French catch

[David Mantell]

Quote

Posted 1 hour ago

  5 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

And then from the first week of 1989 they replaced New Catch with WCCW.

Because at that point Eurosport launches on Astra and New Catch takes up residence in its appointed new home, starting with reruns of the 1988 TF1 bouts but soon moving to footage especially shot for Eurosport complete with fancy big ring with a giant Eurosport logo on the canvas.

Accessible to any UK TV set that can get any of the WWF (other than year old WWF Challenge at 4am and the six Specials broadcast 1987-1988 while they lasted) and full of all sorts of familiar faces from ITV.

  5 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

December 26, 1988:
Mister Kong vs. Danny Garnier
+ at least one more match [INA doesn't seem to have the full broadcast]

Actually a week and a half AFTER The Final Bell !!!!  And with several months Catch Americain either side of the run to cushion the blow, the start of which was just 5 months after the last Old Catch on FR3.

  5 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

Yes, there were some regional repeats of matches on various France 3 regional channels, but more interestingly than that there were also some matches that were broadcast only regionally. Came across a few (in 1982-1991).

The 1987 matches were part of a sports magazine show on FR3. Just occasional filler content. Nothing significant.

Yes, Catch went on but it was mostly regionally scattergun scheduled or fully regional rather than syndicated and therefore (1) went under INA's RADAR (2) was often not in their offices' region. Except when it was reasonably syndicated and we got a 1987 archiving or two.

 

And then we have Eurosport New Catch from 1989 until whenever (I've heard 1993) with the brief return to TF1 in 1991. ...

... And then for several years going through the 1990s and into the C21st Bernard Van Dam's Eurostar and/or Flesh Gordon and Jacky Richard's IWSF have some sort of TV deal with various stations around Europe - including, it would seem, FYR Macedonia, where its popularity was enough to go in and hold a TV taping locally. which drew a good crowd mainly of kids and young people - and was still going strong enough to cash in on the post 2007 WWE boom for (I)WS(F) to draw arena-esque crowds to cheer an older tubby bald moustachioed Flesh Gordon...

[David Mantell]

On 1/16/2025 at 2:03 PM, David Mantell said:

Proof that the tradition of weird French gimmicks like Les Pihrannas and Les Maniaks is still alive, from 2017 I give you IGWE AND MUNGU!!!

 

(Commentary on the first bout is in Flemish aka Belgian Dutch. It's a whole cultural MINEFIELD if you call it a separate language or a dialect of Dutch.  Mainly from Dutch people in the Netherlands who don't like Flemish being called a separate language like they don't like you calling their country "Holland".)

Imagine a two man cross between Saba Simba and Papa Shango and you got it.  La Bete Humane or  Mambo Le Primitiv for the Twitter generation.  The thing is, you can imagine these two in against Walter Bordes and young Flesh Gordon back in 1983-1985. 

Heels dominate with irreguliere tactics, Bons try to fight back but what can they do? 

...And was still going in sufficient shape in 2017 for this Flemish/Belgian Dutch language edition to still be running by then, even after Flesh and Jacky have retired from the ring.

[David Mantell]

On 4/20/2025 at 1:20 PM, Phil Lions said:

Yes, there were some regional repeats of matches on various France 3 regional channels, but more interestingly than that there were also some matches that were broadcast only regionally. Came across a few (in 1982-1991).

Interesting. If regional only wrestling broadcasts on FR3 were already going in 1982 (pre LDM) that could perhaps partly account for the dip in TF1/A2 wrestling broadcasts.

Region by region screening of matches could help the issue raised by Delaporte in 1977 re how a TV wrestling bout could adversely affect attendance for live shows held that same evening.

[Phil Lions]

8 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Region by region screening of matches could help the issue raised by Delaporte in 1977 re how a TV wrestling bout could adversely affect attendance for live shows held that same evening.

By the way, a bunch of people talked about this issue. It wasn't just Delaporte. It was an issue even at the peak of French catch. For example, here's a quote by Maurice Durand from April 1961, right after catch had been taken off TV:

Question: So you are in favor of completely eliminating catch from TV?
Maurice Durand: No, I just think that we shouldn't overdo it, and that we should be careful about the quality of the show. One session per month would seem perfect to me. When catch was shown every week, it was catastrophic for the catch organizers in the provinces. The announcement of televised catch demolishes the other sessions, which barely attract half-full audiences...

And that's a big reason why when catch returned to TV later in the year it was with a more reduced schedule.

[David Mantell]

3 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

By the way, a bunch of people talked about this issue. It wasn't just Delaporte. It was an issue even at the peak of French catch. For example, here's a quote by Maurice Durand from April 1961, right after catch had been taken off TV:

Question: So you are in favor of completely eliminating catch from TV?
Maurice Durand: No, I just think that we shouldn't overdo it, and that we should be careful about the quality of the show. One session per month would seem perfect to me. When catch was shown every week, it was catastrophic for the catch organizers in the provinces. The announcement of televised catch demolishes the other sessions, which barely attract half-full audiences...

And that's a big reason why when catch returned to TV later in the year it was with a more reduced schedule.

