Satanico vs Dandy feud

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How often do you hear anything about this feud besides the two big matches from 1990? It was a long one, but I really can't recall any of the buildup matches getting much praise or any notable discussion, really. Dandy accidentally slapped Satanico at the anniversary show to precipitate the turn, and the next week Satanico spent the whole match beating Dandy up when they were programmed as teammates again. Getting into things with their first match as opponents...

Satanico, Emilio Charles Jr. and Kung Fu vs Dandy, Atlantis and Octagon, October 5 1990
This was a good start. Dandy and Satanico found ways to shine despite not being the main story of the match, with Dandy trying to force the action and Satanico willing to fight only on his terms, namely after someone else had already hurt Dandy. Then he'd strut around the ring like he lived there. He absolutely destroyed Dandy with one headbutt in particular, this after getting in his face and berating him. It wasn't perfect. The tecnicos had already made their comeback, but Satanico wouldn't let Dandy take control until Atlantis came over and bailed him out, which was a little weak. Dandy left the ring on a stretcher, but on a countered plancha rather than a brutal beatdown. It was good TV either way. Kung Fu made a fun little heel, pecking away and getting heat by pouring something into Atlantis' eyes. Alfonso Morales later determined that it was ginseng extract that had blinded Atlantis. Odd choice but whatever.

Satanico, Emilio Charles Jr. and Kung Fu vs Dandy, Atlantis and Octagon, October 12 1990
Atlantis isn't really a guy I think of as an intense, fired up babyface, but Kung Fu must have really pissed him off. He yanked Kung Fu's mask off almost immediately, costing the tecnicos the fall but sending Kung Fu scurrying to the back. He was still gone when the whistle sounded for the second fall, but the two on three disadvantage meant nothing to Satanico. No one needs to see you fend off Dandy and Atlantis at the same time, Lopez. Things got better when Satanico flung Dandy halfway across the ring with a front suplex and Dandy used all his strength to crawl over and pop Satanico in the face in return. Later on he gobbed in Satanico's eye and got flattened by a right hand for it. Kung Fu raced back in a balaclava and tried to put his mask back on, but Atlantis just tore it off again. It was a DQ the first time, but I guess if you have a ski mask on under it then it's fine. Kung Fu got some HEAT here. Morales informed us that after last week's match Atlantis had suffered vision problems for two days. Knowing what we do about ginseng attacks, it could have been a lot worse.

Satanico, Kung Fu and Perro Aguayo vs Dandy, Atlantis and Ringo Mendoza, October 19 1990
We finally got some closure to the ginseng controversy in the prematch interview, when Arturo Rivera asked Kung Fu what kind of liquid he'd poured in Atlantis' eyes, and Kung Fu explained that as a ninja he was not at liberty to discuss what it was. That didn't clear anything up at all, actually. Atlantis responded by telling Kung Fu that attacking with liquid like that is prohibited in wrestling. The show moved back to Arena Mexico this week, but the match didn't feel any bigger. With Kung Fu feuding with Atlantis, and big personalities like Aguayo and Mendoza in the ring, Satanico and Dandy had trouble just getting their foot in the door to pair off. Dandy did a neat dip and dive sequence to evade Satanico's punches, but Satanico nailed him anyway, which kind of defeated the point. He did crush Dandy with a senton to the floor, and this would have been a better place to insert a stretcher job into the feud, IMO. The wrestlers didn't do anything wrong, but even though Atlantis bled and had his mask torn up this wasn't really exciting.

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Satanico, Pirata Morgan and Mascara Año 2000 vs Dandy, Sangre Chicana and Faraon, November 2 1990
Another match that Satanico and Dandy didn't take over and make their own. It wasn't even that they had to step back for Faraon/Pirata, because it's not like those guys dominated the action either. There was nothing wrong with the work itself, but even though Dandy bladed this was hardly an interesting or dramatic match. With the second double pin finish so far between Satanico and Dandy, this at times feels like less of a blood feud and more like a competitive rivalry over a title.

Satanico, Emilio Charles Jr. and Jerry Estrada vs Dandy, Sangre Chicana and Lizmark, November 9 1990
At last we have a match that is booked to be about Dandy and Satanico. The results were mixed. It should be the easiest match in the world. Satanico refuses to give Dandy a fair fight and beats on him, Dandy storms back into the match, and finally they settle things one on one and Satanico steals it. Instead of building heat they worked these herky jerky back and forth swings of momentum where no one was in control for long and nothing was as dramatic as it could have been. I didn't think Dandy came out of this looking great despite getting the pin at the end. With the tecnicos in control, Satanico simply outwrestled him one on one to win the first fall. Dandy went for a backslide and a comedic headbutt to the groin rather than anything violent for his big comeback. And every time he hit something big, Satanico would fire right back with something even bigger. I bet a lot of people would enjoy Satanico biting Dandy's fingers to escape a predicament, but if he'd rolled out of the ring and sold it might have helped Dandy out. The best and most telling spot of the match was when Dandy and Charles tore through a quick sequence that saw Dandy send Charles flying to the floor. Satanico came in and demanded the crowd applaud Dandy's brilliant wrestling, with Dandy not knowing how to react, before Charles slid in from behind with a cheapshot. That was a clever bit of interplay from all three, but I couldn't help but notice how Dandy looked better in that one spot with Charles than in any exchange with Satanico so far in these matches.

Satanico, Fabuloso Bondy and MS-1 vs Dandy, Ringo Mendoza and Sangre Chicana, November 16 1990
And we're back to Satanico and Dandy having to fight for the spotlight. No one talks about how often this feud positioned them as secondary characters rather than leads. This time they actually were able to make their issue seem like a big deal, but the way they did it still felt somewhat off. One minute they were trading armdrags, and the next they were both busted open and slugging it out. It's hard to have a match turn on a dime like that, and the start of the third fall is a little late to suddenly make things that violent. I'll give them credit, though, because their brawling in the third fall was a lot more personal than anything I'd seen them do to that point. Ringo vs Blondy couldn't match up to that, and Chicana vs MS-1 didn't hearken back to their 1983 match. At this point Emilio Charles was much better in the typical MS-1 role.

