1/23 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan 6,150 sellout
Vader made the his first defense of his current reign with the Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken, pinning Jun Akiyama at 16:13 following a chokeslam. Akiyama was trying to become a five crown king, but he'll have to continue to settle for the tag titles. Kobashi has asked for a shot at the belt on the next tour so he can avenge his friend Akiyama's loss. This would be logical because Kobashi beat Kawada on 1/17 and Kobashi & Akiyama defended the tag titles against Vader & Johnny Smith on 1/10.

No Fear beat Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue in the semifinal when Takao Omori pinned Kawada at 14:44 following his axe bomber. While losing to such a mediocre wrestler makes it one of the darkest days in the career of Kawada, the promotion really has nobody young to turn to outside of guys they refuse to push, so it's kind of a good thing. At least something unpredictable was finally done to increase the credibility of two of the younger wrestlers. Even though No Fear are marginally better than poor, the team got strong reactions when pushed last year before losing a lot of their heat when they were totally jobbed out during the Sekai Saikyo tag league. In spite of their "hard luck" from November through January, if a win over the top team in the promotion from 96-98 doesn't set No Fear up to challenge for the tag titles then there are some serious problems here.

1/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 2,100 sellout
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Jun Izumida downed Vader & Scorpio & Maunakea Mossman when Kawada used his enzuigiri on Mossman at 13:18.
Yoshinari Ogawa made his 4th successful defense of the Sekai Junior Heavykyu Senshuken, taking out comedy wrestler Tsuyoshi Kikuchi with his backdrop hold at 19:36.
No Fear beat Mitsuharu Misawa & Tamon Honda when Takayama pinned Honda at 14:22 following a guillotine drop (leg drop).
They had a four man tournament for the Asunaro Cup (which previously was a tag tournament where a veteran teamed with a youngster). In the first round, Naomichi Marufuji beat Takeshi Morishima at 14:49 and Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Makoto Hashi at 10:55. Later in the night, Yoshinobu Kanemaru won the Asunaro Cup with a moonsault press to Naomichi Marufuji at 12:30.

Giant Baba was one rich wrestling promoter. His estimated worth, which includes a condominium in Shibuya, a summer home, stock in All Japan, and savings was published as being 870,000,000-en. In other words, he was worth more than $8 million. After tax, his wife Motoko is expected to receive 80,000,000-en. I guess they aren't counting the value of the living quarters and stocks in this figure because I don't think any government could get away with taking that much tax out.

1/17 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 3,600
Toshiaki Kawada made his return to the ring, wrestling his first match since August when his orbital problems got so bad he was seeing multiple opponents in a singles match. What a long four months that was! I'm going through serious withdrawal from the lack of ass kicking goodness that we've seen in the absence of Kawada and Shinya Hashimoto. This was said to be really stiff, as expected, with the typical reddening of the flesh from brutal kicks and chops. Since Kawada was "rusty," he put over Kenta Kobashi at 18:15 after a short lariat. The match was a lot shorter than their typical matches (this was almost the 5th anniversary of their first classic 60:00 draw), but I'd rather see them ease Kawada back in then ask him to work one of the longest matches of his career coming off a four month layoff like they did with Hase on their first Tokyo Dome show. The win sets Kobashi up to challenge for the Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken next month.
The semifinal was a parejas increibles match (this is what the call it in Mexico when a face and a heel teams up against a face and a heel, in other words the partners are enemies) where Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama reformed their classic tag team for one night to beat the new team of Vader & Akira Taue when Misawa used his rolling elbow on Taue at 14:09. This gimmick has lost some of it's specialness because it's been done too often (with the amount of meaningful wrestlers they have, more than once a year is probably too often). They only 3,600 with it as the semifinal on a fairly loaded show when previously they probably could have got that with this match on top. Osaka is the toughest prefecture to draw in, but this crowd is just really bad news. Kobashi's drawing power has always been overrated, but you'd think more people would at least want to see Kawada's return when it was against such a tough opponent.
