The CMLL International Gran Prix is an annual tournament held by the Mexicanprofessional wrestling promotionConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), that was held from 1994 to 2008, although there was no tournament in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004. The tournament was inspired by New Japan Pro Wrestling's "International Wrestling Gran Prix" tournament in the 1980s.[2] From 1994 until 1998 the Gran Prix was a single elimination tournament that featured a mixture of Mexican and international wrestlers, some who worked for CMLL regularly and some that were invited specifically for the tournament.[2] From 2002 and on the format was changed to a torneo cibernetico, a 16-man match with one side representing Mexico and the other side being composed of "international" wrestlers. Two people have won the Gran Prix twice, Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. and Último Guerrero. The most recent Gran Prix was in 2008 where wrestlers from Total Nonstop Action Wrestling participated on the "International" side. TNA's Alex Shelley defeated Último Guerrero to win the 2008 Gran Prix.[3]
The first ever International Gran Prix was held on April 15, 1994, and featured a one night, 16-man single elimination tournament consisting of Mexican natives and a number of foreign wrestlers, some of which worked for CMLL on a regular basis (such as King Haku and Corazon de León) and others who were invited specially for the tournament (such as Yamato). The final match saw Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. defeat King Haku to win the International Gran Prix.[1]
The second International Gran Prix was held on July 7, 1995, and once again featured a one night, 16-man single elimination tournament consisting of Mexican natives and a number of foreign wrestlers, some of which worked for CMLL on a regular basis (such as The Headhunters and El Boriqua) and others who were invited specially for the tournament (such as Johnny Gunn). The final match saw Headhunter A defeat Vampiro to win the second International Gran Prix.[4]
The third International Gran Prix was held on July 5, 1996, and featured a one night, 16-man single elimination tournament consisting of Mexican natives and a number of foreign wrestlers, some of which worked for CMLL on a regular basis and others who were invited specially for the tournament (such as Tiger Mask IV). The final match saw El Hijo del Santo defeat The Great Sasuke to win the International Gran Prix.[5]
The fourth International Gran Prix was held on April 4, 1997, and once again featured a one night, 16-man single elimination tournament consisting of Mexican natives and a number of foreign wrestlers, some of which worked for CMLL on a regular basis (such as Steele and Último Dragón) and others who were invited specially for the tournament (such as Leatherface). The final match saw Steel defeat Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. to win the International Gran Prix.[6]
The fifth International Gran Prix was held on August 14, 1998, and once again featured a one night, 16-man single elimination tournament consisting of Mexican natives and a number of foreign wrestlers, some of which worked for CMLL on a regular basis (such as The Headhunters) and others who were invited specially for the tournament (such as Ricky Santana). The final match saw Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. defeat Apolo Dantés to win the International Gran Prix, making Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. the first person to win the Gran Prix twice; having previously won it in 1994.[7]
The sixth International Gran Prix tournament was held on March 22, 2002, in Arena Mexico and for the first time the Gran Prix was not an elimination tournament but a 16-man Tornero Cibernetico. This was the first time the tournament was held since 1998 and every Gran Prix since then has had the same 16-man Tornero Cibernetico format. The teams were mixed Tecnicos and Rudos, seemingly randomly teamed up without any pre-existing storyline behind it. The teams were; "Team A" (Zumbido, Safari, Hombre Sin Nombre, Halloween, Volador, Jr., Damián 666, Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo) against "Team B (El Felino, Olímpico, Tony Rivera, Máscara Mágica, Nicho El Millonario, Satánico, Averno and Mephisto). The tournament came down to Máscara Mágica and El Hijo del Santo, with Máscara Magica winning the match.[8]
The 10th International Gran Prix tournament was held on May 11, 2007, in Arena Mexico and featured a 16-man Torneo Cibernetico between a team representing Mexico (Dr. Wagner, Jr., Dos Caras, Jr., Atlantis, Lizmark, Jr., Último Guerrero, Olímpico, Rey Bucanero and El Sagrado) and a team representing "International wrestling", four of which worked for CMLL on a regular basis (Shigeo Okumura, Alex Koslov, Marco Corleone and Pierroth) and four wrestlers brought in from Japan specifically for the tournament (Minoru Suzuki, Jushin Thunder Liger, Hirooki Goto, Último Dragón). Pierroth was on "Team International" despite being born in Mexico as his "Ring persona" claims to be from Puerto Rico. The match came down to Último Guerrero and Jushin Thunder Liger as the final two participants and saw Guerrero win to become the first and so far only wrestler to win the Gran Prix back to back years and only the second wrestler to win the Gran Prix twice.[12][16]