Yes and if transmissions were staggered as was possible on a network like FR3 then they could be timed to avoid going head to head with a big house show in a particular region.

In Britain this was less of an issue - although some World Of Sport matches were transmitted live from Saturday matinee shows (and both All Star and Rumble still do live matinee shows nowadays), otherwise there was very little live  wrestling iat that hour of day that could clash with a Sat 4pm WoS broadcast.

[David Mantell]

On 4/20/2025 at 1:20 PM, Phil Lions said:

New Catch was off TV for two weeks and when it returned it had a pair of new sponsors (which are prominently displayed on the ring and in the arena)

Namely "Maxi Cuisine".

When the bout were rescreened on Eurosport in early 1989, these bouts were shown first. Veteran ITV/ Reslo MC/Referee John Harris did the English commentary for these before being replaced by Orig Williams.

[Phil Lions]

On 4/23/2025 at 1:19 PM, David Mantell said:

Yes and if transmissions were staggered as was possible on a network like FR3 then they could be timed to avoid going head to head with a big house show in a particular region.

That would've been the case only if the networks cared about house shows, which they didn't. Not their business. They wouldn't rearrange their TV schedule because of some catch promoter's house show. And besides, I don't think there were many regional catch broadcasts anyway. Certainly not enough for them to be a big factor in the catch business.

[David Mantell]

1 hour ago, Phil Lions said:

That would've been the case only if the networks cared about house shows, which they didn't. Not their business. They wouldn't rearrange their TV schedule because of some catch promoter's house show. And besides, I don't think there were many regional catch broadcasts anyway. Certainly not enough for them to be a big factor in the catch business.

Promoters might have raised the issue in negotiations with FR3.

[David Mantell]

On 5/21/2020 at 1:51 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Guy Mercier & Marcel Montreal vs. Fred Magnier & Yasu Fuji (aired 7/30/83)

It's been an age since I've seen a Yasu Fuji match, and I hope it's an age before I have to see another one. This wasn't as bad as I was dreading. The file was 54 minutes long so I had this horrific notion that this was some kind of broadway match, but the first half of the file was a kind of French improv show like Who's Line Is It Anyway? and a few French commercials like a commercial for women's underwear that gives you a shapely bottom. This had a lot of clobbering. The kind of shit you'd expect from a heavyweight like Fuji. But it also had three old-school catcheurs in Mercier, Montreal and Magnier, so it wasn't all bad. I mean right across the channel they were headlining with Big Daddy tags. This was at least better than a British main event. 

 

Yasu Fuji himself had headlined Wembley Arena in a Big Daddy tag (and Royal Albert Hall the same show as reality TV show The Big Time fed innocent schoolteacher mark Frank "Rip" Rawlinson to dangerous Wigan ripper John Naylor and the ripper ripped Rip.). He had also participated in the tournaments in Germany.  I always rather liked Mr Yasu Fuji as a kid. By 1982-1983 the former San Francisco Version NWA World Tag Team Champion was in the third of the three Stronghold Euro territories and on their telly.  He had grown his hair out long too, pudding bowls style like Riki Choshu as Cho Chew at MSG 1982

Fuji (or FUDJI as the onscreen caption calls him) was by far the youngest in this bout, Magnier was well established as a Vieux Pontoufle heel while Mercier and Montreal wrestled a good oldies bout on TV against each other that same year (which I've already reviewed.) To add to the geriatric vibe, on commentary is good old Couderc, just a year away from dropping dead on the radio in the middle of a rugby match. The referee is that horrid little man (and former lightweight ace) Michel Saulnier when ended up as de facto heel in said Mercier/Montreal match. Don't expect him to be any nicer now that M&M are on the same side.

Couderc finds it hilariously funny when Fuji goes on a pre-match kendonstick rampage, knocking down both Bons plus Monsieur L'Arbitre.  He confiscates the offending weapon and hands it to a flunky to take .here Fuji will never find it. 

Old boys Magnier and Mercier had still taken bumps, As with Robbins Vs Rodgers the Bon takes it more smoothly. Same story when Marcel tags in. Then Fuji gets his go. He is far taller than either Bon but still bumps around for them in hiptosses etc.  Mercier gets Magnier in a belly to belly suplex. He goes for a cross press and gets 2 before Fuji kicks him in the head from the ring apron. Mercier sells and tags out. Fuji repeats his trick, coming in and stomping Montreal while he has Magnier in a side headlock and Michel and Guy are having their own little feud in the corner.  It earns Saulnier his first Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre chant of the broadcast. For his next trick Fuji stomps Montreal in the ring, Saulnier challenges Les Mechants but they deny everything. Fuji tags in and legtrips  Mercier but he bridges out of a pin, Mercier gets a good toupee on Fuji and headscissors him on the mat. Fred back in gets a fair serving of Manchettes from both Bons. Fuji continues his Illegal run in stomps on Montreal Les Mechants double team Montreal. Fuji armlocks his opponent to the mat With Magnier in, the Bons regain control, even working on Fuji's legs.  Fuji works very American style on his Bon adversaries, dropping high chops and Legdrops of Doom. He drops Mercier across his knee. Saulnier lets all this go. The no follow down rule did exist in France but it's not being enforced here.  Yasu tauntingly claps his own side's Irreguliere tactics.  Fuji delivers a top turnbuckle axehandle (at a time when Randy Savage is still in his dad's outlaw ICW).  He also gets caught on the top and takes quite a spectacular bump from a throw, allowing  Mercier to make the hot tag to Montreal who goes on a Manchette rampage before  scoring the opening fall on Magnier.  

