 During the G1 Climax tournament in 2009, Iizuka lost five out of his six matches, mostly by disqualification, due to the use of his iron glove and his new weapon, a steel toothguard.His only non-disqualification loss was to Shinsuke Nakamura by pinfall.And, his only win came against his former tag team partner, Yuji Nagata, who got himself disqualified by throwing the referee out of the ring, whilst he was making his comeback, following Iizuka's repeated use of the steel toothguard and interference from Tomohiro Ishii.