Francine reflects on the process of being booked for NXT in the 2300 Arena.
In 1994, Francine would make her ECW debut, being a part of the promotion for some years, competing in her final match with the promotion in 2000 at a house show. As part of NXT's debut in the 2300 Arena last year, WWE invited several legends of ECW to the show including Bubba Ray Dudley and Francine.
While speaking to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp in a recent interview, Francine reflected on the process of being booked for NXT's ECW tribute show.
"Well, here's what happened. It was a very, very complicated process. I received a phone call and it's funny like, all the boys say the same thing. It's like anytime 203 popped up on our phone, ‘We're always like, it's WWE calling,’ and 9 times out of 10, it's never them. I don't know if it was a Monday or a Tuesday night, nine o'clock, which for me is late because I am an early bird. I'm in bed by 10 every night. So a phone call comes in and it's a 203 area code. I popped myself, nobody's in the room with me. I'm popping, I go, ‘WWE is calling, blah, blah, blah,’ and I ignore the call because I'm like, ‘Well, it's probably a telemarketer or something.’ So I'm just like, ‘Eh,’ I ignore it. Not even five minutes go by and a text message comes through and it's John Cone. I knew John from the fake ECW in 2006 when I worked there and he was a referee at the time. Well, now he's talent relations. So he moved on up that ladder. I always liked John. He was such a nice man. Got along with him great. Really, really sweet man. But he sends me this text message and he's like, ‘Hey, Francine, it's John Cone,’ and then he explains who he is. I'm just like, ‘I know who you are, I remember.’ But all he said was something like, ‘We'd like to know if you would like to make an appearance for NXT.’ He doesn't give the background on it's like an ECW team. But he does go on to say, ‘You will be the guest referee for that Lola Vice and Jaida Parker, that girl's hardcore match. So I look at the text and I'm like, ‘This is a rib. Who's ribbing me at 9:07 at night, I'm gonna kill somebody.’ Like, who's ribbing me, right? I wrote back, ‘Hi John, hope all is well,’ and then I wrote, ‘Why me?’ Because I didn't get the connection because he didn't explain the whole thing to me."
Francine continued, noting that she was asked if she would be able to keep up with the NXT women to make the pinfall counts.
"Then he does and he sends all these text messages and he's explaining how they're going to the arena and it's like an ECW night kind of throwback vibe and all this stuff. So anybody who follows me knows the problems that I've had with my stomach. I've had, between my two kids—which were two C-sections on top of that—I had three surgeries to try to repair my abdomen and it never got repaired. So now, like for the longest time, I wasn't allowed to do any core strength. So I'm very weak in my abdomen section. So I said to my husband, I was like, ‘They want me to do this referee thing.’ He's like, ‘How are you gonna get down with those girls and count?’ He goes, ‘They're good and they're quick.’ I was like, ‘Ooh,’ and I'm old and I'm not quick. So there's gonna be a problem with that. So I text John and I'm like, ‘Listen, I have to talk to my husband.’ I said, ‘Can I get back to you tomorrow?’ Cause I didn't wanna say no right away. He was just like, ‘No problem. Sleep on it, get back to me. Your name came up in the writer's room. We would love to have you,’ blah, blah, blah. So I wake up the next morning and I'm just like, ‘I don't think I can do this.’ So I text him back and I was just like, ‘You know, here's the deal,’ and I just told him what I told you. I said, ‘I don't wanna look slow and methodical at this stage on television.’ I said, ‘That's a bad look for me. I'm gonna have to pass, but I appreciate the offer.’ He writes back, ‘We want you here. We will figure something out.’ I go, ‘Okay,’ and he's like, ‘So consider yourself booked. Keep that date open,’ blah, blah, blah. I go, ‘Okay.’ So two weeks go by, and it's a night before the arena show. So I call Guido, and I'm like, ‘Can we meet up?’ Because I didn't want to go by myself, and I'm not the best driver at night. I was like, ‘Can we meet up?’ He's like, ‘Yeah, no problem.’ So I had my ride set up, but I still didn't know what was going on. So in the meantime, Johnny Russo, who is head writer, he texts me before this and he's just like, ‘Can't wait to meet you, we're so happy you're coming in.’ Very nice and I'm just like, ‘Oh, this is great. So excited.’ But I didn't know what I was doing. I went to two conventions in that two week time span, and I had gotten laryngitis and I lost my voice. So I had no voice. So I'm like, ‘Okay, whatever I end up doing, hopefully they won't want me to talk.’"
Francine then explained how she struggled to cut a backstage promo as she had no voice at the time.
