Minoru Fujita
On June 8, 2001, as part of a series of interpromotional matches, Makabe and Yuji Nagata entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) to challenge for the vacant All Asia Tag Team Championship, losing to Masahito Kakihara and Mitsuya Nagai. In August 2001, Makabe announced that he would be leaving Japan indefinitely to wrestle overseas in Canada, Great Britain and Puerto Rico. He wrestled his farewell match on August 12, 2001, in a tag team loss with Yutaka Yoshie against Riki Choshu and Kenzo Suzuki. Makabe wrestled in the aforementioned countries for the following 14 months, gaining a considerable amount of muscle and returning to New Japan on October 14, 2002 in the Tokyo Dome as a heavyweight, teaming with Minoru Fujita to defeat Kenzo Suzuki and Hiroshi Tanahashi; he continued to team with Fujita and his fellow Kaientai Dojo member Taka Michinoku over the next few tours.