Memorial Gate in Wakayama (2021)

Promotional poster featuring the Dragon Gate roster

### Tagline(s)

"The First Big Match of the Spring" (Japanese: 春のビッグビッグマッチ第一弾, Hepburn: *Haru no biggu matchi dai ichidan*)

## Information

### City

Wakayama, Japan

The **Memorial Gate in Wakayama 2021** was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and GAORA TV event promoted by Dragon Gate. The event took place on March 27, 2021, in Wakayama at the Wakayama Prefectural Gym and was the ninth event under the Memorial Gate in Wakayama. The event aired live on Dragon Gate Network streaming service. Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the tour had some restrictions in the attendance, after the Japanese Government lifted the State of Emergency.

## Production

### Background

The Memorial Gate in Wakayama 2021 aired through Dragon Gate's internet streaming site, Dragon Gate Network, with Japanese language commentaries. The Japanese commentary will be provided by Katsuya Ichikawa. The event aired on tape delay on Japanese TV Gaora Sports to be launched in Dragon Gate's ~ Infinity ~ Series. The event will also feature tape delayed English commentary provided by Jae Church and Larry Dallas.

#### Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The event was originally to take place on March 20, 2020. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, other wrestling promotions began to cancel or postpone their shows in an attempt to prevent further spreading of the COVID-19 virus. On March 1, Dragon Gate began canceling events starting with the Glorious Gate tour between March 3 and March 8 and the March 13th show, including a show on March 5 in the Korakuen Hall. Initially, it was announced that the Glorious Gate would be resumed on March 14, however, the tour ended up being canceled, following the recommendations by the Japanese Ministry of Health regarding the coronavirus pandemic. On March 11, it was announced that the Memorial Gate in Wakayama would be postponed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 22, Dragon Gate began holding shows behind closed doors with no audience and only essential staff present.

On March 27, 2021, it was announced that Ryo Saito would be forced to miss the event as a precaution, due to experiencing a high fever. This led to Kagetora replacing him in his match, competing under the ring name "Boku Kagetora".

### Storylines

The Memorial Gate in Wakayama (2021) featured professional wrestling matches that involved wrestlers from pre-existing feuds and storylines that played out on the Dragon Gate's television program. Wrestlers portrayed heroes or villains as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The Memorial Gate in Wakayama (2021) was main evented by Shun Skywalker defending the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Kazma Sakamoto. On March 7 at Champion Gate in Osaka, Skywalker successfully defended the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Kaito Ishida. Afterwards, Ishida's R.E.D stablemate Kazma Sakamoto challenged Skywalker to a title match, with the being confirmed to be on March 27. On March 13, Skywalker and Sakamoto faced each other in a eight-man tag team match, where Sakamoto picked up the win for R.E.D. Afterwards, Sakamoto warned Skywalker to watch his back, before Sakamoto and R.E.D attacked Skywalker and Masquerade.

On March 13, Don Fujii and Takashi Yoshida were defeated Kenichiro Arai and Yasushi Kanda, after Arai pinned Yoshida with a cradle pinfall. Afterwards, Arai and Kanda challenged Yoshida and his partner Masaaki Mochizuki to a title match for the Open The Twin Gate Championship, which Yoshida refused, proclaiming that it would be easy to challenge for the titles by using a flash pinfall. However, Fujii reminded Yoshida that he and Mochizuki won the titles by using a flash pinfall and Yoshida's complements to it, leading Yoshida to accept their challenge.

The event also included a three-way wakayama-style tornado tag team match, between R.E.D, High-End and Masquerade, with the latter stables being recently involved in a feud with R.E.D.

## Three-way wakayama-style tornado tag team match rules

* Each team participated in a Wakayama themed lottery before the match to determine the order of entry (1st, 2nd, 3rd).
* The match began as a three-way singles match.
* The next member of each team entered at a 1-minute interval based on the order determined by the lottery, but a team can be disqualified, if an opponent is eliminated, before all wrestlers take part of the match.\* The match proceeded under a tornado tag team rules until all participants have entered.
* A team would be eliminated when one member is defeated. It is possible for a team to be eliminated before all members have entered the match.

## Results

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* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match