A junior Heavyweight powerhouse and a member of Roppongi3K.

After the excursion to Mexico and America, SHO returned to New Japan on October 9, 2017. With YOH, and under the tutelage of Rocky Romero, he formed Roppongi 3K, a team that would win three Junior Tag Leagues and four IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championships.  

When a knee injury to YOH led to RPG3K vacating the tag titles, SHO focused on singles competition, challenging Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the first time in February 2021. Though he would come up just short, he established himself firmly as a singles contender, before YOH’s return from injury in March 2021 allowed Roppongi 3K to reform, challenge for and win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships for the fifth time. 

Yet after their reign was a brief one, YOH fell into a slump, and SHO grew ever more frustrated. Though pledging his support for his partner, on August 16 at Korakuen, SHO refused to break up a submission hold on YOH’s knee, allowing El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to claim victory. Post match, he struck YOH with Shock Arrow, declaring YOH was of ‘no more use’; a nine year brotherhood torn asunder.

On September 4 2021, former partners met in ring in the MetLife Dome. After destroying a chair over his former friend’s skull, SHO locked in a Gogoplata for a referee stoppage, joining Yujiro Takahashi, EVIL and Dick Togo in BULLET CLUB’s House of Torture thereafter.