Stardom 5Star Grand Prix (Japanese: STARDOM 5★STAR GP, Hepburn: Sutādamu Faibu Sutā Guranpuri) also stylized as the 5★Star Grand Prix or 5★Star GP is an annual round robin tournament promoted by the Japanese professional wrestling promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom. The event has been held since 2012 and aired domestically on Tokyo MX, Fighting TV Samurai and Nippon TV, and later as an internet pay-per-view on Stardom's streaming service Stardom World. It is considered to be the main annual competition promoted by Stardom, being preceded by the Stardom Cinderella Tournament which is the secondary competition.
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.
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 can be defended until the title match.
List of winners
Record
2012
The 2012 5Star Grand Prix took place from August 19 to September 30, 2012.
2013
The 2013 5Star Grand Prix took place from August 25 to September 13, 2013.
2014
The 2014 5Star Grand Prix took place from August 24 to September 23, 2014.
2015
The 2015 5Star Grand Prix took place from August 23 to September 23, 2015.
2016
The 2016 5Star Grand Prix took place from August 21 to September 22, 2016. Kairi Hojo withdrew from the tournament on September 8 after suffering a concussion in her match against Io Shirai.
2017
The 2017 5Star Grand Prix took place from August 19 to September 8, 2017. Tam Nakano earned the final spot in the tournament by defeating Natsuko Tora in a qualifying match at Midsummer Champions 2017 on August 13, 2017.
2018
The 2018 5 Star Grand Prix took place from August 18 to September 24, 2018.
2019
The 2019 5 Star Grand Prix took place from August 17 to September 22, 2019. Utami Hayashishita withdrew from the tournament on September 7 due to a finger injury. Jungle Kyona withdrew from the tournament on September 14 due to a dislocated shoulder.
2020
The 2020 5 Star Grand Prix took place from August 8 to September 29, 2020.
2021
2022
2023
2024
5★Star GP Awards
At the end of every tournament, the participants receives awards in different categories based on their performance during the tournament. The awards are similar to those that are presented at the Stardom Year-End Awards.
Active awards
Blue Stars Best Match Award
Fighting Spirit Award
Outstanding Performance Award
Red Stars Best Match Award
Technique/Skill Award
Defunct award
Best Match Award
In 2013, the award was named the Best Bout Award (ベストバウト賞, Besutobauto-shō), but in 2012, and since 2014, the award is known as the Best Match Award. Since 2020, the award was separated into two different sub-categories; the Blue Stars block and the Red Stars block.
Notes
See also
- Goddesses of Stardom Tag League
- Triangle Derby I
- Catch the Wave
- G1 Climax
- Japan Grand Prix
References
External links
- Page Stardom World