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Satanico, Herodes and Giant Kamala vs Dandy, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and Atlantis, November 30 1990
Satanico and Dandy started off fairly hot in the first fall, and then as the match wore on (and on) it became more about Kamala vs Rayo without building to any kind of climax. I can't totally blame them for being overshadowed, but on the other hand they're not rising above their surroundings either. I kind of thought that Dandy vs Kamala and Satanico vs Atlantis provided more interesting moments than Satanico vs Dandy in this one.

Satanico, Ulises and Universo 2000 vs Dandy, Atlantis and Sangre Chicana, December 7 1990
This was the one I remembered as the best match of the build. If anything I liked it more on this watch. Dandy was a man possessed, showing more fire than in any other outing from this series, constantly lunging at Satanico and often paying the price. It was also the most badass he'd looked, as even in the bloody match a few weeks before he didn't take it to Satanico like this. Nice, but what really made this special was that it was probably the first time in the whole feud that the interplay between the two featured moments that could happen only when you had Satanico up against El Dandy. Satanico winning a fall on a faked foul and bursting into a wicked grin on the outside of the ring is classic Satanico. Dandy's furious response of, "Okay, you want to see a foul?" was the type of thing that separated him from the other tecnico personalities. Of course it hurt even more for him to get outwrestled and pinned in the second fall, and this time he snapped and went even farther over the line. He really sold it with his frustrated headbutt of the turnbuckle, another touch I wouldn't expect from anyone else. This was what I wanted from this feud, plenty of hatred but also mind games with each man getting in the other's head. No blood, but they didn't need it. One of the best EMLL matches of the year.

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Satanico, MS-1 and Pirata Morgan vs Dandy, Konnan and Octagon, November 15 1991
One fall match from the championship tournament in which nothing got a chance to breathe but everyone, even Konnan, looked excellent. That tecnico team might look like a mishmash on paper, but they could have been a proper team. Miguel Linares described them as Konnan with the power, Octagon with the spectacular moves, and Dandy with the technique. This wasn't really a Satanico vs Dandy match, with only brief teases of it to begin the feud. I thought they matched up better here than in a lot of their 1990 stuff though.

Satanico, MS-1 and Pirata Morgan vs Dandy, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and Konnan, November 29 1991
This is universally listed as the Infernales defending their titles a week after winning them, but the belts weren't on the line. This was the opposite of the match from two weeks ago, as instead of a fifteen minute sprint this had the length and pace of something from AAA. It even had a ref storyline. I thought everyone looked better in the first match. Konnan was still trying to be a worker, so good for him, but that was some of the most awkward bumping I've ever seen. I'm pretty much objectively wrong on this, because the crowd was way into it, but Satanico vs Dandy just didn't hook me as a deeply personal feud this time around. I can't really say what they did wrong, but I'm wracking my brain for highlights and coming up empty. Pepe Casas made his debut as a ref, and him calling out Roberto Rangel (the feud Arena Mexico was dying to see) was the focus of the postmatch. Dandy disappeared into the background.

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Satanico, Gran Markus Jr. and Super Halcon vs Dandy, Atlantis and Mogur, April 28 1989
To my eye this one week setup for a Dandy-Satanico title match was a lot more personal than most of their 1990s matches. Halcon had packed a big house earlier in the week and Markus was the CMLL version of Kane, but here they were excellent as Satanico's goons, picking off the other tecnicos and holding Dandy up for some free shots from their captain, leaving no question what this match was about. At the end of the first fall, Dandy spat in the eye of a shittalking Satanico and slipped free from the goons to get a couple of shots in, which led to Satanico going berserk and simply pummeling Dandy until he quit. Not often you see a submission without a hold. The second fall had some nimble movement from Dandy to evade a punch, some blood and some biting, and finally a nice technical showdown at the end won by Satanico. It wasn't the most dramatic or fast paced match, but I thought it was pretty solid with some classic Satanico-Dandy moments slipped in throughout. Postmatch saw Armando Gaitan, in one of his earliest wrestling appearances, declare that Satanico had demanded a title shot from... Mogur! Satanico had to set him straight there.

Satanico, Pirata Morgan and MS-1 vs Dandy, Atlantis and Ultimo Dragon, September 11 1992
A lot like that 1989 match, but everything was bigger and livelier. Like, yes, Markus and Halcon were on point there, but they aren't going to be able to beat MS-1 and Pirata Morgan. That match didn't have anything to compare to Satanico holding up a helpless, bloodied Dandy while proclaiming himself the man, as the women in the front row pleaded and demanded that he let Dandy go. I liked Dandy's dazed clambering of the ropes and his fired up headbutts on the comeback too. The one on one at the end wasn't quite as smooth as the one from 1989, but I'll take the hotter overall match. For some reason Satanico finished things up with the Atlantida.

I guess my thoughts on this feud are that they're a good matchup, two guys whose personalities play well against each other, and very fondly remembered rivals from the TV boom. As far as the matches, I don't think that Satanico plus Dandy was always a guarantee of something quality, as they didn't always jump to the forefront of their matches and sometimes it seemed like they overthought things and tried to do too much, trying to show that they were great wrestlers and then also ready to go to war. I don't think they were as consistently electric as Dandy was with Casas, Angel Azteca, and Emilio Charles. For Satanico feuds, I guess this might be his best one represented on video. There's Lizmark... maybe Sangre Chicana?