At ringside Fuji,,despite what I said earlier, has found where his Kendo stick was hidden and stalks Mercier with it but Saulnier in the ring grabs it  and again confiscates it. Deuxieme Manche starts out as a more serious battle of extended headlocks on the mat between Montreal and Magnier. Couderc starts singing some song about a Dodo. Fuji tags in., Mercier takes him down in a spinning single legdive into leglock through his own legs. He starts attacking Fuji's face which Saulnier objects to and demands a break, yanking on Mercier's hair to get his point across. This gets the break and resumes Mercier and Saulnier.  As Michel and Marcel argue, Fuji throttles Mercier who foams at the mouth like George Wells at WM2 enwrapped in Damian. Fuji releases and drops a knee.  He goes chops Vs Manchettes first with Mercier then with Montreal.  Fuji does take a bump from a high whip by Montreal but continues unabashed.  Fuji boots Mercier of the ring apron and he and Magnier double team Montreal. Mercier runs round the outside and pulls Magnier off and they brawl at ringside. Mercier gets the better of this with Manchettes but Michel Saulnier is preoccupied with the ringside action and not with Fuji throttling Montreal in the corner. Fuji solo and double teaming with Magnier continue to rough up Montreal. Magnier tags in then tags back out but the punishment continues. A frustrated Mercier grabs Saulnier but Fuji attacks both and it gets the Bon side nowhere.  Fuji loosens the heels corner pad and Magnier posts Montreal into it.  Fuji tags in, Les Mechants grab a bon each, slingshot them together then stomp them on the mat. There are less than two minutes left of the clip and they are still trailing 1-0. The heels repeat the slingshot trick but Mercier headlocks his partner to dropkick and flying headscissor Magnier. He then crosspresses Fred for a second straight pin and the victory. Mercier is too worn out to object to Saulnier raising his and Montreal's hands.   Cut to the big Sat night news bulletin on A2 (without even an advert break, just like the segue on World of Sport from Big Daddy's latest win to the top Football scores.)

Three older guys and an American style worker. It's not a sparkling state of the art Catch a Quatre - no sleepless nights in store for Walter Bordes or Claude Rocas - but Fuji was kept strong (now a consolation fall scored by him would have been really good) and the veterans took care of the solids of the bout.

 

 

[David Mantell]

On 4/16/2025 at 1:03 AM, David Mantell said:

And lo and behold they're all A2. 

Which clears up one mystery about the INA collection all going colour in 1975.  The INA just didn't bother with the B/W bouts on TF1 when there were enough colour bouts on Antenne 2 to fulfill the quota.

Or more possibly TF1 was still being shot and broadcast solely on the antiquated 819-line TV system and the INA never had any recorders for this format because manufacturers never produced cheap VT machines for this format which was due to be phased out anyway.

[David Mantell]

 

On 4/20/2025 at 11:31 AM, David Mantell said:

Nonetheless we have a few FR3 bouts from 1987 - the March 87 one with Gaby Lailee and Flesh Vs Jessy Texas, the August 1987 Ted Hughes Vs Karl Von Kramer match and the mysterious Flesh & Zefy Vs Marquis Jacky and Jessy match. It's been reported on here the last 1987 FR3 broadcast was in November that year.

FINALLY spotted the Smoking Gun (not Bart nor Billy LOL) which PROVES that this was an FR3 Broadcast:

[Phil Lions]

^

On 4/20/2025 at 3:20 PM, Phil Lions said:

The 1987 matches were part of a sports magazine show on FR3. Just occasional filler content. Nothing significant.

 

[David Mantell]

Still French terrestrial TV wrestling.  Alessio should really add it to the 1970-1987 playlist.  I wonder how many there were.

Nothing "only" about being part of a sports magazine show - that's exactly what World of Sport was.

The March '87 broadcast was definitely a standalone, with Jean Pradinas in the director's chair.

Anyway the camera logo eliminates the possibility of it being some early New Catch pilot or filmed especially for home video, It's another one like Ted .Hughes Vs Karl Von Kramer.

Anyway, speaking of Flesh Gordon:

Quote

El-P:

since I'm a generous fellow nonetheless, the VOD of a famous French pro-wrestling Twitch streamer watching the opening and the Flesh Gordon match (against Carlos Plata) from the first 1991 New Catch show in TF1, which I watched and probably even taped at the time. This is such a treasure.

 

OMG LOOK AT THE TITLE ! HE CALLED FLESH GORDON THE FRENCH HULK HOGAN ! THIS IS PROOF RIGHT THERE !

 

Yeah, no, it's ironic.

 

Enjoy nonetheless people. Or don't. But you won't find this anywhere else.

This is the Eurosport transmission of the 1991 TF1 match Sturry was being sarcastic about at length. English commentary by dear old Orig.

