On July 3, Kojima teamed up with Matt Sydal and Ricochet to defeat The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. Afterwards, Kojima backed out of the 2016 G1 Climax and gave his spot to Hiroyoshi Tenzan in order to give his longtime tag team partner one final chance to win the tournament. On August 14, Kojima unsuccessfully challenged Jay Lethal for the Ring of Honor (ROH) World Championship. On September 25, Kojima, Ricochet and Sydal were stripped of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship due to Sydal failing to make a scheduled title defense at Destruction in Kobe because of travel issues. That same day, Kojima and Ricochet, now teaming with David Finlay, defeated Adam Cole and The Young Bucks to regain the vacant title. They lost the title to "Los Ingobernables de Japon" (Bushi, Evil and Sanada) in a four-team gauntlet match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2017. On March 6, Tencozy defeated Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the sixth time. They lost the title to War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) on April 9 at Sakura Genesis 2017.