After taking a break from wrestling, Kingston returned to the ring in July 2005, turning face (fan favorite) and teaming with Sabian, Equinox and Quackenbush to take on The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Gran Akuma and Arik Cannon). On August 13, Hero defeated Kingston in a singles match, that would lead the two into feuding with each other over at Combat Zone Wrestling, while in Chikara they were kept apart from each other following the match. For a majority of 2006, Kingston had a rivalry against Larry Sweeney. Kingston and Sweeney traded many verbal and physical exchanges for months, and the feud culminated with a No Disqualification Strap match between the two at Chikara's last show of the year. Kingston won this match and the overall feud.