Plata does a promo saying he's come a long way from Mexico to finish Flesh off. (Yes I can tell he's actually Spanish from the clipped Castilian accent.) Flesh actually has more of a Lucha background of the two.  He does his own promo while having a shave.  Plata won an earlier bout. "Bout Weight Open" says a caption - the Eurosport staff have not heard of Catch-weight. Although the two look quite well matched for size. 

Flesh had adapted to a heavier weight range by 1991, relying more on armdrags and hammerlocks than the Scisseaux Volees ace of his days with Walter Bordes, but he's still a LONG way from the tubby bald moustachioed Flesh of the C21st. He takes cross buttocks as well as he gives, taking quite a hearty bump and going with the next cross buttock to reverse the armdrags onto Plata.  Flesh still has his trusty dropkick.  Flesh takes the bump from a whip and Plata scissors the arm.

Orig reckons that Flesh plays too much to the crowd which is ironic as, with his promoter's hat on, Orig would be the first to tell his boys to involve the audience as much as possible (rivalled in that respect only hy Brian Dixon.) He spend a lot of time appealing to La Publique a private warning by L'Arbitre about using a closed fist. He goes for a Planchette Japonaise but Plata puts him neatly on the top turnbuckle. But then Plata also plays to the crowd and Gordon armdrags him from behind. 

There are plenty of petits Gosses in the audience - when Plata lands on the concrete they approach him with malice aforethought. The referee is German and does his KO counts in German. The second time Plata goes out, Flesh does a Randy Savage ringside flying axehandle and bashes Plata against the stage of the theatre (it's one of those British style theatre venues, smaller versions of the Manhattan Centre in NY.  Flesh oarades around ringside while Plata blades.  Plata is in a bad way when he gets back to the ring. He barely double ankles out of a sunset flip while Flesh easily -and beautifully - bridges out of Plata's pin attempt and easily avoids a flying bodypress (the first vaguely lucha-ish move from the "Mexican" wrestler.) We finally get an old time Flesh flyer with the winner - a spinning flying tackle that might possibly be a botched Scisseaux Volees. Orig - "That's why he's World champion, because he can do things like this.".  Much longer and Plata would have been TKO'd for cuts like Haystacks against Kendo in 1977. 

The score isn't settled, both men cut promos saying they will kill each other next time.

An update on, say, Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs Anton Tejero & Pancho Zapata but as a singles bout.  Maybe Zapata's 1969 World of Sport match with fellow French TV occasional  Jeff Kaye as featured in The Final Bell.

 

[David Mantell]

Afterthought - how come Hughes Vs Von Kramer got it's own separate video on INA instead of being included as part of the full magazine?

@Matt D, did you by any chance, crop it from the full length magazine show video file?

[Matt D]

17 minutes ago, David Mantell said:

Afterthought - how come Hughes Vs Von Kramer got it's own separate video on INA instead of being included as part of the full magazine?

@Matt D, did you by any chance, crop it from the full length magazine show video file?

A while ago but I probably did 

[David Mantell]

Short British cinema newsreel footage of French womens' wrestling 1969.

The most familiar face in this is Babette Carol who later became a referee  including Angelito's TV debut against Jacky Richard in 1971. Except for the short-lived heel tag team in 1979 their feud would run nearly 2 decades, ending up with Travesti Man Vs Angelo Le Vigile on Eurosport.

Apparently French lady wrestlers were banned from Paris just like their British counterparts were banned from London.

[Phil Lions]

^ Olivia Mongho and Olga Diennesch are two of the women in the match footage.
 

1 hour ago, David Mantell said:

Apparently French lady wrestlers were banned from Paris just like their British counterparts were banned from London.

Yes, until 1977. Before that women's wrestling in Paris was only allowed at night clubs, cabarets, etc.

[David Mantell]

8 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

^ Olivia Mongho and Olga Diennesch are two of the women in the match footage.
 

Yes, until 1977. Before that women's wrestling in Paris was only allowed at night clubs, cabarets, etc.

Sounds a lot like the loophole that allowed the RAH in London to put on Mitzi's retirement show in 1987.

[Phil Lions]

I went down into the Flesh Gordon rabbit hole yesterday, trying to piece together more of the history of his promotion. And having looked at over 100 posters/programs/flyers for shows of his promotion (from the 1986-2025 period) I can honestly say I have never seen a promotion go through so many promotional names as Flesh's company did. So many, it can make your head spin! At one point or another he used: New Catch / Federation Europeenne de Catch / European Wrestling Federation / NewCatch France / Federation Internationale de Catch Amateurs et Professionnels / Euro-Catch / International Wrestling Stars Federation (IWSF) / Wrestling Stars (WS) / Catch WS / Les Maitres du Ring (which is what it's going by currently).

