Yumi Ohka

Yumiko Abe (阿部 由美子), better known by her ring name Yumi Ohka (桜花 由美), is a Japanese professional wrestler.

Originally trained by the now defunct JDStar promotion, Ohka now works for Oz Academy and Pro Wrestling Wave.

She is a former two-time Wave Single Champion, while also being a former Oz Academy Tag Team Champion and Wave Tag Team Champion.

She is the managing director of Zabun Co., Ltd., which owns Pro Wrestling Wave.

After originally working as a voice actress, Abe, with a sports background in judo, transitioned to professional wrestling, making her debut under the ring name Yumi Ohka on August 19, 2001, in a tag team match, where she teamed with Chiaki Kashiwada against Keiko Furuta and Teruko Kagawa.

Afterwards, Ohka entered the training dojo of the JDStar promotion, where she was trained by Jaguar Yokota as part of the "Athtress" program, which aimed at building physically attractive women into not only professional wrestlers, but also mainstream celebrities.

She graduated from the program on March 23, 2003.

Ohka's first wrestling character saw her proclaim herself as an idol, which included her singing her own entrance themes and occasionally holding performances in the middle of JDStar events.

After her graduation, Ohka formed a regular tag team with fellow athtress The Bloody.

On June 22, the two made it to the finals of a tournament for the vacant TWF World Tag Team Championship, before being defeated by Maru and Megumi Yabushita.

Ohka would win her first title on August 10, when she and The Bloody defeated Maru and Yabushita in a rematch for the TWF World Tag Team Championship.

They would lose the title to Crow and Fang on November 24 in a barbed wire steel cage death match, a match type chosen by the challengers to gain an advantage over the champions.

Ohka and The Bloody would regain the title on January 18, 2004, but were stripped three months later, when The Bloody left JDStar.

Starting her singles career, Ohka main evented JDStar's event on June 6, losing to Asami.

On August 8, Ohka made a guest appearance for the Oz Academy promotion, entering the Iron Woman Singles and Tag Team Tournaments, being eliminated from both in the first round; by Aja Kong in the singles tournament and by Amazing Kong and Chikayo Nagashima in the tag team tournament, where she teamed with Michiko Omukai.

On June 26, 2005, Ohka achieved her first major singles accomplishment, when she defeated Kei Akiyama to win JDStar's 2005 Jupiter League.

With the win, Ohka solidified her spot as the "ace" of JDStar.

Three days later, Ohka defeated Toshie Uematsu to win Dramatic Dream Team's (DDT) Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship.

She would lose the title to Keiko Saito later that same day.

On September 23, 2005, Ohka wrestled at an Ibuki event, where she and Kyoko Kimura faced Atsuko Emoto and Ayumi Kurihara in a Two Out of Three Falls match, during which she broke the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

Ohka underwent an immediate surgery on her meniscus and on February 16, 2006, also underwent a surgery to repair the ACL.

The injury would leave her sidelined for almost two years.

Despite her inactivity from in-ring competition, Ohka kept making semi-regular appearances for JDStar, including producing her fifth anniversary event on August 20, 2006.

During early 2007, JDStar announced that it was going out of business, which led to Ohka hurrying back to make one final appearance for the promotion.

On July 16 at JDStar's final ever event, Ohka wrestled rookie Misaki Ohata to a five-minute time limit draw in what was billed as a "prologue" to her real return match.

After the closure of JDStar, Ohka, along with fellow JDStar alum Gami and booker Tatsuya Takeshi, formed the Pro Wrestling Wave promotion, which held its first event on August 26, 2007.

The first show was main evented by Ohka's official return match from her ACL injury, a tag team match, where she and Michiko Omukai were defeated by Ran Yu-Yu and Toshie Uematsu.

During the following month, Ohka competed in three consecutive main event singles matches, losing them all, against Misae Genki, Nanae Takahashi, and Toshie Uematsu.

Ohka's main event losing streak ended on September 23, when she defeated thirteen other women in a battle royal to win the Daily Sports Journal Cup.

On November 25, Ohka teamed with Michiko Omukai to end Ran Yu-Yu's and Toshie Uematsu's undefeated streak.

On January 27, 2008, Ohka took part in a high-profile match, which saw freelancer Manami Toyota make a special appearance and defeat her in a singles match.

On August 16 at Wave's first anniversary event, Ohka wrestled her seventh anniversary match, in which she was defeated by Hikaru.

Ohka and Toyota had a rematch on March 15, 2009, where Toyota was again victorious.

On May 27, Ohka entered the first ever Catch the Wave tournament, where she competed in the "Technical" block.

After two wins and one loss, Ohka advanced to the semifinals on August 11, where she defeated Kana.

Later that same day, Ohka defeated Ayumi Kurihara to win the 2009 Catch the Wave.

During the tournament, Abe also debuted a new masked alter ego, Sakura Candle, a comedy character supposedly made of wax.

Abe continues to make sporadic appearances under the character.

On August 23 at Wave's second anniversary event, Ohka was defeated in the main event by Aja Kong.

On February 13, 2010, Ohka wrestled in Wave's 100th match, where she and Kana defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto and Shuu Shibutani.