Kohei Sato
Nakanoue began making regular appearances for Big Japan Pro Wrestling in April 2016 after forming a tag team with Yuji Okabayashi. After leaving Wrestle-1, Nakanoue wrestled predominantly for BJW. On August 24, he and Okabayashi unsuccessfully challenged Twin Towers (Kohei Sato and Shuji Ishikawa) for the BJW Tag Team Championship. From September 4 to October 31, Nakanoue teamed with Ryuichi Kawakami as part of the Strong B Block but missed out on the quarterfinals. On October 9, he unsuccessfully challenged Hideyoshi Kamitani for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship. On May 25, he teamed with former Wrestle-1 talent Ryota Hama to challenge BJW Tag Team Champions Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi) and lost. In July, Nakanoue officially signed with BJW.