 On July 20, 2008, Ibushi would defeat Kudo in the Next KO-D Openweight Championship One Day Tournament finals but would ultimately lose to the KO-D champion Dick Togo a month later.Ibushi would start teaming up with Kenny Omega as the "Golden☆Lovers" and on January 24, 2009 they defeated Harashima and Toru Owashi to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship and lost them in May to Dick Togo and Taka Michinoku.In the summer of 2009, Ibushi won the first KO-D Openweight Championship Contendership Tournament and went on to win the KO-D Openweight Championship from Harashima.