38 Wrestlers Who Died In 2025

Legendarily influential wrestler Gran Hamada passed away in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, on 15 February at the age of 74.

After being among the first students at the famed and feared New Japan Dojo, Hiroaki Yamada became Gran Hamada upon being transferred to Mexico for further seasoning. It was here that Hamada picked up the art of lucha libre, pioneering the art's transition outside of Mexico as he introduced a generation of wrestling fans to a style of wrestling once thought otherworldly.

Working for various groups in his native Japan and his cherished Mexico, Gran Hamada also caught the eye of North American promoters: more specifically, Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman. A brief run with McMahon's fledgling WWF saw him thrown the short-lived and quickly forgotten Intercontinental Tag Team Titles before they were binned, but it was a vastly different story in ECW. Heyman, always keen to throw an idea into the atmosphere, imported a sextet of Japanese workers to wow the Philadelphian audience at Barely Legal 1997, and together, Gran Hamada, The Great Sasuke, Masato Yukushiji, Taka Michinoku, Dick Togo, and Terry Boy changed the game.

Hamada put a bow on his career in 2018, enjoying seven years away from the spotlight, though his legacy lives on: both of his daughters, Ayako and Xóchitl, have followed in their father's footsteps, with Ayako an ex-TNA Knockout.