Osamu Nishimura passes away at 53
Two-time IWGP Tag Team Champion Osamu Nishimura has passed away at the age of 53 after a battle with cancer.
Cauliflower Alley Club announced Nishimura’s passing in a social media post on Thursday night, expressing admiration for Nishimura, his wife, and their six-year-old son:
A longtime veteran freelancer, Nishimura wrestled for every major Japanese promotion of his era, as wel as short stops in ECW and WCW. The Vintage Puroresu account has posted numerous highlights from his career in the wake of his passing:
Nishimura announced in April 2024 that he had stage 4 esophegeal cancer, which later spread to his brain, requiring a craniotomy. Nishimura wrestled twice after the stage 4 diagnosis, both times for Atsushi Onita’s FMW-E promotion — once in a tag team bout with Dory Funk Jr. against Onita and Raijin Yaguchi last August at a Terry Funk Memorial/Onita 50th Anniversary show, once in December in a six-man barbed wire explosion match.
This battle with cancer was the second that Nishimura had waged, as he fought a separate diagnosis in 1998. He returned to the ring in 2000 after crediting holistic methods for making him cancer-free.
Japanese legend Bull Nakano posted in May 2024 about meeting with Nishimura following his second diagnosis:
I had a conversation with Osamu Nishimura, who trained with me in New York in the 1990s. I went to tell him about receiving the H.O.F. award. He is currently suffering from esophageal cancer. He is undergoing chemotherapy. This is his second battle with cancer. He won the first time. I pray for his victory and recovery this time as well.
WWE’s Shinsuke Nakamura posted:
“Rest in peace, Osamu Nishimura. You were as kind as an older brother and taught me so many things“
Outside the ring, Nishimura held a position in politics, serving four terms in the Tokyo Bunkyo Ward Assembly from 2011 until his passing.