And in looking into the promotion I was reminded of something I had forgotten about. Back in 2009 and 2010 Flesh Gordon teamed up with a production company and they ran three shows at Cirque d'Hiver in Paris, which of course has a long history of catch since it was Alex Goldstein's base of operations for many years. Those were the first catch shows at the venue, I believe, since 1980 or so when the Goldstein promotion closed shop (well, actually, by that point it was more so the Rene Ben Chemoul promotion because Goldstein had stepped away a few years prior). The Flesh Gordon shows at Cirque d'Hiver were billed as "Les Virtuoses des Rings Europeens" and the first one was actually filmed as a TV pilot with the idea to use it as proof of concept and try to land a national television deal. PCO worked the taping as one of the headline attractions and his opponent ended up being Brodie Lee. Very random! Of course this was happening right as catch was experiencing a big resurgence in its popularity in France due to WWE airing on free-to-air TV, which is why Gordon was hopeful he might be able to land a TV deal somewhere. He did not. The show in question does exist somewhere as a DVD, but online you can only find a short highlight video from it and this match below, which I'd say looks pretty good production-wise.

In November 2008 the W9 network in France aired a one-off show by the touring Irish company American Wrestling Rampage, which was a success in terms of viewership so they followed it up with a second show the following year. And if you compare the AWR production with the match above, the Flesh Gordon show looks better, but obviously AWR featured ex-WWE names so that made it more appealing from a television perspective. In December 2008 W9 did actually announce their intent to air some FFCP content the following year, but ultimately they did not and instead ended up signing a deal with TNA. In general Marc Mercier had been shopping around a FFCP reality show concept, similar to "Star Academy", but it never got off the ground. In 2010 even ROH managed to get a TV deal in France, albeit a very short-lived one (they got canceled after only two months).

Long story short, 2008-2010 was probably French catch's last chance of getting back to national television in France as interest in wrestling was way up, but despite Gordon and Mercier's attempts obviously things didn't work out and clearly French television networks were more interested in American wrestling content than they were in French wrestling content.

[David Mantell]

On 5/7/2025 at 10:02 AM, Phil Lions said:

New Catch / Federation Europeenne de Catch / European Wrestling Federation /

Flesh and/or Jacky may have had a hand in this but the name European Wrestling Federation SMACKS of being Orig Williams' work.  He called his 80s/90s UK shows the British Wrestling Federation (BWF - a name previously used by Paul Lincoln in the 1960s) and he and Brian Dixon promoted a World Wrestling Federation (WWF) World Heavyweight Championship in 1974 claimed by Kendo Nagasaki during his year away from Joint. (This at a time when the "real" WWF in New York was still the WWWF).

On 5/7/2025 at 10:02 AM, Phil Lions said:

International Wrestling Stars Federation (IWSF) / Wrestling Stars (WS)

These are the two main names Herve/Richard have gone by, the latter shortened from the former in the early 2010s.

 

On 5/7/2025 at 10:02 AM, Phil Lions said:

 In December 2008 W9 did actually announce their intent to air some FFCP content the following year, but ultimately they did not and instead ended up signing a deal with TNA. In general Marc Mercier had been shopping around a FFCP reality show concept, similar to "Star Academy", but it never got off the ground. In 2010 even ROH managed to get a TV deal in France, albeit a very short-lived one (they got canceled after only two months).

Long story short, 2008-2010 was probably French catch's last chance of getting back to national television in France as interest in wrestling was way up, but despite Gordon and Mercier's attempts obviously things didn't work out and clearly French television networks were more interested in American wrestling content than they were in French wrestling content.

Marc Mercier has been bitter enemies with Flesh and Jacky since the early Noughties. For a while Marc fell in with the Americanised/New School ICWA until it all got too American for him and in 2006 he went back to his old mentor Roger Delaporte (who had retired in 1989) and bought the rights to the FFCP from him, keeping Delaporte around as advisor for three years until he died in 2009. 

This was how the great Wrestling Stars Vs FFCP war began. A decade later each side was telling national newspapers how the other lot were crooks and thugs who were forever pouring buckets of faeces over them. Or something. See earlier in thread.

Eurostars belonged to Bernard Van Damme (no relation to Rob nor Jean Claude) and was affiliated with Flesh, Jacky and IWSF. He seems to have had some TV deal of his own and I remember seeing broadcast details on their website back in the day.

Domino and Sir Robin were both British wrestlers and I have seen both live -several times in Domino's case for All Star.  He died a few years back.

[David Mantell]

https://plus.wikimonde.com/wiki/Wrestling_Stars

This looks interesting. A full company back history of Wrestling Stars. Apparently Jean Claude Blanchet, butler to both Marquises De Fumuulo (Eduardo and Jacky Richard) and later best boy to the Travesti Man, had a big hand in founding it.

Quote

Wrestling Stars

Quote

Wrestling Stars

Creation 1999

Key dates 1979 : Creation of KMG

1985 : Jean Claude Blanchet launches FEC

1999 : Name changed to Wrestling Stars

Founders Jean-Marie Morel

Key figures Jean-Marie Morel, Flesh Gordon , Monsieur Jacky

Head office Flag of France France

Activity Catch

Website Catch Fr

edit - edit source - see Wikidata 

 

 

Wrestling Stars is a French sports wrestling federation created in 1999, which brings together a large number of wrestlers from all continents.

