to focus. Then my brother looked at me and his eyes cleared for a moment and as he looked at me he let out a sigh, as if one of relief, I think, to see a face he knew, to feel comfort around him. Then, Gary let out his last breath in my arms.

All Japan held a ten bell salute to Albright with Steve Williams in the ring holding a photo of him at its 1/9 show in Fukuoka, and his death was covered on the NTV network newscasts that evening. On the wrestling TV show later that evening they interviewed Williams, Mitsuharu Misawa, along with Yoshihiro Takayama and Masahito Kakihara, the latter two of whom knew Albright dating back to the UWFI days. Takayama talked about how much Albright helped him in the ring and Kakihara said he was a good friend and that Albright had in the past invited him to stay at his home for a week.

Albright, a powerhouse cowboy originally from Billings, MT, was one of the country's top amateur heavyweight wrestlers of the early and mid-1980s before embarking on a pro career, starting out with Stampede Wrestling before being hooked up and making his big reputation in Japan with the worked shootfight organization. Albright wrestled a few matches for WCW before getting the UWFI job, and a few matches for ECW a few years ago but not being a particularly good worker, or being colorful, charismatic, or having the right look for the more cosmetic oriented American wrestling, didn't make an impact in his home country.

His biggest American exposure was when Philadelphia boxing promoter Joe Hand attempted to make UWFI a viable third party on PPV in 1993-94 with a promotional campaign with the tag line, "Shootfighting, It's Real." Albright was the focus of the campaign which tried to portray shootfighters as being tougher than either pro boxers or pro wrestlers. Albright appeared on the first PPV which aired October 5, 1993 in the United States (taped the previous night in Osaka) teaming with Dan Severn in the semifinal to the Nobuhiko Takada vs. Billy Scott main event to lose to Soviets Vladimir Berkovich & Salman Hashimikov on a show that did shockingly well (0.48 buy rate) on PPV, actually slightly beating out the WCW PPV which took place a few weeks earlier. For a foreign company with no television to draw a number like that and beat out WCW was nothing short of astounding. The UFC in particular at this point in time saw potential great numbers in matching Albright with its biggest star, Royce Gracie, but nothing ever materialized.

However, the group failed to maintain momentum gained from the first show, which was largely well received. By the time a second PPV aired, all the momentum was lost and the show only did an 0.1 buy rate as Albright, portrayed as the biggest threat to UWFI world champion Nobuhiko Takada, destroyed Billy Scott in 2:11. UWFI's third and final PPV, which aired on November 11, 1994, was built around Takada and Albright's feud, showing tapes of their three previous singles matches, two of which Takada won and one of which Albright won. The show did only an 0.12 buy rate and the game was over.

With Albright being phased down after the Takada feud ran its course and being asked to job for Masahito Kakihara and Kiyoshi Tamura, the latter under very strange circumstances, plus the company collapsing financially, Albright bailed out and joined All Japan Pro Wrestling. At the time, it was considered a major move for All Japan to bring in a top star from a shoot group because they just didn't do business that way, let alone push him in a main event capacity. Because of Albright's reputation from UWFI as being legitimately tough, he was a big draw immediately and pushed as one of the top foreigners. But as time went on, the novelty of what Albright's reputation was fading. Not being a great worker in a work rate promotion, his standing started dropping and he had largely been relegated to mid-level programs.

Born May 18, 1963, Albright was a state champion heavyweight in Montana compiling a 55-2 high school record in wrestling. This earned him a scholarship to the University of Nebraska. A huge natural powerhouse, Albright did not have what would be called an impressive physique by the standards of a pro wrestler but he had a huge frame and particularly powerful hips and legs. He was not a hard trainer and hated the weights. There was an incident his freshman year where the Nebraska strength coach yelled at him about missing weight training sessions, and he went into the weight room, asked what the school record was for the leg press. Remember this was University of Nebraska, known for its huge lineman fed on weights and whatever else they were fed on. He piled the weights on the machine, pressed it, asked the coach if he was strong enough. He then walked away and never apparently never went back in the weight room over five years of college.