Steve Williams avenged his Brawl For It All loss to Bart Gunn, pinning Mike Barton (Gunn's new name) at 12:45 following a backdrop. Williams dedicated the victory to the late Gary Albright. With Williams being on the next tour and getting this win over Barton, it seems like they are satisfied enough with him that they'll at least keep on using him in a somewhat meaningful fashion for a while.
Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue beat Johnny Smith & Maunakea Mossman when Inoue pinned Mossman at 9:17. This was the first rematch of the Asia Tag final, so you'd think that Smith's team might have avenged that loss here to set up a title match.

1/16 Ishikawa Komatsu Dome 3,200 sellout
Hiroshi Hase joined Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa to defeat Vader & Johnny Smith & Scorpio when Hase used his patented northern lights suplex on Scorpio at 24:47.
Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama beat Steve Williams & George Hines when Hines actually submitted to Akiyama's udehishigigyakujujigatame.

Satoru Asako, who recently joined No Fear, is facing surgery on his right knee. He originally injured the knee on 10/24/99, but came back after missing one match. As is typically the case when injuries don't get time to heal, they get worse instead of better. He off the shows right now. He doesn't want to have surgery now that he actually has a little bit of purpose again, but probably doesn't have a choice.

1/11 Kagoshima Arena 3,050
Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue made their first successful defense of the Asia Tag Senshuken, defeating the new team of Hiroshi Hase & Jun Izumida in 26:13 when Honda used his dead end on Izumida. It's fine that Hase didn't get the belt because he isn't going to be available very often over the next four months to defend them, but he should be challenging for the real tag titles (with a real partner) since that is at least a meaningful match and acceptable defeat.
In the main event, Untouchables (Misawa & Ogawa & Kakihara) beat Burning (Kobashi & Akiyama & Shiga) in 21:19 when Misawa Tigerdrivered Shiga.
Akira Taue nodowa otoshi'd Yoshihiro Takayama for the win at 12:19.
Johnny Ace & Mike Barton dropped Steve Williams & George Hines when Barton used the "deadly" hidari (left) body blow at 16:24.

1/10 Kumamoto Shi Sogo Taiikukan 3,700
Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama made their second successful defense of the Sekai Tag Senshuken, taking out '99 Sekai Saikyo tag league 3rd place finishers Vader & Johnny Smith when Akiyama used his exploder on Smith at 17:10.

1/9 Fukuoka Kokusai Center 3,800
As expected, Misawa killed off Hase with an elbow bat at 24:42. You can see the kind of drawing power this match had, but what can they expect when Hase "worked his way up" to Misawa by jobbing to Kobashi, Akiyama, Kawada, and Taue.
No Fear did as little as you'd expect them to in singles matches against Burning, so they weren't set up for any future title matches. First Jun Akiyama beat Yoshihiro Takayama with a Samson clutch. Despite wrestling with a high fever caused by the flu and through a painful injury to his left elbow, Kenta Kobashi downed Takao Omori with a lariat at 18:31.
Vader & Johnny Smith vs. Steve Williams & George Hines was ruled an invalid match at 6:51 when Williams team had a falling out.
On the undercard, Scorpio pinned Kentaro Shiga with his 450 splash at 12:37.
The promotioned mourned the death of Gary Albright from acute heart failure before the show started. All the wrestlers gathered at ringside and Steve Williams lifted a photograph of Albright up while they did the ceremonial 10 count gong.
Stan Hansen cried over Albright's death, saying Albright was a good friend and that his fondest memory of Albright as a wrestler was when they won the tag titles from Kawada & Taue.

Tragedy once again struck the wrestling world with the shocking death of Gary Albright. Albright, who generally participates in all of All Japan's tours, wasn't booked on their Shinshun Giant Series so he made a rare US appearance, wrestling on a WXW show in Hazelton, PA that was promoted by his father in law Afa The Wild Samoan. Albright wrestled Lucifer Grimm in the 5th match on the show, a bout in their Millenium Tournament. During the match, Grimm delivered an Ace crusher and Albright slumped and did not move. Grimm pinned himself because he knew something was wrong Mad Russian gave Albright CPR (he's trained in it) and medical personel arrived as soon as possible, but could not bring him back despite a long hard effort. Apparently Albright was dead when they carried him out of the ring, but the fans didn't know this for sure so they were all praying he could be revived in the ambulance or hospital. The cause of death is believed to be a heart attack. The Ace crusher wasn't any different from normal, so if that caused his death then it was like Mayumi Ozaki Ligerbombing Plum Mariko in that there was no accident, just a perfectly normal wrestling move that unfortunately had an incredibly abnormal result. I'm glad that unlike WWF, Afa actually has some class and cancelled the rest of the matches on the show, but that's about the only positive here. .
