The 2012 El Protector was the first event produced under that name, but was a continuation of the Proyeccion a Nuevas Promesas ("Projecting a new promise") tournament of 2010 and 2011 .

Lucha Libre has a tradition for a tournament where a rookie, or novato, would be teamed up with an experienced veteran wrestler for a tag team tournament in the hopes of giving the Novato a chance to show case their talent and move up the ranks.

[1] The Mexican professional wrestling company International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG; at times referred to as Grupo Internacional Revolución in Mexico) started their own annual rookie/veteran tournament in 2010.

The event featured nine 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.