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 through marriage of the famous Anoaʻi wrestling family.

His widow, Monica, is the daughter of Afa Anoaʻi.

Albright was the 1980 Montana state champion.

In 1981 Albright placed 2nd in the state championships in Helena, Montana.

Albright would go on to wrestle in the NCAA for the University of Nebraska where he set the Nebraska record for total falls in a season: 38 falls in the 1985-1986 season.

Highlights of Albright's amateur career include:

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", and was billed from Karachi, Pakistan.

Albright was teamed up with Makhan Singh (Mike Shaw) to form Karachi Vice.

Albright and Shaw were led by Gama Singh (who was from India), the founder of Karachi Vice, and the stable also included Steve DiSalvo and Kerry Brown.

The two 300+ pound men made a formidable combination and would see success, beating the British Bulldogs for the Stampede International Tag Team Championship on December 30, 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.

Albright wound up working a couple of tours of South Africa, USWA, an appearance in WCW, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and various independent federations between 1989 and 1991.

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 focused on seemingly legitimate striking, suplexes, and submissions, but 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 amateur 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.

Albright's 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 arm breaker 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.

On January 7, 2000, Gary Albright collapsed in-ring upon receiving a cutter 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.

Albright was born in Rhode Island and started amateur wrestling while in high school.

Albright wrestled for Billings West High School in Billings, Montana where he had a 55-2 record.