I didn't really enjoy watching Gary's matches anymore, but I'd sit through a month of his worst matches if it would bring him back. I was just getting off the computer to watch a tape of AJ & NJ TV I got a better copy of when I got the email from Adam. It had the 3/29/98 show that I had skipped over initially because the old copy didn't come out right. Anyway, the show featured a '98 Champion Carnival bout between Albright and Stan Hansen. It was really hard to watch, not just because the match was terrible but because I was afraid when the match ended I was going to turn the computer back on and find out that he was no longer among the living. At the same time I was watching the match thinking "this match is so awful that it can't end soon enough" and "Stan is so embarrassingly bad that he's almost making Gary look average," I was also thinking, "god this better not be the last time I see Albright while he's living" and "please let him hang on." It kind of put in perspective for me how you can be torn between emotions. Everything that was being done in the ring was making me beg never again, but at the same time I was begging for more. I wasn't that I really wanted to see another negative star Albright vs. Stan match, but that this was a fairly young human being, too young to die, with a wife, three kids, family, and friends. The agony they were going through is not in any way comparable to the agony I was going through, and I could always have hit fast forward while for them there is no rewind.
Albright was born on 5/18/63 in Lincoln, Nebraska. In his youth, he was a hell of an amateur wrestler. His accomplishments in the heavyweight division include finishing 3rd in the 1982 AAU Freestyle Nationals (Dan Severn was 4th), 1st in the 1982 USA Wrestling Freestyle Nationals, 3rd in 1984 USA Freestyle Nationals (Severn was 2nd and Craig Pittman was 4th), 5th in 1982 USA Wrestling Greco-Roman Nationals (Pittman was 2nd), Co-champion in the 1984 USA Wrestling Greco-Roman Nationals, 7th in the 1982 NCAA Division 1 Tourament (Steve Williams was 2nd), 2nd in the 1984 NCAA Division 1 Tournament, 3rd in the 1986 Division 1 Tournament (Scott Steiner was 6th and Emmanuel Yarborough was 8th), and 2nd in Freestyle and 3rd in Greco-Roman in the 1983 Teenage World Championships.
Since he was such an accomplished amateur, it was only natural that the Japanese worked shoot organization UWF-I would be interested in him. However, the promotion didn't start until 1991. Albright was originally scouted by Bill Watts in 1987, debuting that December. He's the type of wrestler Watts likes, but he came around a few years late as Watts sold his promotion to NWA and Dusty made such great use of all the UWF stars, booking them into oblivion in record speed. Albright wasn't one of those wrestlers though, he wound up wrestling for Stu Hart in Stampede as Muchan Singh's cronie Vokkan Singh. He made his debut against the late Brian Pillman in Calgary, and in roughly a year he had captured the Stampede International Tag Titles with Muchan. Their title win over the the British Bulldogs came on on 12/30/88, and they held the titles for three plus months before dropping the straps to Chris Benoit & Beef Wellington on 4/8/89. I never saw him until UWF-I, but I've seen enough Karachi crunches in my life to now I don't want to see any more, and it would probably be very depressing to see Gary miscast as some kind of lardass from Pakistan. Muchan Singh was a three time Stampede North American Champion though, losing the title for the last time on 12/9/88 to Don Muraco, so it wasn't a bad role for a rookie in that he was immediately thrust into the spotlight, with Muchan getting the lesser belts with Gary less than a month after losing the top title.