 

 

Summary

1 History

1.1 The KMG

1.2 Creation of the FEC

1.3 Wrestling Stars, the revival

1.3.1 Championships

1.4 Anecdote

2 Roster

2.1 Wrestlers

2.2 Wrestlers

2.3 Current champions

3 Reference

 

 

The KMG

In 1979, Evelyne Kaluza, the brothers Moïse and Marc Mehnaoui, as well as a wrestler who had returned from Mexico , Flesh Gordon , decided to found a wrestling federation for the French public, the KMG. The KMG (for Kaluza Mehnaoui Gordon ) was at the time broadcast on Antenne 2 , but the means were still too limited to develop everything. In 1985, the KMG closed its doors [1] .

 

Creation of the FEC

In 1985, Jean Claude Blanchet launched the European Wrestling Federation (FEC), where he brought in Flesh Gordon and other big names of the time, as well as Canadian , Japanese and South American wrestlers . The shows were sold out at every performance [1] .

 

At the time, European wrestling attracted media such as TF1 or FR3 , and was broadcast on Monday evenings on Minuit Sport in 1987. Many wrestlers were discovered such as Billy Samson , David Finlay (who later wrestled in the WWE ), or even Prince Zéfy [1] .

 

Subsequently, a contract was signed with Eurosport and allowed for broadcasting on a European scale, with no less than 12 galas per year filmed in France . Wrestlers from all over the world began to come to the FEC ring, such as Scott Hall , Chris Benoit , Yokozuna and Pierre Carl Ouellet [1] .

 

Arriving in 1996, following numerous disturbances and disagreements within the governing bodies of the federation, the FEC found itself plunged into a period of inactivity of 3 years [1] .

 

Wrestling Stars, the revival

File:WS Ring.jpg

Wrestling Star Show

In 1999, Jean-Marie Morel was responsible for restructuring the FEC and founded the International Wrestling Stars Federation (IWSF), which would later be known as Wrestling Stars, and which he chaired until 2002. The difference between Wrestling Stars and other French and international federations is that the wrestling practiced is said to be "sport", as opposed to the much more scripted wrestling of federations such as WWE [ 1] .

 

Wrestling Stars works in collaboration with many French Wrestling Schools (EFC), whose role is to train new wrestlers. One of them, created in Faremoutiers in 1994 by the former wrestler Monsieur Jacky (notably a referee at galas), has become the national training center for Wrestling Stars [1] . Other EFCs exist, including one in Dieppe , run by Mickey TRASH, as well as one in Longuyon .

 

Championships

There are 3 major titles at stake in Wrestling Stars [1] :

 

The French Middleweight Championship : reserved for wrestlers of French nationality and weighing less than 90 kg (2 kg overweight is however tolerated on the day of the fight).

The European Open Championship : reserved for wrestlers who are nationals of one of the EU countries . There is no weight limit.

The World Light Heavyweight Championship : for wrestlers between 90 kg and 105 kg, of all nationalities.

Anecdote

Wrestler Tom La Ruffa , who competes for Wrestling Stars, has made a few appearances in WWE , notably against the Big Show [2] . He notably signed a contract with the latter in August 2012.

Roster

Wrestlers

Arora

Bernard Vandamme

Belthazar

Cibernic Machine (European Champion, 1st time)

Dennis Cash

Dom Alexander

The Magician

The Mariachi

Emilio Sitoci

Erwan Le Gailec

Fernando de Sousa

Flesh Gordon

Ghent

Gianni Leone

Greg Master

Jack Hammer

Jack Spayne

Jeremy Deaf

Jimmy Gavroche

Jon Titank

Kenzo Richards

Leon Shah

Luvindo Barreiros

Mac Taraz

Makoto

Mark Kodiak

Max Angel

Mikey Diamond

Nikolai Trashinsky

Prince Zfy (World Light Heavyweight Champion)

Sam Fighter

Striker

Tango Timm

Thib Scheltienne

Tom La Ruffa (Currently works for World Wrestling Entertainment under the name Sylvester Lefort)

Ultimo Chingon

UK Kid

Warren Brady

WS Kid

The Santos

Wrestlers

Angel's Bombita

Betty Trash

Layla Rose

Miss Agathe

Sexy Sindy

Viper

X-cute

Current champions

French Middleweight Champion = Jimmy Gavroche (4th time)

European Champion = Cibernic Machine (1st time)

World Light Heavyweight Champion = Prince ZEFY (1st time)

 

[David Mantell]

2 minutes ago, David Mantell said:

Monday evenings on Minuit Sport in 1987.

I take it this was the sports magazine show you were on about @Phil Lions?

[David Mantell]

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Federation Francais de Catch Professionel

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French Professional Wrestling Federation

Creation 2006

Key dates 1933: creation by Raoul Paoli

1960: takeover by Roger Delaporte

1989-2006: interruption

2006: takeover by Marc Mercier

2006: creation of the Catch Academy

Founders Raoul Paoli

Head office Longjumeau , Essonne

France

Direction Marc Mercier , Jérémy Grand

Activity Sports entertainment , wrestling

Subsidiaries Catch Academy

Website ffcatch.fr

 

The French Professional Wrestling Federation is a professional wrestling association based in France and founded in 1933 [ref. needed] .

