| Torneo Gran Alternativa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Último Guerrero, won the tournament both as a novato and a veteran | |||||||
| Details | |||||||
| Promotion | Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre | ||||||
| Date established | July 13, 1994 | ||||||
| Current champion(s) | Star Jr. and Valiente[1] | ||||||
| Date won | October 19, 2019[1] | ||||||
| |||||||
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 December 2021. 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 and Carístico are the only wrestlers to have won the tournament three times. Último Guerrero won in 1999 as the rookie and in 2008 and 2011 as the veteran of the team. Carístico, then known as "Místico" won in his rookie year in 2004 and then as a veteran in 2007 and again in 2017. Héctor Garza and Rey Escorpión have both 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 187 individual wrestlers have participated in 22 tournaments as of 2017. Atlantis is both the wrestler and the veteran with most tournament appearances, 15, and has always been on the veteran side of the teams. Último Guerrero is second with 13 tournament appearances. Astro Rey Jr. and Sangre Azteca has worked the most tournaments on the novato side, five in total and none as a veteran.