Albright entered UWF-I in August of 1991 with a huge push. He was a "350 pounder" in a league where the biggest natives were guys that grew out of the junior ranks. UWF-I played to Gary's strengths because you are supposed to use wrestling there. Gary was a powerful man, and he steeped his style toward an array of impressive throws that you mainly couldn't do in Greco-Roman because your opponent wouldn't jump for you, but they were credible enough within this style that he had no problem getting away with them. In fact, he awed the Japanese fans with his suplexes, which eventually earned him the nickname Sashujin Fujya (homicide windmill). In particular, his full nelson suplex was extremely brutal. When Gary did a suplex, the thought that wrestling is fake would never enter your mind. You just wondered if his opponent would get up, not that he would really hurt his opponents with them, but the illusion was that he wasn't protecting them and it was very believable that he could do incredible damage with them. Aside from the crushing impact, the booking created the aura that Gary was a monster gaijin. He would generally knock his opponent out with a suplex within ten minutes. He didn't come in and beat chumps either, within seven months of his UWF-I debut, he had beaten both of UWF-I's top natives, Kazuo Yamazaki and Nobuhiko Takada. The 5/8/92 victory over Takada where he became the first UWF-I heavyweight champ lead to a rematch on 9/21/92 where Takada beat him to become the first holder of the Pro Wrestling Sekai Heavykyu Senshuken (the title Albright had was scrapped because Thesz came aboard and let them use his more prestigious title), but basically he was unstoppable in UWF-I for the first year and a half. Unfortunately for Gary, UWF-I worked out a deal to use WCW's heavyweight champion Vader, who had been a major star and world champion in UWF-I's rival New Japan before they had a falling out and Vader stopped working in Japan. Vader was bigger than Albright in size and prestige, and was also a better wrestler (not in the sense of amateur wrestling, I mean as an overall performer), so he was given the top gaijin spot and did the same type of monster heel routine that Albright was doing (although Albright prided himself on his wrestling and Vader was a self admitted brawler/fighter who had "boxing skills"). On the 5/6/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan show where Vader made his UWF-I debut, they both did the quick domination victories with Vader going through all Tatsuo Nakano's points in 3:35 then Albright KO'ing Dennis Koslowski with a full nelson suplex at 4:58. Albright wasn't above Vader on the cards for long though, as he was put into a secondary at best America vs. Russia feud, which focused on Gary vs. former IWGP Heavyweight champion Salmon Hashimikov. Meanwhile, mostly all the promotions focus was put on the first singles meeting between Vader and Takada, which drew 46,168 to Tokyo Jingu Kyujo, a record that lasted nearly 6 years.
Albright finished third in UWF-I's famous '94 Pro-Wrestling World Tournament. This tournament had two of the best singles matches of his career, a 16:36 udehishigigyakujujigatame loss to Nobuhiko Takada on 6/10/94 at Tokyo Nippon followed by a 17:31 German suplex KO over Kiyoshi Tamura in the 3rd place match on 8/18/94 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan. The thing is that Vader succeeded in beating Takada for the first time, capturing the Pro-Wrestling Sekai Heavykyu Senshuken in the process, and this was the best match in the history of the company. While Gary's final two tournament matches were among UWF-I's best, his 3rd place finish and the quality of those matches were very much overshadowed by the final. By not having Tamura go over Albright, the promotion still didn't have any natives that could really headline because Tamura & Masahito Kakihara lacked the big wins and Yamazaki's big wins were becoming a vague memory since he'd been losing so many matches, including a first round job to Takada in this tournament. The promotion knew they couldn't go back to Vader vs. Takada right away, so Albright was put into a tag feud with Vader that, like everything else in UWF-I from 93-94, drew really well. The difference was that for the first time, Takada wasn't involved in the top program. In an Albright & Yamazaki vs. Vader & Tenta match on 10/8/94 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan, they gave away a tag submission over Vader, udehishgigyakujujigatame at 17:54, so Albright could claim he was the top contender. This lead to a major #1 contenders match on 11/30/94 where Albright scored his second singles win over Takada with an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 15:20 to set up a title match against Vader on 1/16/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan. Vader took Albright out with a sleeper hold at 11:25 to cap Albright's career as a major force in Japan. UWF-I finally realized that they had nothing beyond one more Takada vs. Vader match, but it was too late by then. Business plummetted, and the promotion apparently hadn't made good use of all the money they made in the previous two years because they were quickly in financial peril. The loss of Vader after he put over Takada in their third and deciding match on 4/20/95, which drew a mere 6,000 paid to Nagoya Rainbow Hall, was a huge blow to the promotion as it left a gaping whole on top that the other guys couldn't really step in and fill since they had done nothing but lose to Vader. After putting over Masahito Kakihara on 5/17/95 at Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, Albright became unprofessional, as he realized his new role was elevating the younger natives in hopes that they would be able to draw on top against Takada. They wanted him to put Kiyoshi Tamura over on 6/18/95 at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, which meant back to back upset loses for Albright. Albright did the job, but didn't cooperate with Tamura. Instead, he stood around, laid around, didn't sell, threw a chair, etc. He did do the job, but it didn't mean much after he'd made a farce of the match. After being fined and I guess you could say suspended (he was scheduled to work two shows in July, but they took his matches off the books) Albright did come back and put Tamura over properly on 8/18/95 at Tokyo Bay NK Hall. This was the last UWF-I show before UWF-I was forced to bow down to the alter of Riki Choshu and the New Japan Gods.