Creation

The great era

Reactivation

Notes and references

External links

Creation

In 1933, Raoul Paoli , a French rugby union player and all-round athlete, helped his friend Henri Deglane , a Greco-Roman wrestling gold medalist at the 1924 Summer Olympics , popularize wrestling in France. Along with their friends Charles Rigoulot and Julien Duvivier, both high-level athletes, they introduced wrestling to the Vélodrome d'Hiver in Paris. They joined the French Wrestling Federation (FFL), making wrestling the professional branch of wrestling within the French Wrestling Federation at that time.

Raoul Paoli subsequently became the first president of the French Professional Wrestling Federation (FFCP), and the first wrestling organizer in France. Paoli died on March 23, 1960, in Paris, leaving his chair empty.

 

The great era

From 1960 until the 1980s, wrestling reached its peak in France. At that time, no fewer than seven venues organized galas 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 was the setting for numerous television broadcasts on ORTF . Its owner and star wrestler of the time, Roger Delaporte, was one of the great wrestling organizers in France. He successively directed the FFLI (French Federation of Independent Wrestlers) and then the French Professional Wrestling Federation from 1960 following the death of Raoul Paoli.

 

In the late 1980s, Roger Delaporte retired and sold the Élysée Montmartre to the production company Garance Productions. The French Professional Wrestling Federation remained in limbo.

 

Reactivation

In 2006, Marc Mercier , a former wrestler with Delaporte, made agreements with the latter to reactivate the federation, which was one of the first wrestling structures in the world. Indeed, wrestling, already known in the United States in the 1930s, waited until 1948 to have its first federal structure: the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Mercier created the Catch Academy in 2006 in Wissous , a school intended to train a new generation of French wrestlers. Several waves of men and women learned the basics of wrestling through the school's various facilities (from Wissous to Villejuif via Chennevières , Choisy-le-Roi and Ris-Orangis ).

 

President Marc Mercier aims to revitalize and dust off the latter, through attractive and media-friendly sectors. If the French Professional Wrestling Federation is today once again in the media [ 1 ] , [ 2 ] , [ 3 ] , the fact remains that an enormous amount of work in the general restructuring of wrestling still needs to be done in France, and this while waiting for state legislation aimed at regulating the discipline...

 

In February 2014, Marc Mercier decided to entrust the presidency of the FFCP to the young referee and former Bordeaux wrestler Artémis d'Ortygie, in turn appointing Norbert Feuillan as vice-president [ 4 ] . D'Ortygie left the post of president in May 2014 to take care of personal projects, Marc Mercier resumed his place as president of the FFCP [ 5 ] .

 

In February 2024, Mercier announced his retirement from the wrestling industry after 49 years.

 

Notes and references

 

cf. FFCP and Catch Academy television broadcasts

cf. Press articles on the FFCP and the Catch Academy

cf. Radio broadcasts on the FFCP and the Catch Academy

Artemis of Ortygia and Norbert Feuillan take the lead of the FFCP

FFCP: Artémis Ortygie leaves (already) her post as president

External links

Official website

The above and below are articles from the same website

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International Catch Wrestling Alliance

 

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International Catch Wrestling Alliance

logo of International Catch Wrestling Alliance

Registered trademark 🛈

Creation 2003 1

Founders Pierre "Booster" Fontaine 1

Key figures Founder: Pierre Fontaine

Vice-President: Christophe Agius

Slogan "Proud to be a wrestling fan!" "#JeCroisAuCatchFR"

Head office Laventie , Pas-de-Calais 1

France

Activity Sports entertainment , wrestling

Website Official website

The International Catch Wrestling Alliance (ICWA) is a European professional wrestling promotion based in Laventie in Pas-de-Calais ( France ). BetweenApril 2008AndOctober 2012, it is officially recognized by the National Wrestling Alliance and holds several of its European championships

 

.International Catch Wrestling Alliance

History

National Wrestling Training Institute

Wrestling style

Current Championships

Former Championships

Notes and references

Annexes

Related articles

External links

 

 

 

History

Founded in 2002 by Pierre "Booster" Fontaine and Christophe Agius , the ICWA originally had one major title , two secondary men's titles , one women's title and one team title ; most of which were awarded betweenDecember 2004AndMay 20052 .

 

The December 20, 2008, on the occasion of Revolution V, the ICWA and the NWA announced their association and several of the promotion's titles were renamed and now officially recognized internationally 3 . Thus, the ICWA holds the NWA French championship and the European heavyweight, women's and tag team championships.

 

InJune 2009, ICWA participated in the Hellfest metal music festival and organized a tournament there that formalized the new " hardcore " branch of the promotion, including the introduction of a new title: the ICWA-XTC eXTremeCatch Championship.

 

From that same year, the federation appeared several times on television, through galas, or spin-off programs like "Catch me if you can", notably on Canal + and France 3 4 , 5 , 6 . It also regularly performs shows during the Japan Expo in Villepinte , in the suburbs of Paris 7 , 8 .

 

 

At the start of 2015, the federation was threatened with closure, caused by a drop in attendance at the INFC 9 training courses . Only 4 wrestling shows were organized that year. However, the federation continued and announced for the month ofMay 2016the return of its biggest annual show Revolution 8 to Maubeuge 10 .

