STARDOM 2025 Five Star Grand Prix Lineup Revealed; Sareee, Bozilla Debut, Priestley Returns

The 2025 tournament lineup was announced at a press conference on Friday. This year's participants are:

Red Stars Block A:
• Bea Priestley
• Stardom New Blood Tag Team Champion Waka Tsukiyama
• Yuna Mizumori
• Goddesses of Stardom Tag Team Champion Hanan
• World of Stardom Champion Saya Kamitani
• Stardom High Speed Champion Mei Seira
• Lady C
• Azusa Inaba

Red Stars Block B:
• Rina
• Rian
• Sayaka Kurara
• NJPW Strong Women's Champion and Artist of Stardom Champion AZM
• Wonder of Stardom Champion and Artist of Stardom Champion Starlight Kid
• Natsupoi
• Tomoka Inaba (JTO)
• Natsuko Tora

Blue Stars Block A:
• Yuria Hime OR Akira Kurogane
• Bozilla
• Aya Sakura
• Artist of Stardom Miyu Amasaki
• Goddesses of Stardom Tag Team Champion Saya Iida
• Saori Anou
• Ami Sohrei
• Ruaka

Blue Stars Block B:
• IWGP Women's Champion Sareee (Freelance)
• Momo Watanabe
• New Blood Tag Team Champion HANAKO
• Future of Stardom Champion Hina
• Momo Kohgo
• Ranna Yagami
• Suzu Suzuki
• Konami

Several standout tournament veterans will not be in this year's Five Star Grand Prix. The "Icon of Joshi Puroresu," Mayu Iwatani, left STARDOM earlier this year to sign with Marigold. Top star Tam Nakano retired at April's All Star Grand Queendom. 2023 tournament winner Maika is out recovering from a longstanding injury. Hazuki and her FWC tag team partner, Koguma are currently freelancing in other promotions in Japan and the U.S. Most recently, former IWGP Women's Champion Syuri announced her hiatus from STARDOM with the intention of training overseas.

Despite the loss of several key players, there are some major new additions to this year's lineup, as well as a returning face from the past.

After being released by WWE earlier this year, Bea Priestley, f.k.a Blair Davenport is making her return to STARDOM to compete in her second Five Star Grand Prix. Before signing with WWE, Priestley was in STARDOM from 2017 to 2021 and is a former World of Stardom champion.

Among the new faces in this year's tournament is Bozilla. The 21-year-old German powerhouse debuted in Japan last year in Marigold and had a successful 11-month run with the company where she became a Twin Star tag team champion. In June, she made her shocking STARDOM debut at STARDOM The Conversion when she attacked NJPW Strong Women's Champion AZM and joined the La Vida Loca faction.

By far the biggest name joining this year's Five Star Grand Prix is the new IWGP Women's Champion Sareee. Since returning to Japanese wrestling in 2023 after a lackluster run in NXT, Sareee has been on a legendary run as a freelancer, winning world titles in multiple promotions, including Marigold and now, NJPW. She ranked at #6 on the PWI Women's 250 in 2024, the highest ranking ever for a freelancer. Sareee also took home the Women's Wrestling MVP award at the 2024 Tokyo Sports Award.

Despite not being an official member of the STARDOM roster, Sareee expressed her desire to compete in this year's tournament to Tokyo Sports.

“I want to challenge myself. Five Star Grand Prix is starting soon at Stardom, right? I want to take part in that. If I participate, I think it will be the most exciting league ever. I will keep up this momentum and defeat all the wrestlers from Stardom, the number one promotion in women’s professional wrestling, and become the true ace of the women’s professional wrestling world. I’ll take them all on one by one.Sareee via Tokyo Sports

The 2025 Five Star Grand Prix will begin July 27 and the semifinals and final will both take place on August 27.