On January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, Goto defeated Katsuyori Shibata to win the NEVER Openweight Championship for the first time. Goto made his first successful title defense on February 5 at The New Beginning in Sapporo against Juice Robinson. His second defense took place at the NJPW and ROH co-produced event, where he defeated ROH wrestler Punisher Martinez. On April 9 at Sakura Genesis 2017, Goto made his third successful defense against Zack Sabre Jr., despite outside interference from Sabre's Suzuki-gun stablemates Minoru Suzuki and El Desperado. Afterwards, Goto brawled with Suzuki, setting up his next title defense. On April 27, Goto lost the NEVER Openweight Championship to Suzuki. On June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, he failed to reclaim the title in a rematch against Suzuki in a Lumberjack Deathmatch. The following month, Goto entered the 2017 G1 Climax, where he finished with a record of five wins and four losses, failing to advance from his block. At the end of the year, Goto teamed with Yoshi-Hashi in the 2017 World Tag League. Finishing with a record of four wins and three losses, the team failed to qualify for the finals, after losing to Evil and Sanada in their final round-robin match. On January 4, 2018, Goto defeated Minoru Suzuki in a Hair vs. Hair match to win the NEVER Openweight Championship, forcing Suzuki to have his head shaved bald.