On September 23, 2011, Nakajima defeated Kotaro Suzuki to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship for the second time. However, he was forced to vacate the title just nine days later, after undergoing surgery for acute appendicitis. Nakajima returned on November 27 and defeated Ricky Marvin in a decision match to regain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. On May 9, 2012, Nakajima lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yoshinobu Kanemaru, ending his third reign at 164 days. Nakajima along with his mentor Kensuke Sasaki reached the Pro Wrestling Noah Global Tag League final in 2013, but lost to the team of KENTA and Yoshihiro Takayama. Nakajima then took part in a brief feud with Maybach Taniguchi which culminated at the NOAH "GREAT VOYAGE 2013 IN TOKYO" event. Also at the event Naomichi Marufuji recruited Nakajima into his faction "Brave". On February 11, 2014, Nakajima earned his first win over his mentor Kensuke Sasaki in the main event of a show celebrating his tenth anniversary in professional wrestling. The match turned out to be Sasaki's retirement match.