KO-D Openweight Championship
On April 29, Kudo returned to the KO-D Openweight Championship picture by capturing one of the "Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere" contracts by pinning its holder Antonio Honda in a tag team match. Kudo quickly announced that he was cashing in his contract for a KO-D Openweight Championship match against Harashima on May 31. Before the match took place, Kudo lost his contract and title shot to Daisuke Sasaki on May 17, only to regain it a week later, putting the match with Harashima back on. On May 31, Kudo defeated Harashima to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the third time. On June 6, Kudo defeated Danshoku Dino and Soma Takao in a non-title three-way match and, as a result, won Dino's "Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere" contract, putting him in a unique situation, where he had the right to challenge for his own title. On June 28, both Ken Ohka and Yasu Urano cashed in their own contracts, leading to a three-way match, where Kudo lost the KO-D Openweight Championship to Ohka. However, as he was not pinned in the match, Kudo retained his "Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere" contract and immediately afterwards cashed it in for a singles match, where he defeated Ohka to regain the title. On August 23 at "Ryogoku Peter Pan 2015", Kudo lost the title to stablemate and 2015 King of DDT winner Yukio Sakaguchi. In September, Kudo took part in Pro Wrestling Noah's 2015 NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League, teaming with fellow DDT worker Kota Umeda. After one win and two losses, Kudo was forced to pull out of the tournament on September 16, after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury. The following day, Kudo announced that the injury required surgery, which would sideline him for about a year.