El Satánico


Daniel López López is a Mexican luchador and trainer best known under the ring name El Satánico. He was originally an enmascarado,, but lost the mask early in his career and has worked unmasked ever since. The majority of his in-ring career was spent in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, where he worked as a rudo.
El Satánico was one of the main members of the Los Infernales stable from its creation in the early 1980s through 2008, and was a member of every single incarnation of the group. Los Infernales won the CMLL World Trios Championship three times and the Mexican National Trios Championship three times. He's also won the CMLL World Middleweight Championship, CMLL World Welterweight Championship once, the Mexican National Middleweight Championship three times, the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship four times and the NWA World Middleweight Championship five times in his career.
For years López worked at the CMLL wrestling school, playing the part of almost every wrestler that worked for CMLL in the 2000s and later opening his own school independent of CMLL. He also wrestles on a reduced schedule on the Mexican independent circuit.

Professional wrestling career

López made his professional wrestling debut on June 17, 1973, using the name El Satánico Dr. No named after the James Bond movie villain Dr. No. A short time later, the name was shortened to just "El Satánico". He was originally an enmascarado, or masked character, but lost his mask as a result of a Lucha de Apuesta, or "bet match" against El Vengador on January 4, 1974. On October 19, 1979, Satánico won his first wrestling championship when he defeated Cachorro Mendoza to win the Mexican National Middleweight Championship. His first reign lasted 161 days and was an indicator of what the future held for Satánico as it was the first of many titles he would hold. Satánico held the Mexican National Middleweight title again in 1981-1982 and would hold it in 1988/1989 as well. On March 28, 1980, Satánico moved up from the Mexican title to the world title as he defeated Satoru Sayama for the NWA World Middleweight Championship. While his first reign lasted just 30 days he would hold it a further two times between 1982 and 1983 by defeating César Curiel and El Jalisco for the title, before losing it for the third and final time to Lizmark on June 3, 1986. A month after losing the Middleweight title Satánico moved from the Middleweight division to the light heavyweight division when he defeated Ringo Mendoza to win his first NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, holding it for 87 days before Mendoza regained it.

Los Infernales

In the early 1980s, the Trios concept became very popular in Mexico, spearheaded by the trio called Los Misioneros de Muerte who worked for rival promotion Universal Wrestling Association. EMLL decided to create a trio of villains, or Rudos as they're called in Lucha Libre, to capitalize on the popularity of the Trios phenomenon. MS-1, El Satánico and Espectro Jr. were chosen to form Los Infernales. Due to various injuries Espectro Jr. was forced to retire from wrestling altogether, which led to Pirata Morgan becoming the third Infernales, giving birth to the most successful incarnation of Los Infernales. Satánico split his time between trios matches and wrestling in the middleweight division, defeating Lizmark to start his fourth reign on December 2, 1983. By the middle of 1984 Satánico became involved in a long, draw out heated feud with Gran Cochisse, a feud that saw Sátanico and Cochisse trade the title back and forth. On October 14, 1984, Satánico won the UWA World Middleweight Championship from Súper Astro. In March 1985 Los Infernales participated in a tournament to determine the first-ever Mexican National Trios Champions; in the finals of the tournament, Los Infernales defeated Los Brazos to become the first Mexican National Trios champions. In October 1986, Pirata Morgan left the group to form a new group called "Los Bucaneros", in his place Los Infernales recruited Masakre to be their third member. While MS-1 and Masakre worked as a tag team, Satánico focused more and more on singles competition, which meant that Los Infernales made fewer appearances as a trio. During this time period. Satánico won his third Mexican National Middleweight title as well as his second and third NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. During this time Satánico and Pirata Morgan were embroiled in a long feud, pitting the former Infernales members against each other. The feud saw Morgan win the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship from Satánico on October 21, 1989.
In the early 1990s, Los Infernales reformed, reuniting MS-1, Satánico and Pirata Morgan once more. The trio participated in the tournament to crown the inaugural CMLL World Trios Champions. Los Infernales won the tournament, defeating Los Brazo in the finals to become the CMLL World Trios Champions on November 22, 1991. Former Infernales member Masakre had formed his own group, Los Intocables consisting of himself, Pierroth Jr. and Jaque Mate. Los Intocables were immediately paired against Los Infernales to create a Rudos vs. Rudos storyline, playing off both the championship chase and the history between the two groups. On March 22, 1992, Los Intocables won the CMLL World Trios Title, however, Los Infernales got the final victory in their feud as they defeated Los Intocables for the championship on September 20, 1992. On April 5, 1992, Satánico defeated longtime rival Lizmark to win his fourth and final NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. His final reign with the title lasted 111 days until Apolo Dantés beat him for it. In 1994 Satánico gained a measure of revenge on Apolo Dantés as he won the CMLL World Middleweight Championship from Dantés. With the win,Satánico became one of the few people to have held both the Mexican National, NWA World, and CMLL World championship in the Middleweight division. Satánico would go on to hold the CMLL Middleweight title for a total of 1,561 days, by far the longest reign of any CMLL World Middleweight Champion. On March 21, 1997, Satánico won his third CMLL World Trios title, this time teaming up with Rey Bucanero and Emilio Charles Jr. to win the vacant titles in a one-night eight-team tournament. The trio only held the title for 39 days before they were defeated by La Ola Azur. In mid-1997 Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling wrestler Taka Michinoku toured Mexico to gain international experience. On June 20, 1997, Satánico defeated Michinoku to win the FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would hold the title until August 25, 1997, where Michinoku won it back shortly before returning to Japan. On March 7, 1999 Satánico's marathon reign as CMLL World Middleweight Champion ended when his old rival Ringo Mendoza won the title from him.

