2021 World Wonder Ring Stardom wrestling event
Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix 2021 (スターダム5スターグランプリ2021, Sutādamu 5 sutāguranpuri 2021), often stylized as 5★Star GP 2021 was the tenth annual professional wrestling tournament under the Stardom 5Star Grand Prix Tournament branch promoted by the Japanese promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom.[1] It took place between July 31 and September 25, 2021, with a limited attendance due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time.[2]
Tournament history
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.[3]
Storylines
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.[4]
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.[5]
After a couple of lockdowns were announced to be taking place during the event, the original schedule had been slightly changed.[6] So due to several wrestlers undergoing home isolation, the shows from August 21 and 22 were also cancelled.[7]
On the eight night from August 29, Hazuki appeared to confront Mayu Iwatani as she was cleared for her in-ring return.[8]
On the ninth night from September 4 it was revealed that Waka Tsukiyama from Actwres girl'Z would make her debut in Stardom.[9] Just as Mai Sakurai, she was announced to undergo a rookie "challenge" against ten different opponents.[10]
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.[11]
Participants
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.[12] Takumi Iroha from Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling was announced as the mystery participant at the July 17 press conference.[13]
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.[14] 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.[13]
*Noted underneath are the champions who held their titles at the time of the tournament.
Japan
