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Family Pride Affects Many In NWA-OK Matches

Posted: Oct 7th 2008 By: CMBurnham

A lot has been said over time about the tradition of family in wrestling. Wrestlers who are generational descendents or who have siblings in the business often carry a great deal of pressure with them.

Take Blake Albright. Blake is the brother of Brent Albright, who started his career in 1999. Over the past few years, Brent has seen his opportunities realised as he got a contract with the WWE and recently had a 1 1/2 month reign as NWA World Champion. Those are big shoes for Blake to fill.

A recent article posted on Oklafan.com suggested that Blake might not be handling the pressure well. Perhaps Blake read that article as he showed a very fired-up side of himself at the NWA-OK event this past Friday in Tulsa.

Blake faced Kenny Campbell, who had not graced a Tulsa ring for almost 2 1/2 years. Accompanied by X-Cal, Kenny knew that he was not going to be the favoured son that night. That privelege fell to Blake. The first-time meeting between these two stars was quick paced and Blake was certainlly on the offencive for most of it. But the end came way too quickly as NWA North American and NWA Texas Champion Mike DiBiase entered the ring and blindsided Blake. DiBiase, Campbell & X-Cal proceded to triple-team Blake until older brother Brent made the save, driving off the evil trio and helping his brother to his feet.

Brent couldn't take too long to check on his brother's condition as he had the next match against Mike DiBiase. With the events of the past match still fresh on his mind, Albright took the chance to up the stakes. Even though he had lost the NWA World Title, he was still hungry for gold and put out the challenge for DiBiase to put the NWA North American Title on the line. DiBiase agreed and the fans quickly pulled behind the hometown boy. A technical masterpiece ensued, but again, it was too short as Kenny Campbell came to return the favour of earlier interruption by throwing himself into the match, prompting referee Mike Two to call for the bell and award the match (but not the title) to Brent Albright. Another triple team ensued and this time Blake came to pull his older brother from the clutch. It all was too much for the Albright clan to deal with and Brent took the microphone and issued a challenge: for the first time ever, Brent and Blake would team up and face Kenny Campbell & Mike DiBiase. Campbell and DiBiase agreed and the match was set as the semi-main event.

When it came time for the match, the crowd mobbed the Albrights as they made their way to the ring. The brothers were ready and met the challenge with everything they had. Campbell & DiBiase, no slouches either, pulled out many underhanded tactics in an effort to humiliate the hometown boys on their own turf. But blood is always thicker than water and many of the best tag teams are brother tandems, who often seem to know what each other is thinking. Such was the case here as, towards the end of the match, DiBiase had Brent in the ring, with Blake incapcitated outside. While the referee tended to Blake, Kenny grabbed the North American title belt and charged towards Brent with it. Brent ducked and Kenny nearly caved in DiBiase's skull. After Brent disposed of Campbell, he covered DiBiase to pick up the first tag team win for the brother tandem. Campbell & DiBiase quickly vacated the ring, upset at their defeat, but X-Cal was still around when the brothers snuck up behind him. Fearing for his safety, X-Cal quickly made friendly gestures towards the brothers and it seemed like everything was going to be fine. But as X-Cal turned his back on them, both Albrights snuck up behind and pantsed him in front of the assembled crowd, then turned to celebrate as their friends and family cheered them on.

A good night in Tulsa did not translate into the same the following night. Brent was unsuccessful in his bid to regain the NWA World Title in Texas. And Blake faced the challenge of another Oklahoma legacy wrestler in the form of Max McGuirk. McGuirk, who had been trained by Tom Jones, had always been a soft-spoken, humble individual when competing in MSWA. But it was a different story in Tulsa and Tahlequah. McGuirk accompanied Rob Conway to the ring in his main event match against King V, but mangerial prowess doesn't seem to be in McGuirk's court yet as "The Ironman" was handily disposed of by the monstrous former WWE superstar. So McGuirk went back to what he knew best: wrestling. And he faced off against Blake Albright in a battle of young lions. The match was even and mostly scientific, but McGuirk's cockiness began to show through as the match went on. Eventually, McGuirk rolled Blake up, then grabbed a handful of tights for the win. McGuirk was thrilled with this, but Blake had some sobering thoughts for the young competitor after the match. He said that Max's grandfather, Leroy McGuirk, would be embarrassed by Max's actions this night and that Max was abusing the family name. Blake then challenged Max for a rematch at the next NWA-OK event. Max said that his grandfather would be proud of him that night because he won and then, in a show of contempt, said that great wrestling obviously didn't run in the genes of all the Albright family. He accepted the rematch, demanded the referee raise his hand again and then stormed out of the arena.

Blake may not have to wait for a month to get his rematch. The two competitors are both scheduled for this Friday's MWA event in Spavinaw.

Tags: Blake Albright, Brent Albright, WWE, NWA, NWA-OK, Kenny Campbell, X-Cal, Mike Two, Max McGuirk, Tom Jones, MSWA, Leroy McGuirk, MWA