 In 2008, Kanemaru showed a serious shift in his attitude after the "SugiKane" team of himself and Takashi Sugiura went their separate ways after Sugiura moved to the heavyweight division.Kanemaru began using heel tactics in his matches.And in the summer convinced Kotaro Suzuki to betray his friend & tag team partner Ricky Marvin and attacked the reigning Jr. Heavyweight tag champions KENTA and Taiji Ishimori.