Francine: If you hold the ropes open for me, I can't hump. (Which all the girls do nowadays.) But I did it first! I did it first!
Jeremy: You were the first! You were the first to hump the ropes!
Jeremy: You were the first! You were the first to hump the ropes!
—Forever Hardcore: The Documentary
Francine Meeks (born Francine Fournier, February 19, 1972) is a retired Professional Wrestling valet/manager from Bear, Delaware best known for her work in the original ECW from 1995-2001 as Francine. Billed as "The Queen of Extreme", she was the most visible of ECW's valets, and quite possibly the first woman to be put through a table.
She debuted in Spring 1995 as an unnamed "fan" who was interested in Stevie Richards. This led to conflicts with Richards, his mentor Raven and his piece, Beulah McGillicutty. Francine then aligned herself with the Pitbulls, guiding #2 to the ECW World Television Title
in 1996. However, she turned heel on him, costing him the belt, and aligning herself with "The Franchise" Shane Douglas. This lasted until Douglas jumped to WCW in Summer 1999. Francine would second Tommy Dreamer for the next year, until she turned on him (again), forfeiting the ECW World Heavyweight Title to Justin Credible.
After ECW died, she would work in TNA and various independents, as well as making a surprise appearance at ECW One Night Stand 2005. WWE brought her in for WWECW in 2006, though she was gone by October. She retired in December to start a family.
"The Queen of Tropes":
- Arch-Enemy: Beulah McGillicutty and Dawn Marie.
- Ascended Fangirl: Her character was introduced as Stevie Richards' Stalker with a Crush.
- Ass Kicks You/Face–Heel Turn: At ECW Heatwave 96, July 13, 1996, was in the corner of Pitbull #2 in the four-way dance for the ECW World Television Title involving champion Chris Jericho, 2 Cold Scorpio and Shane Douglas. Scorpio eliminated Jericho and Pitbull #2 eliminated Scorpio. Francine entered the ring and threw powder in Pitbull #2's eyes. She then turned her back to the camera and pulled down her skirt to reveal her thong with "Franchise" printed on it, thus turning herself heel. Beat. This led to the Pitbulls making history by superbombing her through a table.
- Bash Brothers and Sisters: Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Jazz
- Catfight: So, so many, often with Beulah, then with Dawn Marie.
- Clothing Damage: "We always incorporated sex into everything because sex sells." A few of her exits were actually pornographic, such as Rick Rude "abducting" Francine while giving her a mustache ride, or a simulated fingerbang from Tommy. Lesbianism is where she drew the line, though, which is funny considering the Divas' gimmick.
- Cluster Bleep-Bomb: During the Shane Douglas-Phil LaFon match at ECW As Good As It Gets, September 20, 1997, she turned to the camera and said what can only be presumed to have been a complete sentence that got bleeped out.Joey Styles: "EXCUSE ME! There's no telling what that mouth is capable of!"
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Her voice is...an acquired taste.
- Dark Action Girl: She was pretty fearless about getting involved in matches and taking bumps, seemingly particularly when doing so would not have been advantageous to her well-being.
- Demoted to Extra: In WWE.
- Dented Iron: As the WWECW commentators loved to remind us, "broke her nose, broke her ribs, broke her pelvis", and never missed a day of work — even when her paycheck bounced. As a result, though, don't expect her to take any bumps nowadays.
- Didn't See That Coming: She managed Michael Shane in MLW. During his match with Norman Smiley at MLW Revolutions, she got involved, of course, and gave Smiley the Bronco Buster in the corner. He countered by grabbing the front of her shorts and simulating oral sex on her. It didn't help him, as Michael still won the match.
- Dominatrix: Her image as the manager for the Pitbulls.
- Enemy Mine: She and her Arch-Enemy Beulah once teamed-up to do a Groin Attack to Bill Alfonso.
- Femme Fatale: She turned on the Pitbulls, leading to Douglas winning the TV Title and turned on Dreamer to help Credible win the ECW World Heavyweight Title. Both times she turned it was to help a heel win a title.
- Flipping the Bird: Once when the fans were, as usual, chanting "Show your tits! Show your tits!," she teased doing it only to answer with this.
- Gold Digger: Arguably one of ECW's tops heels next to Raven and The Dudley Boys, with zero scruples or allegiances worth a damn. Her performance made it clear that, as she explains in interviews, "my legs were shut if you lost the belt."
- Groin Attack: A frequently part of her "arsenal" so to speak was a low blow.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: She once did a photo shoot where she was topless and covering herself with Shane Douglas's ECW World Heavyweight Title belt.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: After using a low blow on several wrestlers, Dreamer once countered her attempt at a sit-down splash with a claw hold on her groin.
- Heel: Her primary role from her initial turn in 1996.
