 Later that year, Hashimoto won the 2000 DDT Tag League with his trainer Koichiro Kimura by defeating Sanshiro Takagi and Exciting Yoshida.The following year, Hashimoto won the Two Day Tag Team Tournament with Sanshiro Takagi.At "Sheep", Hashimoto won his first professional wrestling championship when he and Sanshiro Takagi defeated GENTARO and Takashi Sasaki to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship on January 31, 2003.