Ben-K

After being kicked out of R.E.D., Ben-K declared himself a lone wolf, and chose not to join any other stables. He entered the King of Gate for the third time and dominated, going undefeated in all his block matches and beating Kzy to reach the final, where he beat Eita to win the 2019 King of Gate. In the process, he became the first and so far only wrestler to ever win the tournament without losing a single match. After winning, Ben challenged former stablemate Pac to his third match for the Open the Dream Gate Championship. On July 21 at Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival, Ben defeated Pac to win the Dream Gate title for the first time in his career. Ben-K lost the championship to Naruki Doi at Final Gate 2019 on December 15.

On November 10 in Korakuen Hall, Nakamura was renamed to Ben-K, based on the legend of 12th century warrior monk Saitō Musashibō Benkei. In his first match as Ben-K, he and Shun Watanabe (now known as Shun Skywalker) lost to Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora. On December 25 at Final Gate 2016, he got his first title shot in Dragon Gate, pairing up with Kotoka and Masato Yoshino to challenge for the Open the Triangle Gate Championship in a three-way match won by the Jimmyz (Jimmy Kanda, Jimmy Susumu and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito). In early 2017, Naruki Doi and Big R Shimizu made a call to the entire roster, looking for a third man to help them challenge for the Triangle Gate belts. Ben accepted, and on March 20, they defeated VerserK (Shingo Takagi, T-Hawk and "brother" Yasshi) to win the vacant titles. On May 4, Doi and Yoshino announced the formation of their new stable, known as "MaxiMuM", with Kotoka, Big R Shimizu and Ben-K announced as the members, along with themselves. During May, Ben-K took part in his first King of Gate tournament, but struggled greatly, earning just one win over Yosuke♥Santa Maria. On July 1, MaxiMuM dropped the Triangle Gate titles to VerserK (Shingo Takagi, El Lindaman and Takashi Yoshida). On November 3 at the Gate of Destiny, Ben-K and Big R Shimizu, who called themselves "Big Ben", unsuccessfully challenged Cima and Dragon Kid for the Open the Twin Gate Championship. On February 11, 2018, he received a non-title singles match against then Open the Dream Gate Champion Masaaki Mochizuki, in which he dominated and beat the champion in just over two minutes. After the match, he challenged Mochizuki to a match for the Dream Gate title, which was accepted and set up for March 4 at Champion Gate in Osaka. After 23 minutes, Ben-K lost a hard-fought bout by referee's decision and failed to capture the title. On May 6 at Dead or Alive, Big Ben won the Twin Gate championships, defeating Antias (Eita and T-Hawk). Ben-K once again entered the King of Gate tournament in 2018 and fared much better than the previous year. He earned 5 points, however, a loss to Yamato eliminated him. On July 22 at Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival, Big Ben lost the Twin Gate titles to Tribe Vanguard (BxB Hulk and Yamato) and not long after Big R Shimizu turned his back on MaxiMuM and joined heel unit Antias, effectively breaking up Big Ben. However, the break-up would not last long, as on September 6 in Korakuen, Ben-K himself turned heel for the first time in his career, betraying MaxiMuM to join Antias with Big R.

Nakamura attended both Chiba Prefectural High School and Yamanashi Gakuin University where he was a part of the wrestling team, and after graduating from university, he joined the Dragon Gate dojo in 2015. After competing in dark matches and Dragon Gate house shows for months, Nakamura's first televised appearance was a loss to Big R Shimizu on May 23, 2016 on a Dragon Gate Nex show. Shortly after his debut, Nakamura was announced as a participant in the 2016 Summer Adventure Tag League, where he would be partnered with Dragon Gate veteran Masaaki Mochizuki. After taking a lariat from Shingo Takagi on August 21, Nakamura developed a concussion and he and Mochizuki were forced to drop out of the tournament. Nakamura returned in September at the Dangerous Gate pay-per-view, teaming with Don Fujii, El Lindaman and Shun Watanabe to defeat Gamma, Kaito Ishida, Takehiro Yamamura and Hyo Watanabe.

Futa Nakamura (中村風太 , Nakamura Futa, born October 10, 1991) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Dragon Gate under the ring name Ben-K.