After graduating from high school, Sawa entered the Battlarts dojo, where he was trained by the promotion's founder Yuki Ishikawa and Tamashii Okamoto in amateur wrestling.

[2] In 2002, Sawa started taking part in grappling matches,[1] before entering UWF Snakepit Japan, where he received further training in mixed martial arts and professional wrestling.

[2] Sawa fought his only official mixed martial arts match on May 21, 2006, when he was defeated by Takeshi Ono via technical knockout due to strikes.

[46] Sawa began making more regular appearances for Zero1-Max in May 2007, when he joined forces with Ikuto Hidaka, Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara to battle Dick Togo's villainous Far East Connection (FEC) stable in Zero1-Max's junior heavyweight division.

[47] The rivalry lasted until August 2, when Sawa, Fujita and Sugawara were defeated in a six-man tag team match by Togo, Masaaki Mochizuki and Tatsuhito Takaiwa.

[48] On September 3, Sawa wrestled his up to that point highest profile match in Zero1-Max, when he unsuccessfully challenged Takao Omori for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.

[53][54][55] On July 20, Sawa and Hidaka unsuccessfully challenged Axe Army representatives Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara for the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship.

[59] After defeating Takuya Sugawara in his opening round match, Sawa was eliminated from the 2008 Tenkaichi Jr. in the semifinals by Tatsuhito Takaiwa, who went on to win the entire tournament.

[61] On February 7, 2009, Sawa and Hidaka made their second successful defense of the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship, first in Zero1, against Great Sasuke and Osamu Namiguchi.

[67] On January 27, 2010, Sawa and Hidaka lost the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship to the 2009 Furinkazan winners, Akebono and Shinjiro Otani.

[70] Finally, after a reign of 766 days, the longest in the title's history, and eight successful defenses, Sawa and Hidaka lost the NWA International Lightweight Championship to Kaijin Habu Otoko and Takuya Sugawara on September 8, 2010.

[73] Despite their unimpressive tournament, Sawa and Sato received a shot at the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship on January 1, 2011, but were unable to dethrone Kaijin Habu Otoko and Takuya Sugawara.

[74] On March 6 at Zero1's tenth anniversary event, Sawa attempted to win his first singles title in the promotion, but was defeated by Craig Classic in his match for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

[75] On March 27, Sawa reunited with Ikuto Hidaka for a rematch for the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship, but the two were again defeated by Otoko and Sugawara.

[78][79] As a result, Sawa received another shot at the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, however, this time Zero1's version of the title, on October 2, but was again defeated by Craig Classic.

[86] After twelve successful defenses and a reign of 199 days, Sawa and Takagi lost the KO-D Tag Team Championship to Danshoku Dino and Shiro Koshinaka on August 29 in a three-way match, which also included Mikami and Thanomsak Toba.

[87] Sawa returned to DDT on June 4, when he and Shigehiro Irie defeated Gentaro and Yasu Urano to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship.

[89] On July 24 at Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2011, DDT's largest annual event, Sawa and Sanshiro Takagi defeated Great Sasuke and Ricky Fuji to win the Greater China Unified Zhongyuan Tag Team Championship.

[91][92] During his years in DDT, Sawa also performed on the promotion's New Beijing Pro Wrestling (NBPW) events, working as Lee Ranjei, a Chinese version of his Lingerie Mutoh persona.

[114] On March 5, Sawa made his debut for German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), entering the annual 16 Carat Gold Tournament in Oberhausen.

[118] On September 11, 2010, Sawa returned to the United States to take part in Evolve 5, losing to the WWE-bound Bryan Danielson in the main event of the evening.

[123] On January 15, 2011, Sawa returned to Westside Xtreme Wrestling, when he and Hikaru Sato unsuccessfully challenged Oberhausen Terror Corps (Bad Bones and Carnage) for the wXw World Tag Team Championship.

[129] On March 20, 2017, Sawa made an appearance at DDT's 20th anniversary event, taking part in the Ironman Heavymetalweight and King of Dark Championship battle royal, from which he and Ken Ohka were the last men eliminated by Guanchulo.

[130][131] On August 20, Sawa made another appearance for DDT at the 2017 Ryōgoku Peter Pan event, where he worked as Lingerie Mutoh, defeating Gota Ihashi in a dark match.