Original member of NJPW roster Osamu Kido passes away at 73

Osamu Kido, who was once a member of NJPW's legendary roster, passed away at the age of 73.

Osamu Kido was one of the first stars to wrestle for NJPW when he left JWA, along with Antonio Inoki to join the NJPW roster from day one. He was also part of the first show, where he lost to Ivan Kameroff on the undercard.

He also participated in the first World League Tournament, which was the precursor to the G1 Climax. While he may not have been a top star in the company like Antonio Inoki, he was still popular among the fans and even won the NJPW Tag Team Championship with Akira Maeda in August 1986.

The wrestling community is saddened to hear that Osamu Kido passed away a few days ago, on December 11, after reportedly battling cancer.

Fans from back in the day will fondly remember Kido and his memorable matches for NJPW.

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Osamu Kido helped train Shinsuke Nakamura

After his retirement from the ring, Kido played the role of a mentor and trained several top Japanese stars in the NJPW dojo. One of the wrestlers trained by Kido is current WWE Superstar Shinsuke Nakamura.

Nakamura even spoke about Kido in his book "King of Strong Style: 1980-2014," where he described how much he likes Kido's in-ring style and training methods.

"I might have been a new trainee, but I feel a sort of closeness with Kido. I mean, even if training’s tough, you want to make it at least a little fun, right? But I really did like Kido’s wrestling. Like, from when I was a fan, I liked Kido more than [Yoshiaki] Fujiwara."

He continued:

"I guess maybe I liked Kido’s simplicity. Fujiwara put out too much sex appeal, compared with how Kido hid so much and came across as kind of, hmm, subdued. He had a bit of mystery to him, didn’t he? Like his hair was always perfect," excerpt from Shinsuke Nakamura's book. [H/T Post Wrestling]

It's sad to hear that a legend of Japanese professional wrestling has just passed away. Our deepest condolences are with the family.

Please send your condolences to the family in the comments section.