He compiled a 112-19-4 record with 70 pins in four years of heavyweight collegiate competition, being a three-time All-American and two-time Big Eight champion. He placed seventh in the NCAA tournament as a freshman in 1982 losing in the tournament to future tag team partner and good friend Williams. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Bruce Baumgartner and Williams placed 1-2 that year. That same year, at about the time of his 19th birthday, he won the U.S. freestyle nationals and placed fifth in the U.S. Greco-roman nationals (which is very impressive since at that age he clearly did not have a ton of national calibre Greco-roman experience) as well as taking third in the AAU freestyle nationals. He red-shirted collegiate wrestling in 1983 but competed internationally taking second in the World Espoir (age 20-and-under) championships in freestyle and third in Greco-roman. He came back to collegiate competition to place second in the NCAA's in 1984 to the late 420 pound Tab Thacker, won the U.S. Greco-roman nationals and placed third in the U.S. freestyle nationals behind Baumgartner and Thacker. As a senior in 1986, he beat Tom Erikson to garner third place in the NCAA's.

After college, he didn't continue his amateur career and with his size, was directed toward pro wrestling after meeting up with former wrestler and manager "Beautiful" Bruce Swayze. He trained with Swayze but was going nowhere. In 1987, his best friend from college, Jack Skow, was playing with the Cincinnati Bengals and a connection was made with strength coach Kim Wood, who was also instrumental in getting Brian Pillman started in pro wrestling. Wood arranged, through Pillman and Bruce Hart, since Stu Hart loved real shooters in his territory, for him to start with Stampede Wrestling in December 1987 with his first pro match against Pillman.

In a territory filled with mainly junior heavyweights doing acrobatic style, Albright actually tried doing the flying moves everyone else was doing, even including a Keiji Muto-style handspring elbow, to fit in, but obviously those weren't the right moves for his size. Albright at various times went both by his real name and under the name Vokhan Singh, sometimes at the same time, billed as the bigger younger half brother of area top heel Makhan Singh (Mike Shaw aka Bastion Booger).

Albright was voted the Wrestling Observer's Rookie of the Year in 1988, and he and Singh captured the Stampede International tag team titles from Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith and held them for a little over three months before dropping them to Chris Benoit & Biff Wellington. After Stampede, his career sputtered for a while. He went to New Japan in June of 1990, another company due to its hierarchy of legitimate athletes that liked people with real credentials, but he didn't catch on and never went back, and also had a stint in Puerto Rico.

After Stampede, Albright moved with his mother to Pensacola, FL and did some television work with WCW but his career was going nowhere. The UWFI, an offshoot of the exceedingly popular UWF promotion in Japan that folded at the end of 1990 after a power struggle and a money scandal, opened up in 1991. The company was built around Takada, who was one of the top stars of the old UWF and was the President and big draw with this new group. While Wood was in Japan, he met with a UWFI official and suggested Albright because of his amateur background and UWFI liked the idea because Albright had done some pro wrestling, but was not a major pro wrestling name since they wanted new stars since it was a supposed shoot group. Albright fit in perfectly as a monster with the group, since most of the native stars ranged from 5-7 to 5-11 and were all under 220 pounds, so Albright, at 6-4, could fit the traditional foreign monster role and visually give the impact of being much larger than he really was, plus he had a background and threw strong suplexes. With his size advantage and legit wrestling skills, he was pushed as Takada's top opponent in 1992-93, destroying everyone in the company in what amounted to short squash matches, usually finishing with what was pushed as his knockout move, the dragon suplex in two or three minutes. Albright used the move to beat Kazuo Yamazaki (the group's No. 2 native star whose role was to put people over before they'd get shots at Takada) and Tamura (before he was a big name) along with American amateur stars like Severn and two-time Olympian Dennis Koslowski.

This led to the showdown match on May 8, 1992 before 14,000 fans at Yokohama Arena, billed as to crown the first UWFI champion. As the angle went, Albright won the match after three german suplexes via knockout and Takada had to be hospitalized for two days after the match, and became the company's first world heavyweight champion. This is the match that basically made Albright's career in Japan. Shortly after this match, UWFI hired Lou Thesz, who immediately took a liking to Albright because of his legitimacy, and created the angle of having a "real" world heavyweight champion that would wear the same belt Thesz wore in the 1950s when he was NWA champion the first time in Japan and when he was the closest thing in the modern era to a world wide recognized champion. Thesz would present the belt to the winner of the Takada-Albright rematch on September 21, 1992 in Osaka, which Takada won with an armbar. During this period, Albright regularly trained with the likes of Thesz, Danny Hodge and Billy Robinson, who worked as coaches for UWFI.

