Leyenda de Plata (2002)

The Leyenda de Plata (2002) was professional wrestling tournament produced by the Mexican wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLLl; Spanish "World Wrestling Council") that ran from July 26, 2002, over the course of three of CMLL's Friday night shows in Arena México with the finals on August 9, 2002. The annual Leyenda de Plata tournament is held in honor of lucha libre legend El Santo and is one of CMLL's most important annual tournaments.

The torneo cibernetico qualifier for the 2002 Leyenda de Plata took place on July 26, 2002 and once again saw two teams of eight face off to determine the semi-finalists. Team "A" consisted of Atlantis, Averno, Blue Panther, El Felino, Mephisto, Safari, Satánico and Virus. Team "B" was Black Tiger, Fuerza Guerrera, Hombre Sin Nombre, Negro Casas, Olímpico, Tony Rivera, Violencia and Volador Jr. The two semi-finalists were El Felino and Black Tiger, making Black Tiger the first wrestler to qualify for the semi-final more than once. On August 2, 2002 El Felino defeated Black Tiger in the semi-final and a week later he defeated Black Warrior to win the tournament.

Background
The Leyenda de Plata (Spanish for "the Silver Legend") is an annual lucha libre tournament scripted and promoted by the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). The first Leyenda de Plata was held in 1998 and was in honor of El Santo, nicknamed Enmáscarado de Plata (the Silver mask) from which the tournament got its name. The trophy given to the winner is a plaque with a metal replica of the mask that El Santo wore in both wrestling and lucha films.

The Leyenda de Plata was held annually until 2003, at which point El Santo's son, El Hijo del Santo left CMLL on bad terms. The tournament returned in 2004 and has been held on an almost annual basis since then. The original format of the tournament was the Torneo cibernetico elimination match to qualify for a semi-final. The winner of the semi-final would face the winner of the previous year's tournament in the final. Since 2005 CMLL has held two cibernetico matches and the winner of each then meet in the semi-final. In 2011, the tournament was modified to eliminate the final stage as the previous winner, Místico, did not work for CMLL at that point in time The 2002 edition of La Leyenda de Plata was the fifth overall tournament held by CMLL.

Storylines
The events featured a total of number of professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels (referred to as rudos in Mexico, those that portray the "bad guys") or faces (técnicos in Mexico, the "good guy" characters) as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.