Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix 2021

The Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix is a professional wrestling tournament held each summer by Stardom. Similar to Bushiroad-owned male counterpart New Japan Pro-Wrestling with the G1 Climax tournament, it is currently held as a round-robin tournament with wrestlers split into two pools. The winner of each pool will compete in the final to decide the winner.

As is the case with G1 Climax, a win is two points and a draw is one point for each wrestler.

There have been a total of ten editions that gave ten different champions. Seven of the title challenges were unsuccessful while only three were successful. Io Shirai successfully defended the World of Stardom Championship against three different tournament winners while Mayu Iwatani scored the only two defeats, dropping the same title.

In 2021, Stardom introduced the World of Stardom challenge rights certificate, in which the winner of 5 Star Grand Prix receives a contract for a future World of Stardom Championship match. Like NJPW's Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate, the contract is kept in a briefcase and is defended until the title match.

List of winners

Winner of the first-ever edition of the tournament from 2012, Yuzuki Aikawa.

Year	Tournament				Aftermath
	Winner[4]	Runner-up	Times won	No. of entrants	Challenged for	Match	Result	Ref
2012	Yuzuki Aikawa	Kyoko Kimura	1	12	World of Stardom Championship	vs. Nanae Takahashi at Stardom Year-End Climax 2012	Lost	[5]
2013	Nanae Takahashi	Alpha Female				vs. Io Shirai at Stardom Season 14 Goddesses In Stars 2013	Lost	[6]
2014	Io Shirai	Yoshiko			Goddess of Stardom Championship[lower-alpha 1]	with Mayu Iwatani vs. Kairi Hojo & Nanae Takahashi at Stardom Queen Tradition 2014	Lost	[7]
2015	Kairi Hojo	Hudson Envy			World of Stardom Championship	vs. Io Shirai at Stardom 5th Anniversary	Lost	[8]
2016	Yoko Bito	Tessa Blanchard		14		vs. Io Shirai at Stardom October Showdown 2016	Lost	[9]
2017	Toni Storm	Yoko Bito		16		vs. Mayu Iwatani at 5☆Star GP 2017 Champions in Nagoya	Won[lower-alpha 2]	[10]
2018	Mayu Iwatani	Utami Hayashishita			Wonder of Stardom Championship	vs. Momo Watanabe at Stardom True Fight 2018	Lost	[11]
2019	Hana Kimura	Konami		18	World of Stardom Championship	vs. Bea Priestley at Stardom World Champion Wars 2019	Lost	[12]
2020	Utami Hayashishita	Himeka		16		vs. Mayu Iwatani at Sendai Cinderella 2020	Won	[13]
2021	Syuri	Momo Watanabe		20		vs. Utami Hayashishita at Stardom Dream Queendom	Won	[14]

The show featured professional wrestling matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[15]

On the sixth night of the tournament which took place in the Korakuen Hall on August 13, it was announced that the shows from August 14 and August 15 were canceled due to a certain number of female wrestlers being identified as contacts for a person infected with COVID-19. On the same night, after losing the Future of Stardom Championship match to Unagi Sayaka, Mai Sakurai was presented as the newest member of Cosmic Angels and was announced to undergo a newcomer "challenge" against ten opponents during the tournament.[16]

After a couple of lockdowns were announced to be taking place during the event, the original schedule had been slightly changed.[17] So due to several wrestlers undergoing home isolation, the shows from August 21 and 22 were also cancelled.[18]

On the eight night from August 29, Hazuki appeared to confront Mayu Iwatani as she was cleared for her in-ring return.[19]

On the ninth night from September 4 it was revealed that Waka Tsukiyama from Actwres girl'Z would make her debut in Stardom.[20] Just as Mai Sakurai, she was announced to undergo a rookie "challenge" against ten different opponents.[21]

The seventeenth night portraited the final of the tournament on September 25 with Syuri defeating Momo Watanabe to win it. She revealed that she will challenge Utami Hayashishita for the World of Stardom Championship on December 29 at "Stardom Dream Queendom". Utami Hayashishita versus Takumi Iroha for the World of Stardom Championship, Tam Nakano versus Mayu Iwatani for the Wonder of Stardom Championship and Syuri against Konami for the SWA World Championship were also announced for the Stardom 10th Anniversary Grand Final Osaka Dream Cinderella pay-per-view from October 9.[22]

This is a list of participants who changed a couple of times during the event. Despite being listed as a participant, Natsuko Tora was replaced by Fukigen Death after suffering a legitimate knee injury at Yokohama Dream Cinderella 2021 in Summer on July 4.[23] Takumi Iroha from Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling was announced as the mystery participant at the July 17 press conference.[24]

The tournament featured twenty wrestlers, being the biggest tournament to date, equally divided into two distinctive blocks with the two winners of their respective blocks moving on to the finals.[25] One mystery competitor, usually a guest from another promotion, is often revealed on the first night of the event. But at Hyakka Ryoran! Press Conference held on July 17, it was revealed that Takumi Iroha was set to make her return to the promotion as the mystery competitor and Fukigen Death would replace Natsuko Tora after the latter's injury.[24]

*Noted underneath are the champions who held their titles at the time of the tournament.

• G1 Climax

• Page Stardom World