リッキー・マルビン
Aoki teamed up with Akihiko Ito to participate in the 2008 Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League. The team earned only three points, one point more than Aoki's previous Nippon TV Cup league as the team only managed to defeat Kento Miyahara and Naomichi Marufuji and wrestle to a time-limit draw against Eddie Edwards and Ricky Marvin. He was invited to be part of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's (NJPW) 2009 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Aoki earned eight points, ending in second place in "Block A" with victories over AKIRA, Black Tiger V, Jado and Milano Collection A.T. and only losing to "Block A" winner Prince Devitt (Block winner) and Tiger Mask IV. In the semi final of the tournament he was defeated by eventual tournament winner Koji Kanemoto. Unlike the 2007 and 2008 version of the Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League Aoki's 2009 participating alongside Kota Ibushi was much more successful as the team won all three round robin matches, defeating the teams of Kenta and Taiji Ishimori, Genba Hirayanagi and Kikutaro and the team of Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong. In the semi-final match they defeated Eddie Edwards and Ricky Marvin but lost to Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the finals of the tournament. In December, 2009 NJPW invited Aoki back, this time to compete in the 2009 Super J-Cup. Aoki did not make it past the first round as he was defeated by Prince Devitt.