Los Nuevos Infernales

In the late 1990s, Satánico reformed Los Infernales, recruiting Rey Bucanero and Último Guerrero to form Los Nuevos Infernales. The Trio won the Copa de Arena Mexico Tournament in 1999, but did not win any titles. After working together for just under a year Bucanero and Guerrero turned on Satánico, kicking him out of Los Nuevos Infernales, replacing him with Tarzan Boy. Satánico formed his own "Infernales" with Averno and Mephisto. When Tarzan Boy was injured Los Nuevos Infernales brought in Máscara Mágica to bolster the group. The storyline between Los Infernales and Los Nuevos Infernales came to a head when the two teams, seven men in total, faced off in a steel cage match where the winners would earn the right to the name "Los Infernales" and the last man in the cage would lose either his mask or his hair. On September 28, 2001, Satánico's team won the right to the Infernales name and forced Máscara Mágica to unmask. After losing the match Guerrero, Bucanero and Tarzan Boy became known collectively as Los Guerreros del Infierno. On June 23, 2002, Satánico, Averno and Mephisto defeated the trio of Mr. Niebla, Olímpico and Safari to win the Mexican National Trios Championship. Los Infernales would only hold the Trios title for approximately 3 months before losing it to La Familia de Tijuana. Averno and Mephisto turned on Satánico shortly after the title loss and formed their own group known as La Triada del Terror along with Ephesto. On November 25, 2003, El Satánico won the last championship of his long career when he defeated El Felino to win the CMLL World Welterweight Championship. Satánico held the title until February 24, 2004, when his former protégé Mephisto defeated him for the belt.
In 2007 Satánico reformed Los Infernales once more, teaming with young wrestlers that had recently been repackaged to more "hellish" images, Nosferatu and Euforia. The trios did not approach the success of the previous incarnations of Los Infernales, working mainly lower to mid-card matches; the group was intended to give the two young wrestlers more ring experience and further their training under Satánico's guidance. The following year, Virus became the unofficial leader of Los Nuevos Infernales, as Satánico reduced his actual in-ring work.

Late career (2009–current)

In 2009 Satánico announced that he was reducing the number of shows he worked to focus on his work at CMLL's wrestling school. On March 2, 2012, he wrestled El Solar to a draw in a match for the FLLM Master Championship, which meant that El Solar retained the title. In 2014 he lost a Lucha de Apuestas match to El Dandy as part of El Dandy' retirement tour. After having worked on the independent circuit from 2012 through 2014, El Satánico returned to CMLL by the end of 2014, splitting his time between CMLL and appearing on independent shows. For CMLL's 2019 Leyendas Mexicanas show, El Satánico defeated El Solar on CMLL's annual tribute to lucha libre legends show.

