38 Wrestlers Who Died In 2025

36. Colonel DeBeers (22 January)

Polish-American wrestler Edward Wiskowski, best known to grappling fans as Colonel DeBeers, passed away on 22 January after what was described as a "short reoccurrence of an illness". He was 80 years of age.

Born to Polish immigrant parents, the Harley Race-trained Wiskowski cycled through a series of ring names, the majority inherently racist, before he settled on Colonel DeBeers. It was as DeBeers, in Verne Gagne's AWA, that he achieved his career high, a multi-match saga vs. the Fijian Jimmy Snuka, whom DeBeers kayfabe refused to wrestle because he wasn't white.

Following the conclusion of his lengthy AWA stint, DeBeers found a new home in Herb Abrams' infamous UWF, which again had him at the front of controversy after he had refused to allow Larry Sampson to officiate his matches on account of his being African-American. It was stomach-turning material then, and it's sickeningly unwatchable today.

DeBeers hung up his boots in 2005 and left the business for good in 2006, leaving behind a Portland, Oregon-based pro wrestling academy that he had co-run with his former tag team partner, the late Buddy Rose.