Following another tour of duty, James returned to SMW on July 2, 1993 where he lost to Bobby Blaze. On July 19, James, now using the Brian Armstrong ring name, defeated Killer Kyle in a dark match. Following this, James would alternate between the Brian Armstrong and The Dark Secret ring names, where he would find success in singles and tag team matches under the former and continue to job under the latter. In addition to SMW, James returned to WCW under his Brian Armstrong ring name on the November 30 episode of "Saturday Night" in a losing effort to Steve Austin.