Tomoka Nakagawa

Tomoka Nakagawa (中川 ともか) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler.

After being trained by Taka Michinoku, she started her career in his Kaientai Dojo promotion in September 2004.

Nakagawa made her professional wrestling debut for Taka Michinoku's Kaientai Dojo promotion on September 19, 2004, when she, performing under the ring name Tomotsu-chan, teamed with Ofune to defeat Besu and Bochi in a tag team match.

During the rest of the year, she took part in two eight person tag team matches, working the first as Tomotsu-chan and the second as Apple Tomotsu, the name coming from one of her tag team partners, Apple Miyuki.

On January 23, 2005, Nakagawa made her first appearance under her real name, wrestling in a tag team match, where she and Yuu Yamagata were defeated by Michinoku and Ryota Chikuzen.

This date is listed as her official debut by not only the promotions she works for, but also by Nakagawa herself.

The following year Nakagawa adopted the ring name Tomo Michinoku and aligned herself with Taka, with whom she would go on to win her first championship on June 4, 2006, when the two defeated Makoto Oishi and Shiori Asahi for the FMW/WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship.

They would hold the title for 34 days, before losing it to the team of Apple Miyuki and Yoshiya.

The following December, Nakagawa dropped the Tomo Michinoku ring name and returned to wrestling under her real name.

After leaving Kaientai Dojo in 2007, Nakagawa briefly joined Ibuki, where she underwent further training under Mariko Yoshida, before becoming a freelancer and starting to work on the Japanese independent circuit for promotions such as Oz Academy and Pro Wrestling Wave.

She also became a regular for American promotion SHIMMER Women Athletes.

Nakagawa was a decorated tag team wrestler, becoming a one-time FMW/WEW Hardcore Tag Team Champion, three-time Oz Academy Tag Team Champion, two-time SHIMMER Tag Team Champions and a three-time Wave Tag Team Champion.

As a singles wrestler, she held the Smash Diva Championship.

On April 15, 2007, Nakagawa announced that she was leaving Kaientai Dojo to become a freelancer on the Japanese independent circuit.

Shortly after her departure from Kaientai Dojo, Nakagawa joined Mariko Yoshida's Ibuki promotion, where she also underwent further training under Yoshida.

The following year Nakagawa became a true freelancer, when she left Ibuki and started working for promotions such as NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling, Oz Academy and Pro Wrestling Wave.

Nakagawa remained affiliated with Ibuki's production company, S Ovation, through which she, Hiroyo Matsumoto and Misaki Ohata produced their own independent events under the banner of "Joshi 4 Hope".

Nakagawa originally made her debut for Pro Wrestling Wave on September 3, 2007, but did not start working regularly for the promotion until May 2010.

Nakagawa made her debut for all-female promotion Oz Academy on March 9, 2008, in a tag team match, where she and Manami Toyota were defeated by Akino and Ran Yu-Yu.

In March 2008, Nakagawa, Atsuko Emoto and Kyoko Kimura formed the villainous Revolucion Amandla stable in NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling.

The stable feuded with NEO's top wrestlers, most notably Ayumi Kurihara, Etsuko Mita and Yoshiko Tamura, with Nakagawa and Kimura unsuccessfully challenging Kurihara and Tamura for the NEO Tag Team Championship.

Shortly afterwards Nakagawa joined Mayumi Ozaki's villainous Ozaki-gun, before jumping to Aja Kong's Jungle Jack 21 stable on August 2, 2009.

In October 2009, Nakagawa made her first tour of Mexico with International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) as a member of Revolucion Amandla.

She returned to the promotion on June 3, 2010, defeating A☆YU☆MI.

This built to a match two days later at an event held by the Alianza Universal de Lucha Libre (AULL) promotion, where Nakagawa unsuccessfully challenged A☆YU☆MI for her X–LAW Women's Championship.

On April 10, 2011, Nakagawa and her Jungle Jack 21 stablemate and fellow Ibuki alum Hiroyo Matsumoto defeated Chikayo Nagashima and Sonoko Kato to win the Oz Academy Tag Team Championship.

After a 77-day-long reign, the duo lost the title to Carlos Amano and Manami Toyota.

The following September, the team was broken up, when Matsumoto jumped to Ozaki-gun and started a storyline rivalry with her former stablemates.

In December 2012, Matsumoto returned to Jungle Jack 21, reforming her tag team with Nakagawa.

On April 30, 2012, Nakagawa and Gami defeated Hanako Nakamori and Misaki Ohata of the villainous Black Dahlia stable to become "interim" Wave Tag Team Champions.

Following the retirement of Toshie Uematsu, one half of the previous champions, Nakagawa and Gami defeated Ayumi Kurihara and Kana on June 17 to become the official Wave Tag Team Champions.

Nakagawa and Gami lost the title to Misaki Ohata and Tsukasa Fujimoto on November 27 in their third defense.

On March 10, 2013, Nakagawa and Matsumoto defeated Mayumi Ozaki and Yumi Ohka to win the Oz Academy Tag Team Championship for the second time.

They lost the title to Aja Kong and Hikaru Shida in their first defense on April 24.

Nakagawa and Matsumoto regained the title from Kong and Shida on August 11.

After a ten-year career, Nakagawa announced her retirement from professional wrestling in June 2014.

After holding the title for over a year, Nakagawa and Matsumoto vacated the title on August 31, 2014, after Matsumoto was sidelined with a knee injury.

After a Japanese retirement match in December 2014, Nakagawa wrestled her final match in the United States on April 12, 2015.

Nakagawa grew up a fan of professional wrestling, watching promotions like All Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, but was forced to give up her dream of becoming a professional wrestler, when she discovered that, at 1.55m, she was 5 cm (2 in) below the minimum height required for a woman to enter the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling dojo, and instead began studying, eventually becoming a qualified nurse.

While working in her new job, Nakagawa would often go to watch professional wrestling at Korakuen Hall and finally, at the age of 22, decided to pursue her original dream and began training professional wrestling under Taka Michinoku.