Danshoku Dino
In early 2011, Kudo joined the Man's Club stable, which Danshoku Dino and Makoto Oishi had formed in December 2010. On February 27, Kudo and Oishi unsuccessfully challenged Gentaro and Yasu Urano for the KO-D Tag Team Championship. On May 21, Kudo entered the 2011 King of DDT tournament. After wins over Yasu Urano and Hikaru Sato, Kudo advanced to the May 29 semifinals of the tournament, where he defeated Kenny Omega. Later that same day, Kudo defeated Harashima to win his second King of DDT tournament and become the number one contender to the KO-D Openweight Championship. On July 24, Kudo defeated Shuji Ishikawa at DDT's largest annual event, the "Ryogoku Peter Pan", to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the first time. On August 28, Kudo defeated Keisuke Ishii for his first successful title defense. On September 18, Kudo defeated Makoto Oishi in a non-title main event, after which Man's Club agreed to dissolve, with Oishi and Danshoku Dino forming the new Homoiro Clover Z stable, while Kudo was set to concentrate on defending his title. On October 23, Kudo made his second successful title defense against Hikaru Sato, and followed that up by defeating Masa Takanashi on November 6 for his third defense, and Harashima on November 27 for his fourth defense. On December 3, Kudo returned to the United States, when took part in the "Indie Summit 2011", promoted by Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, wrestling in a three-way match, where he defeated Dick Togo and Masahiro Takanashi. Later that same day, Kudo appeared on CZW's internet pay-per-view, Cage of Death 13, wrestling in a ten-man tag team match, where he, Danshoku Dino, Kengo Mashimo, Ryuji Ito and Takashi Sasaki defeated Takanashi, Jaki Numazawa, Jun Kasai, Kamui and Yoshihito Sasaki. After returning to DDT, Kudo made his fifth successful defense of the KO-D Openweight Championship on December 31 against Mikami. Before the end of the year, Kudo had also effectively become a full-time member of Homoiro Clover Z. On January 29, 2012, Kudo lost the KO-D Openweight Championship to fellow Homoiro Clover Z member Danshoku Dino.