Megumi Yabushita
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 .