Several International Stars Announced For CMLL Gran Prix

By Eric Mutter

Wrestling promotions come and go, the big fish eat the little fish, and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre keeps on paddling. At 89 years and counting, CMLL is the oldest wrestling promotion in the world and the archrival of fellow lucha libre promotion AAA in Mexico. And while not always big on outsiders, the promotion has decided to reach out to some well-known names for their upcoming International Gran Prix.

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On their Wednesday program "CMLL Informa," CMLL announced both the Mexican and International teams for the Gran Prix, a fourteen-man cibernetico (multi-man) match. The International team will feature New Japan stars Tiger Mask, Robbie Eagles, and Rocky Romero, Impact stars Matt Taven and Kenny King, Puerto Rican wrestler Oraculo, and former WWE star Lince Dorado.

The seven-man team will take on CMLL's squad of luchadores, which consists of Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr., Templario, NJPW Best of the Super Juniors participant Titan, Ultimo Guerrero, and Volador Jr. The Gran Prix is fought under elimination rules, meaning the team with the last luchador remaining will win the Gran Prix.

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This will be the first ever CMLL appearance for Eagles, the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, and Dorado, whose Lucha House Party teammate Mascara Dorada (Gran Metalik) wrestled for CMLL from 2007 to 2016. In contrast, Taven, Tiger Mask, King, Oraculo, and Romero will all be returning to the promotion and are all former Gran Prix participants.

The inclusion of Taven and Romero is shocking to many in lucha libre circles due to their respective exits from CMLL. Taven, who won the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship in CMLL back in 2018 and also headlined the CMLL Aniversario that year, was considered blacklisted from the promotion after he was booked for the upstart Federacion Wrestling promotion in 2021. Federacion ultimately never ran a show and quietly disappeared. Romero, who worked on and off for CMLL from 2003 to 2008, was also said to be blacklisted after he jumped ship to AAA in 2008. Even after leaving AAA in 2010, he had not to this point wrestled in CMLL, though he did participate in several of the promotion's FantasticaMania tours, run in conjunction with New Japan.

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The CMLL International Gran Prix will take place on August 19 and will run out of CMLL's home base Arena Mexico, considered by many to be "the cathedral of lucha libre." The show will air on Ticketmaster Live.

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