Memorial Gate in Wakayama (2018)

Promotional poster featuring the Dragon Gate roster

The **Memorial Gate in Wakayama 2018** was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and GAORA TV event promoted by Dragon Gate. The event took place on March 21, 2018, in Wakayama at the Wakayama Prefectural Gym and is the seventh event under the Memorial Gate in Wakayama. The event featured two title matches of Dragon Gate five championships, and the event didn't feature any title change.

The event was main event by Masaaki Mochizuki defeating Big R Shimizu to make his fifth title defense of the Open The Dream Gate Championship. The event also featured a match for the Open The Brave Gate Championship with Punch Tominaga facing Yasushi Kanda in his first title defense, in which the match ended in a no contest and the title was vacant,

## Production

### Background

The Memorial Gate in Wakayama 2018 was aired in Japan through Dragon Gate's internet streaming site, Niconico, with Japanese language commentaries. The Japanese commentary was provided by Katsuya Ichikawa. The event would also air on tape delay on Japanese TV Gaora Sports to be launched in Dragon Gate's ~ Infinity ~ Series.

### Storylines

The Memorial Gate in Wakayama (2018) 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 event was main evented by Masaaki Mochizuki making his fifth defense of the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Big R Shimizu. On March 3 at Champion Gate in Osaka after Mochizuki defeated Ben-K to retain his Open The Dream Gate Championship, Mochizuki was challenged by Ben-K's tag team partner Big R Shimizu. The match was set for the Memorial Gate in Wakayama. The two faced before to decide the number 1° contender for the Open The Dream Gate Championship in which Mochizuki won and defeated YAMATO to win the championship. Since he won the championship, Mochizuki has made four title defenses. Shimizu and Mochizuki have one straight victory against each other with Shimizu pinning Mochizuki in the semifinals of the 2016 King of Gate.

Since January, Shimizu started to have a slump and began a losing streak, being mostly pinned during six-man tag team matches or during singles matches. He would then be denigrated and saying that Ben-K who had a started feud after Shimizu was already passing him. This led Shimizu challenging Ben-K into a match, where he lost on February 20. Shimizu would then be berated by Ben-K, leading Shimizu to respond positively, saying that he "need to snap out of his losing streak". Afterwards, Shimizu started to have more wins sometimes pinning his opponents to get the win.

Shimizu and Mochizuki were part of the same stable before and even held the Open The Triangle Gate Championship together with Dragon Kid. After the disbanding of Dia.Hearts, Shimizu and Mochizuki went their separate ways with Shimizu joining Monster Express and Mochizuki becoming independent. Shortly, after the disbanding of Monster Express Shimizu and Mochizuki reunited until Shimizu formed MaxiMuM.

In the Open The Brave Gate Championship Punch Tominaga would make his first title defense against Yasushi Kanda. On December 23, Tominaga was kicked out of VerserK. Afterwards, he started with former VerserK stablemates Shingo Takagi and Yasushi Kanda, mostly Takagi for the way he treated him. Tominaga then pinned Kanda on February 7 and challenged him for the Open The Brave Gate Championship. Kanda accepted, stating that he would expect a "quick and easy first title defense". However, on March 3 at Champion Gate in Osaka Tominaga defeated Kanda to become the new champion after Takagi tried to attack Tominaga with a box, but he would hit Kanda instead. This led Kanda challenging Tominaga into a rematch at the Memorial Gate in Wakayama.

## Matches

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* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match
* **D** – indicates the match was a dark match