 

At Revolution X, a match pitted Cormac Hamilton, current ICWA French Champion, against Jimmy Gavroche, IPWF Champion, for the unification of the two titles. Cormac Hamilton won the match, during his celebration, Booster came to the ring to announce to the crowd of La Luna de Maubeuge some great news, the ICWA and six other promotions (APC, Ouest Catch, TPW, ABCA, FRPW and IPWF) recognize Cormac Hamilton as the unified champion of France and each federation promises that each year, at least one defense of this unified title will take place. However, this unification ends onDecember 18, 2018and the title is now only recognized by the ICWA.

 

National Wrestling Training Institute

The ICWA has its own wrestling school: the National Wrestling Training Institute (INFC). Based in Béthune, the INFC trains men and women in wrestling-related careers through various training options (from introductory courses open to those over 15 to continuing education reserved for adults).

 

InJuly 2012, one of the INFC students, Lucas Di Léo, signed a development contract with WWE and joined the NXT 11 program . The school then took the opportunity to prove its seriousness and now describes itself as the "wrestling factory".

 

In 2016, the INFC closed its doors to reopen in Cluses in the Pulse Factory in the same town.

 

InFebruary 2018, YouTuber Tibo Inshape shoots a video where he trains and conducts an interview with Clément Petiot.

 

Wrestling style

Far from "French-style" wrestling, the ICWA offers fights closer to the American style, a style brought to France by Booster himself [non-neutral] [ref. necessary] after having been trained by Édouard Carpentier in Montreal 12 .

 

[Phil Lions]

Interesting articles. I hadn't seen them before. Thanks! That said, I can spot several mistakes right away. A couple of examples below.

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At the time, European wrestling attracted media such as TF1 or FR3 , and was broadcast on Monday evenings on Minuit Sport in 1987.

5 hours ago, David Mantell said:

I take it this was the sports magazine show you were on about @Phil Lions?

No. The 1987 magazine show was "Sports loisirs" and it was an afternoon show on the weekend. "Minuit sport" was the magazine show (Mondays at midnight) that New Catch was part of in 1988.

The part in the article about FEC going on hiatus in 1996 is definitely not true either. Flesh continued to have an active schedule after that too and was using the FEC name as late as October 1998.

6 hours ago, David Mantell said:

These are the two main names Herve/Richard have gone by, the latter shortened from the former in the early 2010s.

Here's a fun fact. IWSF and WS were actually created as associations (i.e non-profit organizations) on the exact same day... in June 2002. One in Othis, the other in Paris. And later WS was also created as a company (i.e. business entity for profit) in 2008, and terminated in 2013. This is all traceable in the archives dealing with French associations and companies.

Anyway, this is where I'll stop discussing all of these various names further. They're inconsequential and not worth discussing in detail, IMO.

6 hours ago, David Mantell said:

... in 2006 he went back to his old mentor Roger Delaporte (who had retired in 1989) and bought the rights to the FFCP from him, keeping Delaporte around as advisor for three years until he died in 2009.

That's Marc Mercier's version of the story, and I don't know if I believe it. When Mercier talks about FFCP he always talks about it as if it used to be a wrestling promotion (it was not), says that it was founded in 1931 (not true) by Raoul Paoli (not true) with Alex Goldstein being the second FFCP president (not true) and Delaporte being the third (not true). In other words, he always tries to paint his FFCP as some sort of official continuation of French catch's greatest promoters/promotions from the past and that's just not true. So yeah, I very much doubt that he bought anything from Delaporte, who to the best of my knowledge was never part of the original FFCP in an official capacity anyway.

[Phil Lions]

As I keep digging into the history of French catch, I keep finding new stuff. Today's discovery is this neat little summary of the state of catch on TV in August 1970.

"Once the king of TV, catch is now just the red-headed stepchild

Catch, the magic word that once delighted countless viewers, seems to have lost a significant amount of its appeal today. Of course, there are still catch matches on the small screen, but they are now broadcast at a rate of once per month, delayed [taped in advance], late in the evening, most often on Saturdays, after Télé-Nuit. This late-night programming now only attracts the last fanatics of a show that, ten years ago, fascinated the whole of France... or almost*. Although it has little to do with real sport, catch still depends, on television, on the Sports Department, which decides which matches to record."

And this matches everything else I've found so far. By the end of the 1960s catch had lost a lot of its appeal to the general public. It still had a solid fanbase and among the late-night TV programming it was a top performer viewership-wise, but overall it was nowhere near as popular as it used to be and it was no longer relevant on a mainstream level. It's no coincidence Delaporte got out of catch promotion in 1970... (he did return several years later when the other genres he was promoting stopped making him money).

* Here's an interesting little tidbit about the "whole of France... or almost" bit. Back in the day the "TV Guide" type of magazines in France used to do reader polls. In the annual 1960 reader poll of one of the magazines, close to 80% of the 30,000 respondents said that they watched catch. Obviously, the opinions of thirty thousand people are not a great representation of the 45 million population of France back then, but this does give you some idea how relevant catch used to be among the general public back in its heyday.