Albright was smart enough not to join UWF-I in getting manhandled by the "fake" New Japan stars, instead signing with All Japan and debuting on 10/2/95 for their '95 Giant Series tour. The problem was that the Gary we know and liked wasn't given much of a chance to work in All Japan. To me, what made Albright so effective in UWF-I was his attitude. He was great playing the role of the sneering, menacing foreigner. He wasn't handsome, but nasty that scar on his face added to his aura as a legitimate bad ass. It took a phenominal worker to have an excellent match with Gary because he was limited in skill and his gimmick further limited him, but Takada, Tamura, and Kawada figured out how to minimize his weaknesses and maximize his strengths. That said, Gary was able to have a number of good matches in UWF-I because he played his role so well. He knew how to generate heat and had the kind of self confidence where he didn't come off like a guy that needed to be put in his place, but did come off like a guy that knew he was good and simply wanted the success he rightfully deserved. The Japanese weren't really supposed to root for him, but you did want to see his big matches and you didn't necessarily have to root against him. In All Japan, he was a perfect match for Kawada but his style clashed with their other top stars. He did improve his submissions skills during his tenure in UWF-I, but that was mainly because he started with next to nothing. By the end, he would try to use a handful of submissions, but he didn't have the smoothness or fluidity to make it any fun to watch him apply them. They didn't do much in the way of submissions in All Japan even back then. Although there were more submission wins than there are today (how could there not be?), they did far more running around than they did rolling on the mat. Gary really never picked up the pro style. He didn't have enough offense to work the longer matches and had a hard time handling his opponents pro style offense. The skill that translates best from UWF-I to All Japan is striking because all of their top stars regularly do one style of strike, rather it be kicks or elbows or chops. Striking was never something Albright was good at or tried to do much, he'd rather pull you in for a suplex or take you down, but a lot more action was expected in All Japan over a longer period of time, and you could only do so many suplexes in one match. Still, he could have worked if he was handled like he was in UWF-I, but the league wouldn't change for him.