"Well, night before, I get a text message from John Cone, ‘Did you talk to Johnny?’ I said, ‘Not yet,’ and he said, ‘Okay, I'm going to have him get in touch with you.’ I said, ‘Okay,’ and this is through text. So my voice, I'm not talking, I'm just texting. Johnny texted me. He goes, ‘We want you to do the backstage interviewing,’ and then he gives me a script for what we're going to do that night. Oh, and in the meantime, I cut a promo. They asked me to cut a promo for socials. So I did that. I don't know if you saw that or not. But I put that on my socials. Everything was fine. I had to text him back and say, ‘I have no voice.’ Because being a backstage interviewer, you need to speak and I cannot speak at this point because I was talking like this and I sounded like a maniac. I said, ‘What else could go wrong? What else are they going to tell me to do and I just can't do it?’ So I said, ‘If you want to unbook me, I totally understand. No heat. I'm a hot mess. I worked.’ I was in Rhode Island and three days of, ‘Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,’ and my voice was just shot. My throat was sore. No COVID or anything, but just shot. ‘I want you to come. We will figure something out.’ I was like, ‘Okay.’ I go there—God bless them, they were wonderful—first person I saw was John Cone. They make me and Guido, they're filming everything because they made that little YouTube video, which was adorable. If you haven't seen it, go over. I don't know if it's on the Vault or the WWE channel. Really cute, all the originals showing up and talking to us and you could tell my voice is just squeaky. It was horrible. We were there really early. So I just go to the makeup chair and the first person that walks in is Shawn Michaels. I go up to him, and I start, ‘Thank you, it's good to see you.’ He's like, ‘We're so happy to have you here,’ you know, the run of the mill. ‘Thank you for coming.’ ‘It's gonna be a great night'."
Francine then reflected on meeting Shawn Michaels as part of an ECW event with FMW in Japan that Shawn Michaels appeared on. She mentioned that she brought the experience up to HBK during her time at NXT 2300, but she's not too sure he really remembered.
"Yeah, so when I did a tour of Japan, the one pay-per-view I was on, Shawn was on. But I did not expect him to remember. We actually went to the pay-per-view, he came with the ECW guys the Ribera's, had a meal. I brought that up to him and he was like, ‘Oh, yeah,’ but I don't think he remembered. But, not much and then the fake ECW, I shook his hand when I saw him and that was pretty much it. That was limited. But that night he was super [sweet]. I couldn't ask for a better reception. Everybody was just so sweet and here I am with no voice, and I still don't know what I'm doing.
"So I said to John Cohn, I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ and they said, ‘Well, go visit the doctor, because you need to visit the doctor,'" she continued. "So I'm thinking, ‘Okay,’ so I go to the doctor and he's like, ‘Your blood pressure's really high.’ I go, ‘Listen, if I'm a betting woman, which I am,’ I said, ‘I guarantee you they're going to put me in the front row and just wait.’ I said, ‘So you might want to just pass me. ‘cause I'm not doing anything physical. It's gonna be fine.’ He was like, ‘Well, you're going to have to just sit here until it lowers.’ So I was like, ‘Okay.’ So I kind of just hung out for like a half hour and it finally, it came down. I wasn't nervous or anything. I don't know what happened because I'm usually really good with my blood pressure."
For the rest of the night, she just mingled with the present-day roster. When she was informed by Shawn Michaels and NXT writer Johnny Russo that she was going to be making a brief on-camera cameo, Francine says she apologized to the WWE Hall of Famer who assured her that there would always be another time for her to do more on NXT TV.
"After that, I just mingled," she said. "I watched the girls in the ring, they were going over everything for the night. I went and introduced myself to every girl that was there. They were lovely, love them so much and then I saw Johnny, and finally met him for the first time. He's just like, ‘We'll just have you stand there,’ and then Shawn comes walking over and I apologize profusely. He goes, ‘You're just gonna stand there and look pretty.’ I’m like, ‘Shawn, are you sure?’ and he goes, ‘There's always another time.’ I said, ‘Okay,’ and that's basically what happened in a nutshell.
"So I kind of hung out in the back all day," she added. "I did a 36-hour fast because I said, ‘Well, I have to do something. I don't want a full stomach in here.’ I didn't actually do anything. But I got to watch the show. I got to see old friends. I got to see how it was run. I got to watch the girls up close and personal, which was so fun. It was kind of full circle because that's how I started in ECW. I sat in that arena down further in the same area, but down, the line a little bit, but it was just like, ‘Here I am again.’ It was a good time."
Francine joked that as the night went on, she worried that something else might occur to ruin her brief cameo. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. She also reiterated how nice it was to receive a call from WWE to make an appearance like this.
"I said, ‘Honestly, am I gonna break my leg, and then I can't even like stand and wait?’ Like what else is gonna happen? Thank God it didn't. But I was just happy to be there. I was happy that they thought of me because usually when WWE does stuff like Triple Threat isn't really the first thing that comes to mind. We've gotten left out of a lot of things that they've done in the past. So to get that phone call, I was just like, ‘Aw, that's very nice.’"
Francine also says she was surprised at how many of the young women in NXT knew who she was. Still, they made a really strong impression on her, and she had nothing but positive things to say about the experience of interacting with the WWE stars of tomorrow.
"Yeah, ‘cause the girls were just coming up to me. Some of the girls had ECW gear on, which I thought was really cute. I would ask them, I was like, ‘Are you familiar with ECW?’ ‘Oh, yes, I am. Yes, I am.’ Now, they're 20-somethings. They went back and they did their homework, I guess or they got the sheet that you mentioned, either or. But they couldn't have been nicer. I can tell there was a genuine camaraderie between them. It didn't seem like anyone was really catty. They all seemed to get along. That's the way it should be. It should be like that for the betterment of the company. I enjoyed it. It was a long day, which I'm not used to. But I really enjoyed being there. So it was fun."
In the end, Dawn Marie served as the special guest referee for a hardcore match between Jaida Parker and Lola Vice at the 2300 Arena NXT show.
Francine competed in her final wrestling match in 2006. Today, fans can keep up with her through her YouTube channel.
Check out the full interview with Francine embedded above.
