Ryota Hama
In October 2018, BJW announced that Okabayashi would be returning from injury at "Ryōgokutan 2018". On November 11, he lost Ryuichi Kawakami in his return match. On December 9, Okabayashi and Sekimoto unsuccessfully challenged Ryota Hama and Yasufumi Nakanoue for the BJW Tag Team Championship. On January 13, 2019, they won the AJPW World Tag Team Championships for a third time, defeating Shuji Ishikawa and Suwama. They defended their titles against Jake Lee and Ryoji Sai on February 24 before losing the titles back to Ishikawa and Suwama on March 19. In April, Okabayashi won a tournament to determine the number one contender for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship by defeating Daichi Hashimoto in the finals on April 14. On May 5, for a second time, he defeated Sekimoto to win the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship. He lost the title to Kohei Sato on August 25 after two title defences. In November, he won the Zero1 Furinkazan Tag Tournament with Yuji Hino and the BJW Saikyo Tag League with Shigehiro Irie. On January 1, 2020, he unsuccessfully challenged Hino for the Zero1 World Heavyweight Championship. The following day, he also unsuccessfully challenged Daichi Hashimoto for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship. On January 13, he won the World Is Not Enough ~ Six Man Tag Team Tournament with Hino and Akira Hyodo. On March 3, Okabayashi and Irie unsuccessfully challenged Sekimoto and Sato for the BJW Tag Team Championship. On March 25, he won the 2AW Openweight Championship from Shu Asakawa. Also in March, Okabayashi had been entered into the 2020 Ikkitousen Strong Climb as part of the C Block; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several events scheduled to showcase the Ikkitousen Strong Climb were cancelled and all remaining matches were adjudged as draws, causing Okabayashi to miss out on the finals. On July 5, he lost the 2AW Openweight Championship to Ayato Yoshino. On October 21, Okabayashi won his third BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship by defeating Daichi Hashimoto. He lost the title to Yasufumi Nakanoue on January 2.