CMLL Torneo Gran Alternativa
The Torneo Gran Alternativa (Spanish for "the Great Alternative Tournament") is an annual lucha libre (professional wrestling) tournament held by the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). The tournament was not held in 1997, 2000, or 2002, but was held twice in 1996 and 1998. The most recent Torneo Gran Alternativa tournament was held in February 2014. The tournament has always been held in Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, the main arena of CMLL. Up until 2010 the tournament format was that of eight tag teams facing off in a one night, single elimination tournament, sometimes with a match to determine the seeds for the tournament. In 2010 the field of competitors was doubled to 16 and the tournament would take place over three shows, with eight teams facing off in Block A, the other eight in Block B and the two block winners would wrestle the following week. All tournament matches except the finals are single fall matches, while the finals are a best two-out-of-three falls per lucha libre traditions. The concept of the tournament is to team a young up-and-comer with a veteran and use the tournament to help showcase the younger talent, the young winner is often someone CMLL has plans for, although at times it has not always had the desired result.
Último Guerrero is the only wrestler to have won the tournament three times, in 1999 as the rookie and in 2008 and 2011 as the veteran of the team. Místico, Héctor Garza and Rey Escorpión have all won the tournament twice, once as a rookie and once as the "veteran" and Emilio Charles Jr. has won it twice as a veteran. Complete results have not been found documented for the 1998 event, but based on known information at least 164 individual wrestlers have participated in 20 tournaments as of 2014. Atlantis is both the wrestler and the veteran with most tournament appearances, 13, and has always been on the veteran side of the teams. Mephisto and Último Guerrero are tied for second with 10 tournaments, some as rookies and some as veterans. Sangre Azteca has worked the most tournaments on the rookie side, five in total and none as a veteran. Silver King has appeared under three different ring names, Silver King, Bronco and Black Tiger. Several others have worked different tournaments under different names/masks, usually without CMLL officially acknowledging the connection; El Sagrado as Genetico/Sagrado, Fuego as Flash/Fuego, Máscara Dorada as Metalik/Máscara Dorada, Tritón as Metal Blanco/Tritón, Ramstein as Fugaz/Ramstein, Titán as Palacio Negro/Titán
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