In November 2010, Sato first became a triple crown trios champion with Michael Nakazawa and Tomomitsu Matsunaga and then also won DDT's top singles title, the KO-D Openweight Championship.

[4] In 2001, Sato fought three high-profile fights, losing to American King of Pancrase Middleweight Champion Nathan Marquardt via submission on March 31, defeating Ryo Chonan via unanimous decision in Chonan's professional debut on May 5 and losing to King of Pancrase Light Heavyweight Champion Keiichiro Yamamiya via unanimous decision on August 30.

[4] During the next months, Sato made appearances for Osaka Pro Wrestling and Minoru Suzuki-promoted independent events, before he began working regularly for DDT the following August, defeating Michael Nakazawa in his return match, contested under "Hard Hit" rules.

[15] On February 22, 2009, Sato defeated Tanomusaku Toba and Yasu Urano in a three-way match to earn his first shot at DDT's top title, the KO-D Openweight Championship.

[17] After also failing to capture the DDT Extreme Division Championship on September 27,[18] Sato formed the Belt Hunter×Hunter stable with Danshoku Dino, Keisuke Ishii, Masa Takanashi and Tigers Mask, which led to him winning his first professional wrestling title, when he, Dino and Takanashi defeated the Italian Four Horsemen (Antonio Honda, Francesco Togo and Piza Michinoku) for the UWA World Trios Championship on November 29.

[20] On January 24, 2010, Sato, Dino and Takanashi lost the UWA World Trios Championship to Tokyo Gurentai (Fujita, Mazada and Nosawa Rongai).

[28] Before the end of the year, on December 26, Sato, Nakazawa and Matsunaga lost the UWA World Trios Championship to Disaster-Box (Harashima, Toru Owashi and Yukihiro Abe).

[33] On September 30, Sato won the second annual DDT48 general election and was thus named the number one contender to the KO-D Openweight Championship;[34] he would, however, go on to fail in his title challenge against Kudo on October 23.

[43] On August 26, Sato challenged Hiroshi Yamato to a match for his World Junior Heavyweight Championship, after he had successfully defended the title against Minoru Tanaka.

The Hard Hit match ended with Sato being declared the winner after just 38 seconds, when he was unable to continue after having his nose accidentally broken by Sakuragi.

[54][55] From March 30 to April 7, Sato and Hiroshi Yamato took part in AJPW's 2013 Junior Hyper Tag League, where they made it all the way to the finals, before losing to Burning (Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki), whom they had defeated in their opening match of the tournament.

[56][57] Back in DDT, Sato and fellow mixed martial artist Yukio Sakaguchi defeated Harashima and Yasu Urano on May 3 to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship for the first time.

[61] On June 2, Sato and Sakaguchi made their first successful defense of the KO-D Tag Team Championship against Monster Army representatives Hoshitango and Yuji Hino.

[66] On June 30, Sato returned to AJPW to take part in the farewell match of Hiroshi Yamato, who had announced his resignation from the promotion following Nobuo Shiraishi becoming its new president.

After defeating Yamato and Kazushi Miyamoto in a three-way match, Sato announced that unlike his former Jounetsu Hentai Baka partner, he would continue to make appearances for the Shiraishi-run All Japan.

[83][84] Afterwards, Sato began working for DDT's sub-promotion Union Pro Wrestling,[85] while also producing occasional Hard Hit events for the promotion.

[94][95] On August 31, Sato made his second successful defense of the Union Max Championship by wrestling Shuji Ishikawa to a thirty-minute time limit draw.

[117] On April 4, Sato regained the Tokyo Intercontinental Tag Team Championship, when he and fellow Pancrase representative Ryo Kawamura defeated Kiku-san Hansen and Stan Ichikawa.

[120][121] On July 24, Sato became a double champion, when he and Atsushi Aoki defeated Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto at a Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) event to win the All Asia Tag Team Championship.

[122][123] On August 28, Sato returned to DDT to take part in Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2016, where he lost the World Junior Heavyweight Championship to Soma Takao in his second defense.

[124][125] On November 17, Sato and Aoki won their third Jr. Tag Battle of Glory in a row by defeating Soma Takao and Yuma Aoyagi in a playoff match.

[126][127] On November 27, Sato and Aoki lost the All Asia Tag Team Championship to veteran wrestlers Atsushi Onita and Masanobu Fuchi, who became the 100th champions in the title's history.