On the December 10 edition of "Impact!", Hamada was granted a TNA Global Championship shot by Kevin Nash, who was in charge for the evening. The champion, Eric Young, claimed that his group of foreign wrestlers, named World Elite, had been eyeing Hamada for some time and that this would be her initiation match. Though Hamada dominated the match, Young was able to retain his title by pinning her with his feet on the ropes. The following week Hamada and her new tag team partner Awesome Kong defeated Sarita and Wilde and the Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) in a three-way non-title tag team match. On the December 31 edition of "Impact!" Hamada defeated Madison Rayne and Roxxi on her way to the finals of a #1 contender's tournament, where she was defeated by ODB, after going through a table brought out by Awesome Kong. The following Monday on the live three-hour edition of "Impact!" Hamada and Kong defeated Sarita and Wilde to win the Knockouts Tag Team Championship. On March 1 Hamada's tag team partner Awesome Kong was reportedly released from TNA Wrestling, while the team still held the Knockouts Tag Team Championship. On the March 8 Monday night edition of "Impact!" Hamada and Kong were stripped of the titles after allegedly failing to defend them in 30 days, even though in fact the team defended the titles just 21 days prior against Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky.