FRANCINE TALKS ABOUT ECW by BJ Bethel
(Also Credit Goes To 1Wrestling.com)

Francine, the Queen of Extreme from ECW, was an in studio guest on The Wrestling Guys on 106.5 Buckeye Country FM in Dayton, Ohio. Your hosts for the evening were Shawn Stidham and Willie F.

-Has a beef with Willie about him chuckling when they were talking about Jerry Lynn signing with the WWF and possibly working ECW shows, if there are any, from here on out. Willie explains that he wasn't laughing about ECW, but was instead laughing at the producer who fell out of her chair.

-Tommy Dreamer was supposed to be in the studio as well but couldn't make it due to a business meeting he had to attend.

-She thinks the chances of an ECW PPV in March get slimmer and slimmer as the days go by. With every day that passes that is one less day that the company can promote the event.

-She's been there 8 years and is planning on sticking everything out. She doesn't have any problems with the guys who have left so far but she's waiting till the end to see what happens. She wants to stick with the company that gave her a break in the business.

-She's been making money by selling merchandise and doing indy shows. She isn't destitute right now, despite ECW's problems with pay checks.

-Hopes that ECW makes it because with out them there are only the two major companies and there isn't any real alternative. She wants ECW to get their fair chance in the spotlight especially since so much of what they've done has been copied by the two major companies and they've been successful because of it. They talk about guys such as Taz and Jericho who were from ECW and she mentions Austin, who she says would've gotten the ECW World Title had he decided to stay.

-She signed with ECW in December of 1993 when the company had no big names. Paul made all their name talent from scratch and she believes they can do it again with the core people staying around and them using indy talent.

-She talks about the critics on the net complaining about the lack of details coming out from behind the scenes. She says negotiations with different companies is sometimes tedious and it doesn't help things when details are leaked out. That's why there isn't always a lot of news coming out from the higher ups in the company.

-Talks a bit about TNN and the whole fiasco there. She says that the whole time they were on TNN and under contract, they kept telling them they had no money to help them out and at the same time they were negotiating with the WWF and offering them millions. They worked their butts off promoting the program, had the highest rated show on the network with no help from the network themselves, and got hosed.

-She believes they could've tripled the highest rating they ever had on Friday night (which was around a 1.2 or 1.3) if TNN had given them any kind of promotion. Shawn mentions that they gave the WWF more promotion in their first day then they gave ECW the entire time they were on the network. Francine says they didn't fail TNN, TNN failed them.

-She isn't sure what will happen to the roster if Heyman were to jump to the WWF. Feels that situation may occur where they are the WWF's farm team. She thinks it would be cool if the WWF were to sign them and give them a show like Jakked or Metal to air ECW programming. She says only Paul knows what the WWF has offered them at this point.

-Big Daddy Rog Cox is on the air with her now. He talks about Unified Championship Wrestling (you can call their hotline at 937-640-2794) and the guys they had scheduled for the show on Thursday like Rhino, New Jack, Dreamer and of course Francine.

-Francine kicks Big Daddy off the radio I think, and talks about the Pine Bluff, Arkansas show where they had the little celebration. She hopes its not the last card and she'll be sick if it is. She has faith in Heyman and in God that things will work out. (Ironically, that's the same order most ECW fans place their faith)

-Talks a bit about her start in the company. She started in late '93 training and did spot shows until 1995 when she debuted with Stevie Richards.

-Her favorite moment in the company was when Heyman announced that they were going on Pay Per View. That was the sign to her that they had made it to the big time.

-The company has done over 20 pay per views so far. She talks a bit about Beyond the Mat and the scene where she is crying in the back.

-Before she started wrestling, she was doing life insurance. She got into an argument with her agent and decided this was definitely not for her. She sat down and watched ECW and they had a number for people wanting to try out. She called and met with Tod Gordon. He told her that "your a pretty girl, and you won't have to bump at all." She didn't even know what a bump was at the time. She said the first week of training she just got eliminated.

-Her character is a mix between Sherri Martel and Nancy Sullivan. She really liked Sherri and wanted to be a bit more feminine, show she put in some Nancy Sullivan influence.

-Talks about when one of the Pittbulls powerbombed her through a table. She was crying as they were putting her up on his shoulder because she was so scared. It wasn't so bad when she hit the mat.

-Bam Bam broke her pelvis when they screwed up a press slam. She landed on her hip wrong. She's broken ribs, her nose and also blown out her knee.

-They talk about Tod Gordon, and if him leaving put too much of the weight on Heyman's shoulders. She says she isn't really sure what all Tod did backstage. He was mainly like one of the guys. She thinks he may have been a financial backer. Dreamer is Heyman's right hand man and they take care of everything half and half. Whatever is left falls to someone else to take care of. Even if its picking someone up from the airport.

-She talks about Dreamers injuries. She says his back was getting better right when he separated his shoulder.

-Plugs www.francineecw.com, her official site.

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