for NJPW after he had recovered, effectively breaking up Team Strongs. Nevertheless, Nagai's position as a loyalist in the post-exodus era All Japan continued to rise, and he teamed with Toshiaki Kawada in a loss to TenCozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) on September 16 on an NJPW card. Nagai teamed up with Kawada again for the 2001 Real World Tag League, seeing much greater success than the previous year, earning 10 points and making it to the final where they lost to Keiji Mutoh and Taiyo Kea. In early 2002, he entered the Giant Baba Memorial Cup, a tournament focused on young wrestlers where he dominated, earning 24 points and beating Nobutaka Araya in the final to win the tournament. Not long after winning, he entered the 2002 Champion Carnival and performed respectably, earning 6 points but failing to reach the final. In what would be his final tour with All Japan, Nagai partnered with Yoji Anjo for the 2002 Real World Tag League, earning 4 points and failing to reach the final. After 2 years with the promotion, Nagai left All Japan in December 2002. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2003–2005) Makai Club (2003–2004) Immediately after leaving AJPW, Nagai was signed by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), whom he had previously worked for during the inter-promotional relationship between both promotions. Due to his background in kickboxing and Rings, Nagai was placed into the Makai Club, a group of wrestlers with legitimate backgrounds in martial arts. Nagai debuted under a mask as Makai #5 at Wrestling World 2003, teaming with the returning Katsuyori Shibata, who was now masked and competing as Makai #4. In their debut as a team, the two defeated Nagai's former partner Masahito Kakihara and Takashi Iizuka. After defeating Kakihara in singles action at Ryogoku Kokugikan in February, Makai #5 voluntarily unmasked himself as Nagai, though he continued to compete as both himself and Makai #5 after this. In July, Makai #5 and #4, who had dubbed themselves , challenged for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, losing to reigning champions Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yutaka Yoshie in Osaka. Nagai competed at Wrestling World 2004, teaming with Makai #1, Ryushi Yanagisawa and Ryota Chikuzen to defeat the Crazy Dogs (Enson Inoue, Hiro Saito, Michiyoshi Ohara and Tatsutoshi Goto). Nagai would compete twice at NJPW's King of Sports pay-per-view in March, first teaming with Shibata, #1 and Yanagisawa to defeat Blue Wolf,