Daniel López López (born October 26, 1949) is a Mexicanluchador (professional wrestler) and trainer, best known under thering nameEl Satánico (Spanish for "The Satanic One"). He was originally anenmascarado (masked wrestler), but lost the mask early in his career and has performed unmasked ever since. The majority of his in-ring career was spent inConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where he worked as arudo (theantagonists also known asheel in professional wrestling lingo).

El Satánico was one of the main members of theLos Infernales ("The Infernal Ones")stable from its creation in the early 1980s through 2008 and was a member of every single incarnation of the group.Los Infernales won theCMLL World Trios Championship three times and theMexican National Trios Championship three times. He's also won theCMLL World Middleweight Championship,CMLL World Welterweight Championship once, theMexican National Middleweight Championship three times, theNWA World Light Heavyweight Championship four times, and theNWA World Middleweight Championship five times in his career.

For years López worked at the CMLL wrestling school, playing a part in the development of almost every wrestler that worked for CMLL in the 2000s. He later opened his own school independent of CMLL. He wrestles on a reduced schedule on the Mexicanindependent circuit.

López made his professional wrestling debut on June 17, 1973, using the nameEl Satánico Dr. No ("The Satanic Dr. No") named after theJames Bond movie villainDr. No.^[3] A short time later, the name was shortened to just "El Satánico". He was originally anenmascarado, or masked character, but lost his mask as a result of aLucha de Apuesta, or "bet match" against El Vengador on January 4, 1974, and never allowed to wrestle wearing the mask again as a result of theLucha de Apuestas stipulation.^[3] On October 19, 1979, Satánico won his first wrestling championship when he defeatedCachorro Mendoza to win theMexican National Middleweight Championship.^[4] 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.^[4] On March 28, 1980, Satánico moved up from the Mexican title to the world title as he defeatedSatoru Sayama for theNWA World Middleweight Championship.^[5] While his first reign lasted just 30 days he would hold it a further two times between 1982 and 1983 by defeatingCésar Curiel and El Jalisco for the title, before losing it for the third and final time toLizmark on June 3, 1986.^[5] A month after losing the Middleweight title Satánico moved from the Middleweight division to thelight heavyweight division when he defeatedRingo Mendoza to win his firstNWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, holding it for 87 days before Mendoza regained it.^[6]

In the early 1980s, theTrios concept became very popular in Mexico, spearheaded by the trio calledLos Misioneros de Muerte (the Missionaries of Death) who worked for rival promotionUniversal Wrestling Association (UWA). EMLL decided to create a trio ofvillains, orRudos as they're called in Lucha Libre, to capitalize on the popularity of the Trios phenomenon.MS-1, El Satánico andEspectro Jr. were chosen to formLos Infernales (the Infernals).^[3] Due to various injuries Espectro Jr. was forced to retire from wrestling altogether, which led toPirata Morgan becoming the thirdInfernales, giving birth to the most successful incarnation ofLos Infernales.^[7] Satánico split his time between trios matches and wrestling in the middleweight division, defeating Lizmark to start his fourth reign on December 2, 1983.^[5] By the middle of 1984 Satánico became involved in a long, draw out heated feud withGran Cochisse, a feud that saw Sátanico and Cochisse trade the title back and forth.^[5] On October 14, 1984, Satánico won theUWA World Middleweight Championship fromSúper Astro.^[8]

In March 1985Los Infernales participated in a tournament to determine the first-everMexican National Trios Champions; in the finals of the tournament,Los Infernales defeatedLos Brazos ("the Arms";El Brazo,Brazo de Oro, andBrazo de Plata) to become the first Mexican National Trios champions.^[9] In October 1986, Pirata Morgan left the group to form a new group called "Los Bucaneros", in his placeLos Infernales recruitedMasakre 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 thatLos Infernales made fewer appearances as a trio.^[3] During this time period. Satánico won his third Mexican National Middleweight title as well as his second and third NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship.^[4][6] During this time Satánico and Pirata Morgan were embroiled in a long feud, pitting the formerInfernales members against each other. The feud saw Morgan win the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship from Satánico on October 21, 1989.^[6]

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 inauguralCMLL 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.^[10] FormerInfernales member Masakre had formed his own group,Los Intocables (the Untouchables) consisting of himself,Pierroth Jr. andJaque Mate ("Checkmate").Los Intocables were immediately paired againstLos Infernales to create aRudos 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 defeatedLos Intocables for the championship on September 20, 1992.^[10] On April 5, 1992, Satánico defeated longtime rival Lizmark to win his fourth and final NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship.^[6] His final reign with the title lasted 111 days untilApolo Dantés beat him for it.^[6]

