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Bye Bye Blake! Albright Forced To Retire

Posted: Jan 12th 2011 By: CMBurnham

The legacy of the Albright and Valentino families seemingly came to an end last Friday when Blake Albright was defeated by MWA MAX-Division & TAP Tag Team Champion Dustin Heritage in a Title-Vs-Career Match.

Albright and Heritage had engaged in a series of top notch matches over the course of the past few months. September 10th saw the first encounter between the two in the opening match for MWA's return to Spavinaw after taking the summer off. Albright and Heritage tore the house down in the opening match, going to a time-limit draw. Both men knew they had put everything out there that they had, but it just wasn't enough for Albright to wrest the MAX-Division Title away from Heritage. There would be other chances in the future, though.

Albright had to wait quite a while before receiving his next shot at the MAX-Division Title. On December 4 in Vinita, once again, the two were in the opening match. This time, Heritage was less secure in his belief that he could win this match and on several occasions he walked from the ring, appearing to consider taking a loss by countout (which would allow him to retain the belt). Finally, that was exactly what happened as neither Dustin nor his manager, Mike Iles, could figure out what to do to put "The Poster Boy" down for the count. So they walked away from the match and lost by Countout. Albright was incensed and said he was tired of EP. He had Dustin beaten in Spavinaw and just needed 1 more second (which might have been true, as Blake had Heritage covered and the referee counted 2 before the bell rang.). So, to try and encourage one more match, Albright offered to put his career on the line. If he won, he became MAX-Division Champion, but if Heritage won, it was all over for Albright. Mike Iles couldn't resist throwing out some witicisms, saying that Blake would never step out of his brother Brent's shadow and that Blake was Iles' least favourite Albright. He closed by saying that he would be glad to see him go away.

So the match was set for the main event of the first MWA event in 2011. But it certainly seemed like the participants weren't wanting to wait that long. Heritage came out to address the crowd, but the fans were so loud that Heritage almost had no chance of being heard. He said that history would be made on January 7. There wouldn't be a title change, but there would be the end of Albright's career. That brought Albright to the ring and said he had overheard Heritage running his mouth and was as "sick of it as the people are!" This would be their last match and to emphasize that, both men got face-to-face until MWA Commissioner Bud Guffey arrived. He made certain that both men calmed down sufficiently in order to wait for the main event. He then finalised the evenness of the match by banning all the other members of Excellence Personified (including Mike Iles) from ring side.

Dustin certainly seemed to have a game plan, although it probably wasn't one that Albright wanted to follow. Step one: cripple your opponent. Heritage seemed to do this when he attacked Albright prior to the official beginning of the match with a steel chair to the knee repeatedly. After a severe beat down of Albright by Heritage, the popular star was thrown back in the ring and the match officially began. Throughout the match, Heritage continues to work on the injured knee. And once again, Heritage knew he couldn't be prepared for this job.

And, in another comparison to previous weeks, the match ended in a 20-minute Time Limit draw. Heritage grabbed the belt upon hearing the bell ring. He then tried to go to the back, but Bud Guffey was again present to block his way. He said the match wasn't going to end in a draw. They needed a clear winner. He ordered the match to be restarted. Dustin was briefly the recipient of several vicious moves before once again countering everything that Blake had. And what Blake had was tremendous. But it just wasn't enough. Despite coming close to winning the match, Albright could not find something in his repertoire to put 1/2 of the Jet Setters down for the 3-count. Heritage found the mistake and capitalised, locking in a Figure-Four submission hold. While he tried to fight it, the pain was just too intense and Albright eventually succumbed. The crowd looked on shocked as the unbelievable occurred. Albright was done. His career was over. And, since the pain was so great, he had to be helped from the ringside and taken to the back.

Albright has made quite the impression on Oklahoma since beginning his career and while the terms of match do not stretch beyond the boundaries of MWA, that had been Albright's home since the beginning of the fed. Although there is nothing to prevent him from returning to IZW or MSWA or even ComPro, it seems he is through with wrestling for the time being and is focusing his life in other directions. Our loss might be his gain. In the meantime, the MWA fans wonder who can take the MAX-Division title from Heritage.