Fédération Française de Catch Professionnel (; ; FFCP) is édérationFrança professional wrestling promotion based in France, originally active from 1933 until 1989. and later revived in the 21st century. The organization was founded by Raoul Paoli and functioned as a governing body somewhat similar to the U.S.-based National Wrestling Alliance, the British Joint Promotions, the German VdB or the Spanish CIC (Corporación Internacional de Catch). With Henri Deglane as its headliner, the promotion set a number of attendance records in the 1930s that remained unbroken in France and continental Europe until the arrival of the World Wrestling Federation in the late 1980s. In 2006, the promotion was revived by former FFCP wrestler Marc Mercier who ran several national tours in conjunction with his Catch Academy wrestling school in 2007–08, and again in 2018.
Creation
In 1933, Raoul Paoli, a French rugby player and all-round athlete, helped his friend Henri Deglane, a Greco-Roman wrestling gold medalist at the 1924 Summer Olympics, to popularize wrestling in France. In 1933 the two men co-founded the FFCP. The style of wrestling which was promoted by the FCCP was a flashy American style known as "Catch" as it was based on catch wrestling.
With their friends Charles Rigoulot and Julien Duvivier, both top athletes, they introduced wrestling at the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris. They became affiliated with the Fédération Française de Lutte (FFL), effectively becoming the professional branch of wrestling within the organization at that time. That same year, a French troupe of wrestlers performed in Madrid, Spain, and introduced "modern" catch and U.S.-style pro wrestling to Spanish audiences for the first time. Five months later, the FFCP held the earliest-known catch wrestling show in Barcelona on October 25, 1933, headlined by Henri Deglane and Sailor Arnold.
Deglane was the country's top star throughout the 1930s. His bouts against Dan Koloff, Charlie Santen and Ed "Strangler" Lewis drew a record 15,000 people at the Palais des Sports during 1933–34. One Palais des Sports show featuring Dan Koloff vs. Charles Rigoulot on 22 January 1934 topped 18,000. The promotion set a number of attendance records for pro wrestling in Western Europe during the 1930s. As of 2022, the Koloff vs. Rigoulot bout still remains the most attended pro wrestling event in France. Dan Koloff went on to become Deglane's main rival for the French-version of the European Heavyweight Championship.
Raoul Paoli became the first president of the Fédération Française de Catch Professionnel (FFCP), and the first wrestling matchmaker in France. Raoul Paoli died on 23 March 1960, in Paris, leaving his chair empty.
The Golden Age
From 1960 until the 1980s, wrestling was at its peak in France. During this period, no less than seven venues held shows in Paris every week: the Élysée Montmartre, the Salle Wagram, the Stadium, the Palais des Sports de Paris, La Mutualité, the Cirque d'hiver and the Vel d'Hiv. The Élysée Montmartre is the scene of many television broadcasts on the ORTF). Its owner and star wrestler of the time Roger Delaporte – later a referee with a reputation for physically imposing order in matches – was one of the great wrestling bookers of France. He successively directed the Fédération Française de Lutteurs Indépendants (FFLI) and then the Fédération Française de Catch Professionnel following the death of Raoul Paoli. Robert Lageat, a promoter for the FFCP, is credited with discovering Andre the Giant (then known as Jean Ferré) who made his pro wrestling debut for the promotion in Rouen on 25 January 1966.
At the end of the 1980s, Roger Delaporte retired and sold the Élysée Montmartre to the production company Garance Productions. The Fédération Française de Catch Professionnel remained in limbo for nearly 20 years.