Gary Albright

**Gary Mitchell Albright** (May 18, 1963 – January 7, 2000) was an American professional wrestler best known for his work in Japan, first with UWF International (UWFi), and later All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). In AJPW, Albright was a two time World Tag Team Champion. Albright was also known for his work with Stampede Wrestling in Canada, under his birth name as well as the ring name **Vokhan Singh**.

An accomplished amateur wrestler, Albright translated this into his professional wrestling style, utilising many suplexes and throws throughout his career, earning the nickname "**Master of Suplex**".

Albright was a member by 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.

On January 7, 2000, Gary Albright collapsed in-ring upon receiving a three-quarter facelock bulldog from his opponent. Only minutes after being removed from the ring, Albright was pronounced dead. The cause of death was later ruled to be a heart attack.

## Professional wrestling career

Gary Albright started his career in pro wrestling in 1988 as Vokhan Singh in Bruce Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion. He teamed with Mukhan Singh to defeat the British Bulldogs for the Stampede International Tag Team Championship. Albright was probably paired with Shaw because both of them weighed over 300 pounds, even though neither one looked like they were from Karachi, Pakistan. The Singhs held the tag titles for four months, losing them to Chris Benoit and Beef Wellington.

Albright made his debut with UWFi on August 24, 1991, knocking out Yoji Anjoh. UWFi matches focused on striking, suplexes, and submissions. Over the next eight months, Albright was pushed as a suplex machine. Albright's massive size made his suplexes seem very impressive and he typically won by knocking out his opponents with brutal german suplexes.

Albright's first UWFi push culminated in May 1992 when he knocked out Nobuhiko Takada, UWFi's biggest Japanese star, with a german suplex in front of an announced crowd of 14,000 at Yokohama Arena. Albright continued his winning ways in singles and tag matches until he lost a rematch with Takada on September 21, 1992 when he submitted to Takada's cross arm breaker.

Albright continued to win singles matches, typically in less than five minutes, but he was pushed aside by the bookers when Vader started working with UWFi. Albright teamed with Mark Fleming and Dan Severn in several matches.

Albright began to get pushed again in 1994 as part of UWFi's "Best of the World" tournament. Albright knocked out Billy Scott and Yoji Anjoh in the first two rounds 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 16'26 in what was probably his finest professional match.

Albright defeated Kiyoshi Tamura on August 18 to finish third in the tournament, the same night that Vader defeated Takada for the UWFi title. During his three years in UWFi, Albright had been able to develop his mat skills and was now a well rounded shoot style worker rather than a one dimensional suplex machine.

Albright was given a renewed push to challenge Vader for the UWFi title in a UWFi fan's dream match. On October 8, 1994, Albright forced Vader to sumbit 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. Albright and Vader were not ideal opponents for each other.

Both relied heavily on power moves which were largely negated by each other's size, so their match on January 16, 1995 was disappointing with Vader winning in 11'25 with a choke hold. Nevertheless, the build up 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.

Despite their successes at the gate, UWFi was having problems because they had not pushed enough of their young talent. On 05/17/95, Albright lost to Masahito Kakihara to build up Kakihara for a match with Takada.

On June 18, 1995, Albright was supposed to put over Kiyoshi Tamura. Angered by his new role, Albright sabotaged the match with Tamura by refusing to cooperate. He ignored the referee's instructions leading to the now infamous quote of "Break Gary, break!" Albright also laid around on the mat, not trying to secure any holds of his own and not selling for any of Tamura's holds either. Eventually Tamura secured a rear choke and Albright tapped out.

Albright left the ring without shaking Tamura's hand and a dejected Tamura, on the eve of what was supposed to have been his biggest victory as a professional, broke down crying in the ring. Two months later, Albright returned to UWFi. Eventually, UWFi announced a working agreement with New Japan and Albright left the promotion, signing with All Japan Pro Wrestling.

On October 25, 1995, Albright lost to Toshiaki Kawada at Budokan Hall in a semi-main event singles match which stole the show from the Misawa versus Kobashi main event. 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 in a rematch. Albright challenged Mitsuharu Misawa for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship on March 2. Their match had a few exciting moments, but was disappointing overall because the contrast between Albright's UWFi style and Misawa's high flying style was too great to overcome. Misawa won by pinfall after "rolling elbow" forearm smash.

Albright was never pushed again as a singles wrestler in All Japan, finishing seventh in each of his four Carny appearances while scoring a few upsets.

Albright teamed with Sabu in the 1996 Tag League, finishing last. Albright teamed with Steve Williams and Lacrosse to form the Triangle of Power in 1997. Albright and Williams won the Unified tag titles on July 25, 1997 and went on to finish third in the Tag League.

In 1998, Albright became the leader of T.O.P. after Williams left the promotion, but Albright's faction was not pushed. Albright teamed with Kimala in the 1998 Tag League and teamed with Wolf Hawkfield to finish last in the 1999 Tag League. Albright won his final match in All Japan in 1999, beating Masao Inoue in 8'35. Albright was scheduled to appear again in All Japan in February 2000, but died in the ring before he even got the chance.

## 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 Anoaʻi, his son Samuel, and two daughters, Angelica and Alexandria.

A Gary Albright Memorial Show was co-promoted by WXW, the World Wrestling Federation, and All Japan Pro Wrestling in Albright's honor three months after his death. Close friend and fellow Anoa'i family member The Rock opened the show by remembering and paying tribute to Albright.

Albright will be remembered for his brutal array of suplexes and his matches with Takada and Kawada, but it is worth noting that he became an accomplished all around wrestler during his four years in UWFi. Unfortunately he was slow to adapt to the pro style wrestling of All Japan and his deteriorating health limited what he could do in the ring.