Naruki Doi
After a month of tension between T-Hawk and the rest of his Monster Express stablemates, he would leave the unit to join Verserk on September 25. On June 11, 2017 T-Hawk defeated Naruki Doi in the final to win the 2017 King of Gate tournament. He would receive his Open the Dream Gate Championship title shot on July 23 at "Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival 2017", but was defeated by Yamato.