Professional wrestling trainer

Daniel López is considered one of the best wrestling trainers currently active in Mexico, following in the footsteps of his own mentor Diablo Velazco. He is the head trainer for CMLL's wrestling school in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and thus has been involved in training a lot of the wrestlers CMLL employs as well as students who have gone on to work for other promotions around the world. The following is a list of notable wrestlers López has trained:
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Winner Loser LocationEventDateNotes
El Vengador El Satánico Guadalajara, Jaliscoindependent show
Ringo Mendoza El Satánico N/Aindependent showN/A
El Satánico Tony Benetto N/Aindependent showN/A
El Satánico El Nazi N/Aindependent showN/A
Flama Azul El Satánico Mexico CityEMLL show
El Satánico Ricky Romero Mexico CityEMLL show
El Satánico Chamaco Ortiz Mexico CityEMLL show
Cachorro Mendoza El Satánico Mexico CityEMLL Martes De Coliseo
El Satánico El Reo Mexico CityEMLL show
El Satánico Cachorro Mendoza Mexico CityEMLL show
El Satánico Mocho Cota Mexico CityEMLL 47th Anniversary Show
El Fantasma El Satánico Mexico CityEMLL show
Sangre Chicana and El SatánicoRingo Mendoza and Cachorro Mendoza Mexico CityEMLL show
Sangre Chicana El Satánico Mexico CityEMLL Domingos de Arena Mexico
El Satánico Sangre Chicana Mexico CitySuper Viernes
DrawSangre Chicana
El Satánico 		Mexico CityEMLL show
El Satánico La Fiera Mexico CitySuper Viernes
El Satánico Samurai Shiro Mexico CitySuper Viernes
El Satánico Alfonso Dantés Guadalajara, JaliscoSuper Viernes
El Satánico Pirata Morgan Mexico CityJuicio Final
El Satánico El Dandy Mexico CityEMLL show
Ell Satánico El Texano Mexico CitySuper Viernes
El Satánico Mike Stone Mexico CitySuper Viernes
Fabuloso Blondy El Satánico Mexico CityEMLL show
Atlantis and El Satánico Tierra Viento y Fuego and MS-1Mexico CityEMLL 56th Anniversary Show
El Satánico Jerry Estrada Mexico CitySuper Viernes
El Dandy El Satánico Mexico City1990 Juicio Final
El Satánico Kato Kung Lee Mexico CitySuper Viernes
El Satánico El Dandy Mexico CityCMLL show
El Dandy El Satánico Mexico CityCMLL 59th Anniversary Show
El Satánico Pirata Morgan Texcoco, State of MexicoAAA Sin Limite
Héctor Garza El Satánico Mexico City39. Aniversario de Arena México
Héctor Garza El Satánico Mexico CityCMLL show
Emilio Charles Jr. El Satánico Mexico CityCMLL show
Negro Casas El Satánico Puebla, PueblaCMLL Lunes Arena Puebla
El Satánico Brazo de Oro Mexico CitySuper Viernes
Tarzan Boy El Satánico Mexico CitySuper Viernes
Tarzan Boy El Satánico Puebla, Puebla47. Aniversario de Arena Puebla
El Satánico Máscara Mágica Mexico CityCMLL 68th Anniversary Show
El Satánico Maniacop Puebla, Puebla49. Aniversario de Arena Puebla
El Satánico Damián 666 Mexico CityCMLL show
El Satánico and Negro Casas La Legion Japonesa
Mexico CityCMLL show
El Satánico Super Brazo Acapulco, Guerreroindependent show
Máscara Año 2000 El Satánico Mexico CityCMLL Domingos de Coliseo
El Satánico Violencia Puebla, PueblaCMLL Lunes Arena Puebla
Damián 666 El Satánico Tijuana, Baja CaliforniaLive event
Pierroth Jr. El Satánico Puebla, Puebla2. Aniversario de Arena Puebla
Emilio Charles Jr. El Satánico Nezahualcoyotlindependent show
El Dandy El Satánico Reynosa, TamaulipasEl Juicio Final