Gary Albright

A standout amateur wrestling competitor through out middle and high school, a young Gary Albright knew that stretching wrestlers was in his future. So, he went to the University of Nebraska and became a member of the "Cornhusker" wrestling squad. Achieving incredible success, Albright dominated the NCAA with an outstanding amateur wrestling record. From there, Albright wanted more competition and entered the Pro Wrestling realm where he continued his dominance as a submission and suplex expert. He had several successful tours of Canada in the Stampede wrestling promotion. During this time, Albright tweaked his skills even more. From Canada, Albright went overseas to Japan to the UWFI- a SHOOT league. While there, he squashed all competition and left the promotion hungry for more of it. Enter- ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING! Albright shocked the crowds with his rolling German suplexes, full nelson suplexes and array of submission holds. Many AJPW competitors went down hard and fast while Albright's star continued to rise. Eventually, he met up with perennial All Japan Triple Crown holder "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and formed an awesome unit holding the AJPW Tag Team and tournament titles on many occasions. Nowadays, Albright continues his dominance in All Japan seeking a singles championship in the promotion. Recently, he married Afa's daughter and became another HUGE member of the HUGE Samoan Dynasty.

In Loving Memory......By now, I'm sure the whole wrestling world has heard the tragic news about the passing of my son - in - law Gary Albright. First I would like to Thank all of the people who respected the grief that my family is going through. For those of you who have held back the rumors to wait for my family to learn the facts, we appreciate the respect.

Gary was a very honorable man who was not only one of the best wrestlers that we have in this business, but also he did not need the TV exposure from the big two to make a name for himself. Gary's high school and college achievements speak for themselves, and his pro career was very established. He was one of Japan's TOP AMERICAN WRESTLERS. Gary worked for many years with ALL PRO JAPAN. He and Doctor Death Steve William were the best of friends and tag team partners for so many years. I have personally know Gary for many years as we all lived in Pensacola Florida. Gary and my oldest son Sam ( Samu ) 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. Through out their courtship, he made my baby very happy and soon after, I was proud to walk my daughter up the isle as she became Mrs. Gary Albright in a very romantic Samoan style wedding in the island of Maui.

Gary gave my daughter all the love and happiness that she could ever want and need, and together they were raising 3 beautiful children. ( Sam, Angel, & Ali )

Gary and myself were very close, we never missed a day of talking over the PC no matter if he was in Japan or just at home with his family. Gary often told me how thankful he was to have me in his life, because he lost his dad and felt that I could fill that void because we were so much alike. It was such a pleasure for me knowing that Gary felt that close to me.

When Gary found out that he was having some time off from his busy wrestling schedule, he asked his wife, my daughter if he could come up to Pennsylvania to spend sometime with me and the family up here. Of course Monica was delighted to have Gary be with us.

Thursday night Gary arrived in Pa. and my son, Sam picked him up because I was up in Hazleton at my gym preparing things for the Friday night event. As soon as Gary got to Sam's house, he called my home to let me know that he was here and we made plans to get together for lunch on the next day ( Friday ). He spent a very good night with Sam and the family. They ate a typical Samoan Feast and they talked about how happy Gary was to be part of such a big family and that he thanked God everyday for his beautiful family.

Friday morning Gary called me as soon as he awoke to say good morning and that he was looking forward to seeing me shortly. He was packing up his things because he was coming to stay at my house for the remainder of his stay. Early afternoon, Sam, my nephew Matt E Small's , Gary, my wife and myself met at the Red Lobster for a very nice lunch. We talked about many things and I mentioned how long he would be staying. He said for the week, I asked him to stay an additional week so we could kick back and spend some time together. Gary was so happy that he ran to the phone and called his wife and told her to book herself a plane ticket to meet us here because I had asked him to stay.

For those of you who don't know the Samoan Heritage, we are a close knit family, especially my daughters.

After lunch Gary road up to Hazleton with me. We enjoyed every minute of the drive, and he was telling me all his plans about moving to Montana and opening a wrestling school and Indy promotion. Gary and Monica had so many plans for the future. I promised my baby that I will help her to keep Gary's memory alive and help her in everyway to finish the plans that they started.

We got to the Arena around 4pm and things were fine as usual. Gary enjoyed sitting in the dressing room and talking to many of the WXW wrestlers who were so honored to have here to help us. They talked about different holds & moves that he so graciously offered to teach them this coming week at our training sessions.

Around 9:15 pm, it was Gary's turn to wrestle. His opponent was ( Billy Owens ) Lucifer Grimm.
Billy idolized Gary all his life and he kept saying that this was a dream come true for him. The match got off and everything was going great, and in the split second all of our lives were changed forever. Before I state the cause of death, I want to stress the fact that in no way was my Son - in - laws death related to wrestling.

The cause of death was cardiac dysrhythmia due to severe coronary atherosclerosis and cardionegaly, diabetes mellitus, acute pulmonary edema. Otherwise known as a heart attack.
Gary passed away in my son ( Sam's arms ) all of Gary's family was around him. My other 2 sons, LA SMOOTH ( Lloyd ) Afa Jr., my nephew MATT E. SMALLS, my daughter Tovale, my wife Lynn and my Grandchildren and daughter - in - laws. We rushed Gary to the ER but we all knew in our hearts that he passed on in the ring, ( That he loved so much ) in Sam's arms.

The only thing that keeps my daughter going is the fact that Gary passed away among his family.

The wrestling world has lost yet another great legend but more important the Anoai family has lost one of our own. We are so thankful to have had Gary in our lives and he will live on through my grand children. We all love you Gary and we know that you are sitting with the lord and all of your family who have left before you. It gives us comfort to know that you are with your mom and dad.

You will never be out of my thoughts son and I know that through the good lord, we will all be together again. Have a safe journey home son.

Love .. Dad