Gary Albright

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[El-P]

Tamura and Kawada did wonders with this big oaf (better than this)

[Timbo Slice]

He was fine, but he won't be close on a list like this. The Kawada match is probably the greatest single feather in the cap of ol' Dangerous K, and I did like his chases in UWF-i, but there just wasn't enough there.

[SomethingSavage]

I've seen some of his stuff, but he's honestly always been on the lower-end of my American gaijin priority watch list.

That being said, would anyone be willing to compile a short list of any "must see" matches from him, if there were any? I'm willing to keep an open mind and would really like to see what Albright looks like at top form.

Apologies if anything's been posted elsewhere. I tried a quick search over in the Microscope forum but came up empty. And since I've got a crazy hectic week at work, I figured this would be the quickest route to take.

[GOTNW]

He is probably my favourite squash wrestler, I doubt he'll make my list but if I were basing it on favouritism only he probably would. Enjoyed his big matches vs. Takada, Kawada etc. and watching him suplex the shit out of people is always a treat.

[Ma Stump Puller]

I'm gonna try to make the case for Albright being at least on the top 100. First off, I'll agree with some of the sentiments here: he's a bit of a lame duck, and when paired with someone who can't take his huge ass suplexes (I.E. a Hansen) he struggles immensely. He's far from a natural in the ring and he quickly gets booked away from the main event after a fairly underwhelming Misawa TC defence. However, when you are going through weekly AJPW tapings, looking at the same guys over and over, Albright is one of the few guys that stays consistently entertaining, at least for myself. He's a great monster heel when he's manhandling the smaller lads, terrorising the Super Generation Army or whatnot, completely wrecking them with big suplexes and slams. Sure, he's NOT charismatic and you definitely can't build a match around him, but he plays a critical role in the Triangle of Power as Williams's vicious partner in crime and supporting act in his later years, getting some really good matches out of someone who was, quite frankly, starting to break down a fair bit physically and wasn't the man he was in prior years. He's a great upper card tag worker and has made some truly bizarre team-ups (him and Sabu) work well. 

Here are most of his highlight matches in AJPW, in bold being the ones where he particularly shines (please note that I haven't checked out Albright's debut year yet so there's probably a few missing) 

 

Gary Albright, Maunakea Mossman & Scorpio vs. George Hines, Johnny Ace & Mike Barton (1999)

Gary Albright & Vader vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (1999) 

Akira Taue & Jun Izumida vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (1998) 

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (1998)

Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Jun Akiyama & Tamon Honda (1998)

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Steve Williams (1998)

Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (1997)

Akira Taue, Tamon Honda & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright, Steve Williams & The Lacrosse (1997)

Kenta Kobashi Johnny Ace & Maunakea Mossman vs Steve Williams, Gary Albright/The Lacrosse (1997) 

Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (1997) 

Gary Albright vs. Toshiaki Kawada (basically all of their matches together: 1995, 1996, and then one in 1997, albeit that one is weaker than the others)

Gary Albright vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (1997)

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW 1997)

Gary Albright & Sabu vs. Kenta Kobashi & Patriot (1996)

Gary Albright & Sabu vs. Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (1996)

Gary Albright vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (1996)

Gary Albright, Johnny Ace & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (1996)

Gary Albright vs. Jun Akiyama (1996) 

Gary Albright vs. Masanobu Fuchi (1996)

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Stan Hansen (they have two matches together in 1996, both worth a watch)

This isn't including just generally alright or decent matches (of which there's a fair chunk) as well as his shooty work in UWF, of which some have claimed is of better quality overall before he had his fissy fit against Tamura and essentially ruined whatever chances they had at continuing. All in all, the idea that he was a slow tank that had to be led to good quality matches is incredibly untrue, the man could work quite well for himself, hopefully this list helps in dispelling that. 

 

 

 

[Microstatistics]

Great post, Ma Stump Puller. Between his AJPW and UWFi runs, I wouldn't be surprised to see Albright show up on a couple of lists. I agree that his pseudo-shoot style added some freshness to the usual mid-90s AJPW rotations. 

[Control21]

Albright will definitely make my Top 100. Pound for pound, one of the best and most exciting gaijin heavyweights during the 1990s along with Steve Williams and Stan Hansen.

[Ma Stump Puller]

On 7/16/2022 at 2:56 AM, Microstatistics said:

Great post, Ma Stump Puller. Between his AJPW and UWFi runs, I wouldn't be surprised to see Albright show up on a couple of lists. I agree that his pseudo-shoot style added some freshness to the usual mid-90s AJPW rotations. 

Thanks! This was made a while back before I'd gone back to Albright's 1995 stuff properly and I'd say there's even more stuff I could potentially add to the list if I really wanted to do so; namely because he does a lot of heavy-lifting for 1996 Hansen before he settles into more of a vet role, which was fun enough viewing. His hybrid-shoot work paved the way for others like Takayama/Kakihara later on.