Kingston returned to ROH on March 4, 2012, at the 10th Anniversary Show, where he represented Chikara as the Grand Champion and had a confrontation with Kevin Steen. This led to a Grand Championship match in Chikara, where Kingston defeated Steen via disqualification. Kingston returned to ROH at the June 29 tapings of "Ring of Honor Wrestling", saving Mike Mondo from Steen and Jimmy Jacobs. He then went on to unsuccessfully challenge Steen for the ROH World Championship on August 11 at Boiling Point.