In 1994 Satánico gained a measure of revenge on Apolo Dantés as he won theCMLL 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.^[11] 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.^[12] On March 21, 1997, Satánico won his third CMLL World Trios title, this time teaming up withRey Bucanero (the nephew of Pirata Morgan) andEmilio Charles Jr. to win the vacant titles in a one-night eight-team tournament.^[10] The trio only held the title for 39 days before they were defeated byLa Ola Azur ("The Blue Wave";Atlantis, Lizmark andMr. Niebla).^[10] In mid-1997Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) wrestlerTaka Michinoku toured Mexico to gain international experience. On June 20, 1997, Satánico defeated Michinoku to win theFMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would hold the title until August 25, 1997, where Michinoku won it back shortly before returning to Japan.^[13] 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.^[12]

In the late 1990s, Satánico reformed Los Infernales, recruiting Rey Bucanero andÚltimo Guerrero to formLos Nuevos Infernales (the new Infernals).^[3] The Trio won theCopa 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 withTarzan Boy. Satánico formed his own "Infernales" withAverno andMephisto.^[3] When Tarzan Boy was injured Los Nuevos Infernales brought inMáscara Mágica to bolster the group. The storyline betweenLos Infernales and Los Nuevos Infernales came to a head when the two teams, seven men in total, faced off in asteel 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 theInfernales name and forced Máscara Mágica to unmask.^[14] After losing the match Guerrero, Bucanero and Tarzan Boy became known collectively asLos Guerreros del Infierno (The Infernal Soldiers).

On June 23, 2002, Satánico, Averno and Mephisto defeated the trio of Mr. Niebla,Olímpico andSafari to win the Mexican National Trios Championship.Los Infernales would only hold the Trios title for approximately 3 months before losing it toLa Familia de Tijuana (Damián 666,Halloween andNicho el Millonario).^[15] Averno and Mephisto turned on Satánico shortly after the title loss and formed their own group known asLa Triada del Terror (the trio of terror) along withEphesto.^[3] On November 25, 2003, El Satánico won the last championship of his long career when he defeatedEl Felino to win theCMLL World Welterweight Championship.^[9] Satánico held the title until February 24, 2004, when his former protégé Mephisto defeated him for the belt.^[16]

In 2007 Satánico reformedLos Infernales once more, teaming up with young wrestlers that had recently been repackaged to more "hellish" images,Nosferatu andEuforia. 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 ofLos Nuevos Infernales, as Satánico reduced his actual in-ring work.^[17]

In 2009, Satánico announced that he was reducing the number of shows he worked to focus on his work at CMLL's wrestling school.^[18] On March 2, 2012, he wrestledEl Solar to a draw in a match for the FLLM Master Championship, which meant that El Solar retained the title.^[19] In 2014 he lost aLucha de Apuestas match toEl Dandy as part of El Dandy' retirement tour.^[20] After having worked on theindependent 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.^[21] For CMLL's 2019Leyendas Mexicanas show, El Satánico defeated El Solar on CMLL's annual tribute to lucha libre legends show.^[22][23]

El Satanico wrestles as of January 2024 at age 74.

Daniel López is considered one of the best wrestling trainers currently active in Mexico, following in the footsteps of his own mentor Diablo Velasco.^[1] He is the head trainer for CMLL's wrestling school in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico (Gimnasio del Diablo Velasco) 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:

• Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre / Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
  • CMLL World Middleweight Championship (1 time)^[12]
  • CMLL World Trios Championship (3 times) – withMS-1 andPirata Morgan (2),Emilio Charles Jr. andRey Bucanero (1)^[10]
  • CMLL World Welterweight Championship (1 time)^[9]
  • Mexican National Middleweight Championship (3 times)^[4]
  • Mexican National Trios Championship (3 times) – with MS-1 and Pirata Morgan (2) and Mephisto and Averno (1)^[61][15]
  • NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (4 times)^[6]
  • NWA World Middleweight Championship (5 times)^[5]
  • Copa de Arena Mexico (1999) - withRey Bucanero andÚltimo Guerrero
• Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
  • FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[13]
• International Wrestling Revolution Group
  • Copa Higher Power (1999) – withAstro Rey Jr.,Máscara Mágica,Rey Bucanero and Último Guerrero
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked No. 74 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in thePWI 500 in 1997^[62]
  • Ranked No. 182 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during thePWI Years in 2003
• Universal Wrestling Association
  • UWA World Middleweight Championship (1 time)^[8]
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2001)
• Other
  • FLLM Masters Championship (2 times)^[63]

• 1949 births
• Living people
• Mexican male professional wrestlers
• Professional wrestlers from Guadalajara, Jalisco
• Mexican professional wrestling trainers
• 20th-century male professional wrestlers
• 20th-century Mexican professional wrestlers
• 21st-century male professional wrestlers
• 21st-century Mexican professional wrestlers
• Mexican National Middleweight Champions
• Mexican National Trios Champions
• CMLL World Middleweight Champions
• CMLL World Trios Champions
• CMLL World Welterweight Champions
• NWA World Light Heavyweight Champions
• NWA World Middleweight Champions
• Independent World Junior Heavyweight Champions
• UWA World Middleweight Champions

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