Sumie Sakai

Sumie Sakai (坂井 澄江) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist.

She is best known for her extensive tenure in Ring of Honor, where she was the inaugural and longest reigning Women of Honor Champion.

As a young woman, Sakai practiced judo.

From 1995 to 1997, she halted her practice of judo to work with senior citizens at the Kasugamachi Care Center in Kanazawa, Ishikawa.

Sakai became involved in wrestling when her friend and fellow judo practitioner, Megumi Yabushita, invited her to join the wrestling sport.

Sakai trained under Jaguar Yokota, and made her debut on April 20, 1997 with the Yoshimoto Ladies Pro Wrestling promotion, facing Yabushita in the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

She went on to form a tag team with Yabushita named Yabusaka (ヤブサカ).

Later in 1997, Sakai began wrestling for Yokota's JDStar promotion, where she won both the JDStar Junior Championship and the JDStar Queen of the Ring Championship.

She also won the Women's Championship of the affiliated American Wrestling Federation and the Tag Team Championship of the affiliated Trans-World Wrestling Federation.

In 1999, she suffered a broken leg while wrestling Lioness Asuka.

While rehabilitating, Sakai became enamored of American professional wrestling, and resolved to one day wrestle in the United States.

While in Japan, Sakai faced several prominent male Japanese wrestlers, including Dick Togo, The Great Sasuke and Jinsei Shinzaki.

She furthered her training under Bison Kimura, Cooga and Lioness Asuka.

Sakai wrestled her first match in the United States in 2002.

In May 2002, she began a three-month tour of the US, where she feuded with Mercedes Martinez in New England Championship Wrestling.

While in the promotion, she and Martinez traded the New England Championship Wrestling North American Women's Championship, but Sakai was champion when she returned to Japan.

Sakai first appeared in Ring of Honor (ROH) in June 2002 and defeated Simply Luscious in the very first women's match on an ROH card.

In 2003, she left JDStar and relocated to the United States.

She returned in December 2003 and January 2004, defeating Alison Danger and losing to Alexis Laree and April Hunter.

"WE LOVE SABU" was organised in support of Terry "Sabu" Brunk, an American wrestler who had been afflicted with a serious virus in the summer of 2004, with the proceeds of the show going towards paying Sabu's medical bills.

The show featured Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling alumni such as Masato Tanaka and Extreme Championship Wrestling alumni such as The Sandman.

On April 17, 2005, Sakai organised "WE LOVE SABU", a pair of shows held at the Differ Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

Sabu eventually made a complete recovery, returning to the ring on May 21, 2005.

She returned to ROH on August 20, 2005, losing to Lacey at Do or Die 5.

In 2009, Sakai began training with Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Bill Scott.

She currently holds a blue belt.

In 2012, Sakai joined Kurt Pellegrino's Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Belmar, NJ to better her BJJ and pursue her MMA career.

Sakai returned to ROH in 2014 and been performing regularly for ROH since 2015 for its Women of Honor division.

On September 26, 2015, Sakai faced Veda Scott in a losing effort as part of "Women of Honor Wednesday" program.

Sakai made her televised debut on the June 26, 2016, episode of ROH TV, where Sakai alongside Mary Dobson and Thunderkitty faced the team of Allysin Kay, Amber Gallows and Scott in a losing effort.

Since 2018, Sakai took part in the tournament to crown the inaugural Women of Honor World champion, where she won in the first round (at ROH 16th Anniversary Show) against Hana Kimura.

Sakai became the inaugural Women of Honor champion at Supercard of Honor XII after defeating Kelly Klein.

During her reign, Sakai was able to retain her title against various competitors such as Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood.

On Finale Battle, Sakai lost the championship to Klein in a Four Corner Survival match which also involved Karen Q and Rayne.

On August 9, 2019, Sakai defeated PCW Ultra Woman’s Champion Tessa Blanchard for the title.

On January 2024, Sakai was named of the head trainer of Spark Joshi Puroresu of America's dojo.

On January 26, 2019, she received her first Women of Honor World Championship match since losing the title, when she challenged Klein, but was unsuccessful.

On January 11, 2020, at the Saturday Night at Center Stage, Sakai teamed with Nicole Savoy when they faced The Allure (Angelina Love and Mandy Leon) in a losing effort.

After the match, Sakai attacked Savoy out of frustration, turning heel in the process.

The following day, Sakai defeated Savoy in their second encounter against each other.