Fédération Française de Catch Professionnel

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,[2] the promotion set a number of attendance records in the 1930s[3][4] that remained unbroken in France and continental Europe until the arrival of the World Wrestling Federation in the late 1980s.

[5] 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 2007–2008,[6] and again in 2018.

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 25 October 1933, headlined by Henri Deglane and Sailor Arnold.

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.

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.

[6] Several waves of men and women learned the rudiments of wrestling through the various facilities of the school (from Wissous to Villejuif through Chennevières, Choisy-le-Roi and Ris-Orangis).

The FFCP held its first national tour during the summer of 2007, showcasing its Catch Academy students, and received coverage from a number of mainstream publications including, most notably, Le Télégramme.

[23] In February 2014, Marc Mercier decided to entrust the presidency of the FFCP to the young referee and ex-wrestler from Bordeaux, Artémis d'Ortygie, appointing in turn Norbert Feuillan as vice-president.