Albright came into All Japan with a strong push and a ton of heat because he was still really over from his success in UWF-I. However, in vintage All Japan fashion, they wouldn't let him come in and go over one of their top stars in singles, so Kawada made him tap out at 15:36 in his first Tokyo Nippon Budokan match with All Japan on 10/25/95. It was an excellent match with tremendous heat, one of Kawada's top performances, but they could have drawn a big house for the rematch and future big Albright matches had Kawada put Gary over like Takada had in their first meeting. Albright was used as Stan Hansen's regular partner, and the duo was pushed in the '95 Sekai Saikyo tag league, finishing 1 point behind both Misawa & Kobashi (who won the final) and Kawada & Taue. Hansen & Albright then became the 27th holders of the Sekai Tag Senshuken on 1/24/96 at Nagano Matsumoto Shi Sogo Taiikukan, defeating Kawada & Taue at 22:40 when Hansen pinned Kawada. They didn't even get to make one defense though, as Kawada & Taue regained the titles on 2/20 at Iwate Kenei Taiikukan when Taue pinned Hansen at 20:53. Albright went on to make his lone challenge for the Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken on 3/2/96 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan, putting Misawa over at 14:20. This match is one of the reasons why AJ fans don't yearn for the gaijin challenge on the Excite Series. With major losses to both Kawada & Misawa and no major wins, Gary had already lost a lot of his credibility. On top of that, All Japan wasn't happy with his performance in the disappointing Misawa match, so he was never pushed heavily in singles. The '96 Champion Carnival pretty much sealed his fate, as he finished 7th out of 12. While Albright beat Kawada and drew Williams and Ace, he was unable to beat Hansen, Misawa, Kobashi, or Taue, so basically he had one good win and was in the mix with the foreigners, but not really any kind of a serious threat. That basically summed up his singles career in AJ. He'd always finish seventh in the Carnival getting one good win, but never was given the consistent push where it could amount to anything. He just got lucky once in a while when they needed to keep someone's points down.
Things just got worse for Gary, as he was paired with Sabu(mb) in the '96 Sekai Saikyo tag league. While it was advancement to be put in a role where he could lead a team, it was major regression to go from 3rd place with 15 points to last place with 6 points. Gary's health began declining, and he was limited to short matches. He got his first win over Steve Williams in the '97 Champion Carnival, but it came after he'd lost to Misawa, Kobashi, Kawada & Taue, so it wasn't really worth much. While 6-6 isn't terrible, the other losses were to Hansen & Ace so you can figure out the kind of quality they put him over, and remember that Akiyama was not really any threat in singles at this point (he actually finished 4-7-1, and everyone's record included a forfeit over an injured Jun Izumida, not that Izumida would have won more than one match had he been healthy).
Albright was pushed in tag in '97, as he replaced Ace as Steve Williams regular tag partner when Williams formed the T.O.P. (Triangle Of Power), and they became the 33rd tag champions, winning the titles from Kenta Kobashi & Ace on 7/25 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan when Williams pinned Kobashi in a really long 29:36. They made one defense, an 8:42 squash win over Misawa & Akiyama where Albright surprisingly pinned MIsawa. The win didn't propel Albright to anything, as he was pinned by Kobashi in 22:38 in the 10/4 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan match where they lost the titles. The duo was kept strong in the tag league though, finishing tie for third with 14 points, one point behind both Kawada & Taue (winners) and Misawa & Akiyama. This led to Williams & Albright getting the second title shot on 2/28/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan where Kawada & Taue made their first defense when Taue pinned Albright at 11:10. Albright, of course, finished 7th in the '98 Carnival, 6 points behind 6th place Williams, but still above Ace & Akiyama.
With UWF-I officially closing up shop at the end of 1996, several of their wrestlers were looking for work. Since Baba had a thing for big guys, even crummy goofy ones, Albright was "involved" in getting his former co-worker Yoshihiro Takayama into the picture in All Japan. Takayama was put into a program with Kawada, which was natural since Kawada was the only native shooter type they had and the two had a match on the undercard of UWF-I's 9/11/96 Tokyo Jingu Kyujo show that featured the first Nobuhiko Takada vs. Genichiru Tenryu match. Of course, Kawada won all his singles matches against Takayama. Williams departing in June of 1998 didn't lead to Gary's elevation, but rather to them not pushing him and his weaker partners at all. He recieved one last shot at the tag titles just after Williams left with Kawada & Taue successfully defended against Albright & Takayama on 7/15/98 at Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan when Kawada pinned Takayama at 19:51. After this match, he was no longer a factor in the tag either. He only garnering 4 points in the '98 Sekai Saikyo Tag League with Giant Kimala, which dropped to 2 in 1999 when he teamed with Wolf Hawkfield. In singles, Akiyama had surpassed him during the 98 Carnival, making it all the way to the finals and Ace had surpassed him in 1999. Although he was scheduled to work AJ's '00 Excite Series beginning 2/12, his last match for All Japan turned out to be an 8:35 powerbomb win over Masao Inoue on 12/3/99 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan. R.I.P. Gary...