38 Wrestlers Who Died In 2025
33. Osamu Nishimura (28 February)
Wrestler-turned-politician Osamu Nishimura died on 28 February, losing his lengthy fight against oesophageal cancer. He was 53 years old at the time of his death.
A mainstay of New Japan Pro-Wrestling throughout the nineties, Osamu graduated from the coveted New Japan Dojo in April 1991 after just a year of training, and was immediately fed to the fearsome Takayuki Iizuka. From there began an alluring career in Japan's foremost puroresu group, which spawned two reigns as IWGP Tag Team Champion and a victory in the G1 Tag League - the modern World Tag League - in 2003. Away from Japan, Nishimura was also a regular fixture within various North American territories, most memorably being one of the eight entrants in the maiden ECW World Heavyweight Title tournament.
Osamu took a sabbatical from pro wrestling in 2010, swapping DDTs for debates as he embarked on a political career that resulted in him serving a respectable four terms on the Tokyo Bunkyo Ward Assembly. His final, poignant message on social media read, "It's been a painful week for me to not know if I'm alive or dead. I can't go down any more, so I just have to go up. If you give up, it's over, and I'll be back in Congress in a few days."