The Gran Alternativa 2017 is an ongoing professional wrestling tournament event produced by the Mexican wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre that began on June 2, 2017 and will take place over three editions of CMLL's Friday night Super Viernes shows. The Torneo Gran Alternativa was first held in 1994 and is CMLL's oldest recurring tournament. The 2017 Gran Alternativa tournament will be the 22nd tournament held. In the Gran Alternativa a Novato, or rookie wrestler, team up with an experienced or "veteran" wrestler for a tag team tournament. The rookie winner is often elevated up the ranks of CMLL as a result of winning the tournament, but there is no specific "prize" for winning the tournament beyond a symbolic trophy. The team of novatoEl Soberano and veteran wrestler Carístico won the 2017 Torneo Gran Alternativa by defeating the team of Sansón and Último Guerrero in the finals on June 16, 2017. This marked the third time Carístico had won the tournament and the first time that Soberano had won the Gran Alternativa.
History
Starting in 1994 the Mexican professional wrestling promotionConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre created a special tournament concept where they would team up a novato, or rookie, with a veteran for a single-elimination tag team tournament. The tournament was called El Torneo Gran Alternativa, or "The Great Alternative Tournament" and became a recurring event on the CMLL calendar. CMLL did not hold a Gran Alternativa tournament in 1997 and 2000 held on each year from 2001 through 2014, opting not to hold a tournament in 2015. The 2016 Gran Alternativa tournament will be the 21st overall Gran Alternativa tournament. All tournaments have been held in Arena México, CMLL's main venue and up until 2016 all tournaments had taken place on Friday nights, with the 2016 tournament being the first time the Gran Alternativa was held as part of CMLL's Tuesday night shows. I 2017 the tournament returned to Friday nights, being held on the June 2, June 9 and June 16, 2017 Super Viernes shows,
Tournament background
The tournament features 15 professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers teaming up, some of which may be involved in pre-existing scripted feuds or storylines while others are simply paired up for the tournament. Wrestlers portray either villains or fan favorites as they compete in wrestling matches with pre-determined outcomes. The tournament format follows CMLL's traditional tournament formats, with two qualifying blocks of eight teams that compete on the first and second week of the tournament and a final match between the two block winners. The qualifying blocks were one-fall matches while the tournament finals will be a Best two-out-of-three fallstag team match. Each qualifying block started with all 8 Novatos competing in a "seeding" battle royal to determine the brackets for the block. ;Gran Alternativa participants
