Kotaro Suzuki
Kodama returned to Wrestle-1 on July 1, 2016. On August 11, Kodama defeated Kotaro Suzuki to win his first title, the Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship. On December 7, Kodama, Andy Wu, Daiki Inaba, Jiro Kuroshio, Seiki Yoshioka, Koji Doi, Kumagoro and Kohei Fujimura formed a stable named New Era (stylised in all caps). On December 9, Kodama lost the Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship to Mazada. On January 8, 2017, Kodama and Inaba unsuccessfully challenged Wrestle-1 Tag Team Champion's Kaz Hayashi and Kotaro Suzuki. On February 22, Kodama, Inaba and Fujimura defeated Jun Kasai, Nosawa Rongai and Shuji Kondo to win the UWA World Trios Championships. The trio lost them on April 9 to Hayashi, Kondo and Masayuki Kono.