Ikuto Hidaka
Early on in his career, Sawa created himself an alter ego, Lingerie Mutoh, a comedy persona based on Keiji Mutoh. As Lingerie Mutoh, Sawa dressed in a bald cap, fake facial hair and women's lingerie and adopted all of Keiji Mutoh's signature moves and mannerisms, often performing them in an exaggerated manner for comedic effect. Sawa, as Lingerie Mutoh, made his debut for Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max on August 20, 2005, when he teamed with Haruka Matsuo in an intergender tag team match, where they defeated Amazing Kong and Fugofugo Yumeji. Sawa worked several intergender matches alongside and against Kong for the rest of the month. On January 24, 2006, Sawa made his first Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max appearance under his real name, losing to Osamu Namiguchi in a singles match. Sawa and Namiguchi wrestled two rematches during the next two months; the first, on February 24, was won by Sawa, and the second, on March 28, by Namiguchi. In June, Sawa formed a short-lived partnership with Gentaro, which led to him receiving his first title shot in Zero1-Max, when the two unsuccessfully challenged Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita for the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship on June 26. After spending some time away from Zero1-Max, Sawa returned on September 29 to unsuccessfully challenge Minoru Fujita for the AWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Sawa began making more regular appearances for Zero1-Max in May 2007, when he joined forces with Ikuto Hidaka, Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara to battle Dick Togo's villainous Far East Connection (FEC) stable in Zero1-Max's junior heavyweight division. The rivalry lasted until August 2, when Sawa, Fujita and Sugawara were defeated in a six-man tag team match by Togo, Masaaki Mochizuki and Tatsuhito Takaiwa. On September 3, Sawa wrestled his up to that point highest profile match in Zero1-Max, when he unsuccessfully challenged Takao Omori for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. On September 25, Sawa entered his first Tenkaichi Jr. tournament, defeating Chad Malenko in his first round match. Three days later, Sawa was eliminated from the tournament in the second round by Dick Togo. At the end of the year, on December 2, Sawa unsuccessfully challenged Ikuto Hidaka for the AWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.