Gary Albright Gary Albright ( May 18 , 1963 – January 7 , 2000 ) was an American professional wrestler who performed mainly in Stampede Wrestling in Canada and with UWF International and All Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan . Albright was a member through marriage of the famous Anoa ' i wrestling family , including Afa and Sika , Yokozuna , Rikishi , and The Rock . His widow , Monica , is the daughter of Afa Anoa ' i . After wrestling as a respected amateur wrestler Albright made his debut in 1988 for Stampede Wrestling but from the early 1990s worked more or less exclusively for Japanese promotions that focused more on the “ Shoot ” aspects than the “ sports entertainment ” aspects of professional wrestling . Albright was in the ring wrestling when he died , pronounced dead only minutes after being removed from the ring . Career . Albright was born in Rhode Island and started amateur wrestling while in High School . Albright wrestled for Billings West high school in Billings Montana . Albright would go on to wrestle in the NCAA for the University of Nebraska where he set the Nebraska State record for total falls in a season : 38 falls in the 1985 - 1986 season . His amateur career ended up netting him the following facts : State Champion ( 55 - 2 record ) 112 wins – 19 losses – 4 draws ( 70 by pin ) Big 8 Champion Big 8 All - Academic team Freestyle and Greco - Roman U . S . team member from 1981 - 1984 1982 National Open Freestyle champion 1981 World Greco - Roman Elite champion Member of the “ Sunkist Kids ” national championship team Stampede Wrestling . After graduating college Albright began to train for a professional wrestling career , getting advice and training on pro wrestling by prominent wrestlers such as Lou Thesz , Billy Robinson and Danny Hodge in the process . In 1988 Gary Albright got his first break in wrestling when he signed on with Stu Hart ’ s Stampede Wrestling out of Calgary , Alberta , Canada . Albright was brought to the Hart family ’ s attention by Brian Pillman who knew of Albright through a mutual acquaintance . He started out as a face but it wasn ’ t long until the promoters decided he would work better as a heel . Albright ’ s gimmick was changed to that of " Vokhan Singh " , supposedly a wrestler from Karachi , Pakistan . Albright was teamed up with Makhan Singh ( Mike Shaw ) to form “ Karachi Vice " , considering that Shaw was even paler than Albright their claims were never supposed to be taken legitimately . Albright and Shaw were led by “ Gama Singh " ( who was legitimately from India ) the founder of “ Karachi Vice " , the stable also included Steve DiSalvo and Kerry Brown . The two 300 + pound men made a formidable combination , so formidable that they beat the legendary British Bulldogs for the Stampede International Tag Team Championship on December 12 , 1988 . The team defended the titles for just about four months until losing them to Chris Benoit and Biff Wellington on April 8 , 1989 Stampede closed by the end of 1989 at which point Albright began looking elsewhere for employment . He wound up working a couple of tours of South Africa and various independent federations for the next year or so . UWF International . Thanks to Bruce Hart Gary Albright managed to sign up with the recently created Union of Wrestling Forces International , also known as UWF International or UWFi . The UWFi was a Shoot Style professional wrestling promotion , this meant that they presented an in ring product that was based on shoot style fighting that focused on striking , suplexes , and submissions ( similar to the UFC ) but that like all professional wrestling the outcome was pre - determined . Albright made his debut with UWFi on August 24 , 1991 , knocking out Yoji Anjoh in 7 : 29 . Albright ' s massive size and his amatour background made his suplexes seem very impressive , to add to Albright ’ s “ Suplex machine " image he was typically booked to win by knocking out his opponents with brutal German suplexes such as his 5 : 26 victory by knock out over Kiyoshi Tamura on December 22 , 1991 . The highlight of Gary Albright ’ s initial UWFi push came on May 8 , 1992 when he knocked out Nobuhiko Takada with his signature German suplex at Yokohama Arena in front of an announced crowd of 14 , 000 . Takada was UWFi ’ s biggest Japanese star , the loss to Albright helped cement him as a serious competitor in the UWFi . Albright continued his winning ways in singles and tag matches through the summer of 1992 defeating such notable competitors as " Bad News " Brown . Albrights string of victories came to an end when he lost a rematch with Takada on September 21 , 1992 . Albright submitted to Takada ' s cross arm breaker , thus making Takada the first UWFi World champion . After the loss to Takada , Albright continued to win singles matches , usually in less than five minutes , but with the arrival of Super Vader , Gary Albright was supplanted as the top Gaijin in the federation , fighting in the undercard instead of the main events . Albright teamed up with Dan Severn in a loss to Salman Hashimikov and Vladimir Berkovich . Hashimikov forced Severn to submit to a Cross Armbreaker in 13 : 09 on the first UWFi PPV broadcast in American called " Shootfighting " . Albright began to get pushed again in 1994 as part of UWFi ' s " Best of the World " tournament . In the first round of the tournament Albright knocked out Billy Scott in 2 : 11 . He then defeated Yoji Anjoh in the second round to advance to a semifinal match with Nobuhiko Takada . On June 10 , 1994 , in front of a sellout crowd at Nippon Budokan , Albright lost by submission in 16 : 00 in the main event . Albright defeated Kiyoshi Tamura on August 18 , 1994 to finish third in the tournament , the same night that Vader defeated Takada for the UWFi title . With Albright finishing third in the tournament and Vader defeating Takada to win the tournament the UWFi started to promote a meeting between Vader and Albright as an UWFi “ Dream Match " . Building up to the singles title match the two faced off in a couple of tag - team matches leading up to the big event . On October 8 , 1994 , Albright forced Vader to submit to the cross arm breaker in a main event tag team match , then on November 30 , 1994 , Albright forced Takada to submit to a cross arm breaker in the main event to earn a match with Vader in January . The UWFi “ Dream Match " took place on January 16 , 1995 , a match that saw Vader winning the match in 11 : 25 using a choke hold . The buildup and the match were a commercial success , with Albright and Vader drawing large sellout crowds in their two tag team main events , Albright ' s contenders match with Takada , and the Vader versus Albright title match . During 1995 UWFi began having problems because while they had pushed Albright , Takada and Vader to the main event they had not succeeded in building up more challengers and their attendance was dwindling . On May 17 , 1995 , Albright lost to Masahito Kakihara in the semi main event to build up Kakihara for a match with Takada . On June 18 , 1995 Albright was supposed to put over Kiyoshi Tamura to build him into a main eventer . The match saw Albright ignoring the referee ' s instructions leading as he yelled " Break Gary , break ! " Albright also laid around on the mat doing nothing much until Tamura secured a rear choke and Albright tapped out . It is not clear if Albright ’ s actions in this match were legitimate or part of a Storyline , the only thing that is known for a fact is that Albright returned two months later , on August 18 , 1995 and submitted to Tamura in the main event without incident . Six days later UWFi announced a working agreement with New Japan Pro Wrestling and Albright left the promotion , signing with All Japan Pro Wrestling . All Japan Pro Wrestling . On October 25 , 1995 Albright lost to Toshiaki Kawada at Budokan Hall in a semi - main event singles match . Albright teamed with Stan Hansen on the following tour and the pair finished third in the Real World Tag League . On January 24 , 1996 Albright and Hansen beat Kawada and Taue for the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship , but lost them four weeks later on February 20 , 1996 in a rematch with Kawada and Taue . Albright challenged Mitsuharu Misawa for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship on March 2 , 1996 but Misawa ' s high flying style was too great to overcome . Misawa won by pinfall after his " rolling elbow " forearm smash to retain the title in Albright ’ s only shot at the AJPW title . After the loss to Misawa Albright was not pushed as a singles wrestler in All Japan , finishing seventh in each of his four Champion ' s Carnival appearances while scoring a few upsets over wrestlers such as Toshiaki Kawada in 1997 and Kenta Kobashi in 1998 . Albright teamed with Sabu in the 1996 World ' s Strongest Tag Team League , finishing last with 6 points scoring only 3 wins in the tournament . Albright teamed with Steve Williams and Lacrosse to form the " Triangle of Power " in 1997 . Albright and Williams finished third in the World ' s Strongest Tag League that year and went on to win the Unified tag titles on July 25 , 1997 . Albright became the leader of the Triangle of Power . after Williams left the promotion , but Albright ' s faction was not pushed . Albright teamed with Kimala in the 1998 World ' s Strongest Tag League , winning only one match and teamed with Wolf Hawkfield ( Jim Steele ) to finish last in the 1999 Tag League . Albright won his final match in All Japan in 1999 , beating Masao Inoue in 8 : 35 . Death . On January 7 , 2000 , Albright wrestled at a World Xtreme Wrestling show in Hazleton , Pennsylvania against Lucifer Grimm ( real name Bill Owens ) . After being hit with a three - quarter facelock bulldog , Albright collapsed to the canvas . A worried Grimm rolled Albright on top of himself to finish the match after which concerned wrestlers and ring crew tried to resuscitate him . Albright was pronounced dead shortly after being removed from the ring . The official cause of death is listed as a heart attack . The medical examiners also found that Albright suffered from diabetes , had an enlarged heart , and blockage of several coronary arteries . Because it was determined that Albright died of natural causes , the police were never involved in the matter . Albright was survived by his wife Monica Anoa ’ i , his son Samuel , and two daughters , Angelica and Alexandria .