When Vader was brought in on a big money deal in late 1993, Albright fell to the No. 2 foreigner position. After Vader beat Takada for the title, Albright was given one last win over Takada on November 30, 1994 at Budokan Hall before a sellout 16,500 fans to set up the long awaited battle of the monster foreigners on January 16, 1995 which Vader won before another sellout at Budokan with a choke in 11:25.

Albright also worked the semifinal to the first Takada-Vader match on December 5, 1993 at Tokyo Jingu Stadium before a sellout 46,168 fans teaming with Severn to lose once again to Berkovich & Hashimikov. He also wrestled on the 13-promotion show on April 2, 1995 before 60,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome for UWFI as well as both All Japan Tokyo Dome shows the past two years.

Albright and UWFI had a falling out at this point, when they started phasing him down, asking him to job to smaller junior heavyweights like Masahito Kakihara and Tamura, and the company was undergoing financial problems. After he had done one job for Tamura, he as brought back for a rematch on August 18, 1995 at Tokyo Bay NK Hall that he figured he would win. There were problems backstage when he refused to do a second job for the young Japanese star half his size, and the match actually went into the ring with no finish. Albright, much larger and stronger, took Tamura down and Tamura couldn't get up. The referee frantically tried to get Albright to let Tamura up as they were in the ropes and he refused. It was a very strange scene, but after a few minutes of actual shooting, Albright clearly had blown up and could barely move, and was a sitting duck for Tamura's open handed blows to the face that Albright couldn't block. Tamura sunk in a deep choke and Albright tapped and Albright never appeared with the group again.

Giant Baba, going against his normal ways of doing business, recognized Albright as a new headliner he could put against his native stars, and brought in Albright for a "dream match" on October 25, 1995 with Toshiaki Kawada at Budokan Hall before the usual but far more heated then even normal standards All Japan sellout house of 16,300 with Kawada going over. Some who had worked with and even coached him felt that Albright, used to wrestling one match per month, would be unable to survive the daily grind of All Japan, but he survived the tough style as a regular for more than four years. The next tour was the tag team tournament and Albright teamed with Stan Hansen, who he remained good friends with, placing third. The two ended up winning the Double tag team titles from Akira Taue & Kawada for one month in 1996 before losing it back. He also got his second singles Budokan main event on March 2, 1996 losing to Mitsuharu Misawa in a Triple Crown match.

Albright remained somewhat protected, but not heavily pushed the remainder of his All Japan career and put in a series of tag teams that failed. He was made the regular partner of Sabu in late 1996, but that didn't work out because Sabu failed to get over as a serious star with the company and ended up quitting. He them formed a UWFI team with Yoshihiro Takayama to feud with tag champs Kawada & Taue in early 1997, but that didn't last and the TOP group was formed with Albright, Williams and The Lacrosse (Jim Roche).

He & Williams won the tag titles from Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace on July 25, 1997 at Budokan Hall in one of the worst tag title matches in company history and scored his only pinfall ever on Misawa in a defense on August 26, 1997 in Sapporo beating Misawa & Jun Akiyama which set up a Misawa vs. Albright singles match on September 29, 1997 in Matsumoto which Misawa won. They dropped the titles to Kobashi & Ace on October 4, 1997 in Nagoya and then placed third in the 1997 tag team tournament. He & Williams lost to Kawada & Taue in a tag title match on February 28, 1998 at Budokan Hall before Williams left All Japan for WWF. He then teamed with Takayama in a tag title match on July 15, 1998 match in Osaka losing to Kawada & Taue. But his stock fell badly that year, as he was given Giant Kimala II in the tag team tournament and they compiled a 1-6 record, and wasn't given any major matches in 1999, and compiled another 1-6 record with Wolf Hawkfield (Roche) as his partner. His final Japanese match was on 12/3 at Budokan Hall pinning Masao Inoue.

Albright was planning on moving his family back to Montana, opening up a pro wrestling school and a small independent promotion and teach his son Sam amateur wrestling.