オープン・ザ・ブレイブゲート王座
At the start of 2008, he won the NEX-1 tournament, and after completing a five match trial series, he departed for Mexico to hone his skills. In June, he received a phone call from Naruki Doi inviting him to join his WORLD-1 faction, and he accepted. Despite getting a push when he first returned, culminating in a chance at winning the vacant Open the Brave Gate Championship, he soon fell into a horrific slump, getting pinned or tapping out during tag team or six-man tag matches that he was involved in. He also appeared once for Chikara in the U.S. during their King of Trios tournament that year, beating Michael Nakazawa in a singles match on the third night of the event.