 He wrestled his return match and his first match as a freelancer at DDT's 19th anniversary event on March 21, where he and Gota Ihashi defeated Jun Kasai and Sanshiro Takagi, and Kenso and Michael Nakazawa in a three-way tag team match.In April, Ibushi returned to the United States to take part in events held by Evolve and Kaiju Big Battel, while also appearing in the audience at WWE's event.On May 29, Ibushi made his debut for Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), defeating Tanomusaku Toba.