- Improvised Weapon: While being helped out the Impact Zone by Ed Ferrera following her elimination, she pretended to fellate Ed, then just punched him in the groin and stole his belt. She used it as a whip and garrote in subsequent matches.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Francine got powerbombed? Must be Tuesday in ECW. The Pitbulls superbombed her through a table. Dreamer gave her several piledrivers. Phil LaFon gave her a Tiger Driver. The Impact Players treated her to a Singapore Cane shot to the face. Bam Bam Bigelow powerbombed her, breaking her pelvis.
- Knight of Cerebus: She took so much verbal abuse from the crowd over the years following her initial heel turn (see below), sparking some of Joey's best material. And there was all the physical abuse she took as well, which pushed the boundaries of what women could get away with in the ring (even if some of it was in bad taste).
- Lean and Mean: In her ECW days, she'd be invisible if she turned sideways. In a shoot interview, Missy Hyatt said that Francine was a nice gal but that, before she got her implants, she was so skinny that "you just wanted to shove a goddamn cheeseburger down her throat."
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Her losses always ended up involving her butt in some fashion: getting spanked, whipped, or booted. And those were on her lucky days.
- Literal Ass-Kissing: Suggested by the lip-print tattoo on her butt.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Among many examples: When she was in MLW in 2003, she did a promo for the MLW T-shirt which started with a close-up of her saying, "If I can't wear my MLW T-shirt," then the camera pulled back to show her sitting nude from the side with her legs pulled up to her chest and saying, "then I won't wear anything at all."
- She once ran to the ring with the back of her dress open. Do the math.
- Nipple and Dimed: Jazz tore off her blouse during the ECW World Heavyweight Title Stairway to Hell (Ladder match with a roll of barbed-wire hanging above the ring) match between Justin Credible and Tommy Dreamer at ECW Heat Wave 2000, but Francine, who was braless, had black tape over her breasts. She, of course, covered herself up as best she could and bailed.
- Perky Female Minion: For Amber O'Neal and The Human Tornado
- Power Stable: Both in ECW.
- The Triple Threat, with Shane Douglas, Chris Candido, Brian Lee, Bam Bam Bigelow, Lance Storm, Tammy Lynn Sytch.
- The Network
- Really Gets Around: As she explained in interviews, the motivations of her character could be best summed up as "No belt, no booty."Shane: She came across as a kind of girl who would—would, uhhh...well, no way else to say it: put out.
- Red Baroness: (as manager for The Pit Bulls): "The Beastmaster"; (with Shane Douglas): "The Head Cheerleader," "The Queen of Extreme"
- Ripped from the Headlines: Fran nommin' on Terry Funk's ear was clearly a reference to the infamous Tyson v. Holyfied match in Chicago 1997, which happened around the time. It got a weak pop in the arena and that's about it.
- The Rival
- Z-Barr "The Ultra Violent Man Whore" and his girlfriend Gorgeous George (not the '40s–'50s wrestler or the girlfriend of Randy Savage in the latter days of his WCW run) in the wider Philadelphia area outside of ECW. They showed up at Women's Extreme Wrestling with intentions to take it over, just to spite Francine, who worked there.
- Fellow manager SoCalVal grew up idolizing Francine but found she really didn't care for her after a stint as Francine's assistant.
- Sidekick: To Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, and Justin Credible.
- Slut-Shaming:
- During Douglas' match with Pitbull #2 at ECW Barely Legal, the crowd chanted "She's a slut! She's a slut! She's a slut!," with Francine having no option than to walk back and forth with her hands over her ears.
Joey Styles: Well, the Francine fan club is here tonight...- There was also "She's a crack whore!" and "She's hardcore!" (a play on the traditional ECW chant of approval).
-
Spiritual Successor: For her initial training at the "House of Hardcore", Francine picked Sherri Martel as a template for her research. Sherri was the original heel manager to Shane, and Francine grabbed that opportunity to pump as much information as she could out of the Sensational One, who was in a professorial mood. The pair were scheduled to reunite at a convention in 2007, but Sherri died before she could attend, so Francine never got to say 'thanks'. - Squash Match: To Steve Corino at ECW Heat Wave 99 in what had started as Dreamer and Francine being interviewed.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: At Holiday Hell 96, Shane Douglas and Francine defeated Dreamer and Beulah. At one point, Dreamer had Francine set up for a piledriver and was turning around to each side of the ring so everyone could get a glimpse of what was about to happen, which was Dreamer hitting the piledriver and, as a result of the set-up for the piledriver, Francine's breasts falling out. Raised to funny because, right when Dreamer grabbed Francine by the hair to set her up for the move, Joey said, "And Dreamer has seen enough of the Head Cheerleader."
