After losing the title to Norio Honaga in November 1991, he graduated to the heavyweight division. In June 1992, he teamed up with Hiroshi Hase to participate in the NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament, held by World Championship Wrestling. They defeated the Headhunters in the first round, but Akira suffered an eye injury against Shinya Hashimoto on June 20, and was replaced by this latter for the remainder of the tournament. In September 1993, he formed the J-J-Jacks with Takayuki Iizuka. After proving that the team was no threat to the IWGP Tag Team Championship, the J-J-Jacks disbanded in March 1996, as Iizuka teamed up with Kazuo Yamazaki, with whom he won the titles, while Nogami joined Shiro Koshinaka's Heisei Ishingun.