Francine Explains Origins Of Her ECW Career

Wrestler and manager Francine is best associated with her time in ECW, but her first exposure to the ins and outs of the industry actually came during a fortunate meeting with WWE performers. Making an appearance on "Briscoe and Bradshaw," Francine explained that, by winning a random postcard contest when she was around 19 years old, she was able to meet Vince McMahon and wrestlers like Lex Luger and "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

"I met Blackjack Brown," Francine said. "He was a pretty famous photographer. He did a lot of indie shows, and he did ECW and stuff. I'll never forget — he gave me his card and he said, 'If you ever want to be a manager or a valet, I can get you 50 bucks on the indies.' And I was like, 'What does that mean?' Because I didn't even know what an indie was."

The future "Queen of Extreme" recalled throwing the business card away, but just a few days later, she happened to turn on her television only to see ECW by chance. It caught Francine's attention and opened her up to the world of wrestling beyond WWE and WCW. After watching ECW for several months, Francine decided wrestling was something she wanted to pursue.

"They had a commercial and it said, 'Do you want to be a manager, a wrestler, or a referee? Call this number,'" Francine continued. "I picked up the phone and I called the number."

Francine then met with Tod Gordon, the founder of ECW who would soon be replaced by Paul Heyman. According to the future wrestler, the first things Gordon said to her were that she was attractive and would never have to take bumps because of it. Training began immediately, and when Francine's first practice match rolled around, the performer said she was so nervous that she vomited afterwards. However, it wasn't long before she was directed away from an in-ring role.

"That's when Paul Heyman was just coming into the company," Francine stated. "They told me to go to this one show in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania, where I was going to be a beauty pageant winner, and they were gonna call me Ms. Montgomeryville."

For that show, Francine served as ECW's "guest timekeeper" before taking a chokeslam from one of the wrestlers. From then onward, Francine served as a valet within ECW, with Heyman telling her that women's wrestling "[did] not sell" at the time.

In addition to her work managing ECW stars like Stevie Richards, Shane Douglas, and Tommy Dreamer, Francine did go on to wrestle occasionally. Following the closure of ECW in 2001, she continued working as a valet and wrestler in TNA as well as various independent promotions until Francine was brought into WWE for a short stint in 2005 and 2006.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Briscoe and Bradshaw" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.