on the february 6 episode of "205 live", itami would be defeated by roderick strong in the first round of the wwe cruiserweight championship tournament. after that, itami began teaming up with fellow japanese wrestler akira tozawa and they started a feud with gran metalik and lince dorado, which ended when they lost a tornado tag team match on the april 17 episode of "205 live" after tozawa accidentally kicked itami. after a tag team loss to the brian kendrick and gentleman jack gallagher, itami shoved tozawa, signaling their break up. the following week on "205 live", itami defeated tozawa to end the feud. on the june 5 episode of "205 live", he attacked both buddy murphy and mustafa ali during their match, causing a disqualification and resulting in itami being suspended from the following week's episode.