A detailed account from Francine.
For the November 6th edition of WWE NXT on CW, the program emanated from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There were a handful of ECW originals spotlighted throughout the night.Â
One of the names who was shown on-screen and seated in the front row was Francine. She spoke in-depth about her appearance on the newest episode of Eyes Up Here with Francine. She was first contacted by Senior Manager of Talent Relations, John Cone. He initially inquired about her being the special guest referee for Jaida Parker and Lola Vice’s Hardcore match that ultimately ended up being officiated by Dawn Marie.
Francine got her husband’s take on the matter and he reminded her of the five abdominal surgeries she’s had to undergo and questioned if she’d be able to keep up with the action. She then pitched an idea to Cone about being a timekeeper.
As the show date inched closer, WWE presented Francine with the opportunity to be a backstage interviewer, but she had been at a Comic-Con for multiple days and lost her voice. She added that ‘some of the boys’ suggested she be seated in the front row. All in all, Francine is grateful to have been included.
So, John Cone, who I knew back in 2006 with the fake E-C-Dub, he’s Talent Relations. Such a nice man. I liked him back in 2006, always got along with him, perfect gentleman, very sweet. It was him and he had called. He had got my number from Brian Myers who is a friend of mine and you all know that… Initially, they had contacted me because NXT was working the ECW Arena in a couple of weeks and he wanted to run something by me and I was being very cautious. I’m like, ‘This is a rib. Who’s ribbing me?’ Blah, blah, blah. But it wasn’t a rib. But I had asked, ‘What is this in reference to?’ And he started explaining everything… He said, ‘On Wednesday, November 3rd, NXT will be running a show at the ECW Arena. We’d like to know if you would be available to be a special guest referee for one of the matches? It would be with NXT talent Jaida Parker and Lola Vice,’ and then he writes, ‘The compensation will be –’ blah, blah, blah. I wrote back, ‘Really? Why me?’ Because at this point, he didn’t say anything about the ECW connection. He just said it would be at the ECW Arena. So I was curious. Why me on an NXT show? It didn’t make any sense. I also said, ‘November 3rd is a Sunday, not a Wednesday.’ He said, ‘Sorry. It’s Wednesday, November 6th at the ECW Arena.’ He said, ‘We want this to be kind of a celebration of ECW and a crossover with NXT. The writers came up with some ideas on how to do that and your name came up…’ He gives me a list of names confirmed and he’s reaching out to a few more. Then he puts more names. Not gonna mention because some people came through and some people didn’t. He left them messages and I said, ‘Okay. I have to talk to my husband,’ blah, blah, blah. ‘May I contact you tomorrow? Haven’t reffed in years. I’ll need to buy a ref outfit.’ Not thinking at the time of my stomach and the problems that I’ve been encountering. So he said, ‘Absolutely. Call me or text any time. It should be a really fun show.’ I said, ‘Okay, let me talk to him. I appreciate you guys thinking of me. I’ll be in touch.’ I then talked to my husband and he’s like, ‘Did you not forget about the five surgeries that you’ve had on your abdominals?’ And I was like, ‘Well yeah’ and he was like, ‘Do you really think that you can be quick enough with the way these girls work?’ Because these girls are good. Let me just tell you. These girls can work, right? He’s like, ‘Do you think you can get down and make the false finishes? Run around?’ We didn’t know what kind of match it was. It ends up being a Hardcore match and all this stuff, and I was like, you know what? For me now, because my core is so weak, just lifting myself up, getting into the ring is slow and we’ve talked about this before when I do the reunion shows and stuff. How we’re all a little bit slower than we were before. So I was just like, ‘Well, I guess I’m not gonna be able to do it.’ So I contacted John the next day and I told him, here’s my problem and I went on to explain what I had (done) to my stomach. He wrote, ‘Good morning. No problem. We can do something different. Let me talk to creative and get back to you.’ Then I pitched an idea about me being a timekeeper. Guest timekeeper and I thought of a spot that I can do with one of the guys on the card. He said, ‘Thanks for this suggestion.’ He’ll send it to creative. Then I get a text the following Tuesday, ‘Did Johnny Russo get with you about tomorrow?’ This is the night before. I hadn’t heard anything for like two weeks. So I’m kind of sitting there thinking, ‘Well I’m booked, I think.’ But I have no idea what I’m doing. At this time, I went to Rhode Island Comic Con for the four days and I talked and I talked and I talked and I lost my voice. So, on Tuesday, they send me a script to be like a backstage interviewer, and I go, ‘Ugh. I can’t do this either. My voice is shot.’ Because it was bad, it was bad, and he’s like, ‘Did Johnny Russo get with you about tomorrow?’ And then how cute, he sends me directions to the 2300 Arena… I said, ‘I haven’t heard from him. I wasn’t contacted since last week. I don’t know anything about tomorrow.’ This is at 9 o’clock, the night before the Arena. So, he goes, ‘I’ll reach out to them now. I’m sorry about that.’ I said, ‘No worries.’ He writes, ‘Johnny’s supposed to reach out to you. If you can arrive around 1 o’clock tomorrow, that would be great. Please text me when you arrive and I’ll meet you…’ (Russo) texts me at 10 o’clock, right? With the script to the backstage stuff and I type back, ‘Johnny, I am so embarrassed to say this: I have no voice. I don’t have a voice,’ and it just wasn’t gonna work, and you’ll see the text messages but I literally say to them, ‘If you wanna pull me off the show, I totally understand. No heat because this is on me.’ I can’t work, really, the way they want me to. I can’t talk, so what am I gonna do? I have no idea and a couple of the boys were like, ‘You can sit in the front row. That’s what they do with a lot of the legends. They just put them in the front row.’ I said, ‘Well, do they really wanna pay me the same amount to sit in the –’ I don’t know…Â
It was me who couldn’t do it. So I just wanted to make that perfectly clear. Would I have liked to done more? Of course. I would have loved to have had an entrance and walk to the ring and did something. It just wasn’t in the cards for me. But just being included was enough for me. I didn’t need any more than that. It was fun, I got to meet so many great people. The girls were so nice!
She was shown on-screen and shouted out on commentary. Francine stated that she thought her name would be called out loud in the venue.
I thought my name was going to be announced in the building. First of all, they walked me out, it was pitch-dark. I didn’t know what section I was in. They just led me to this empty seat and I’m waiting because usually when the pay-per-views — I thought that they announced in the buildings but they don’t do that. They don’t announce you. They only announce you with (the) announce team for TV, and I didn’t know that so the cameraman’s in front of me and he’s letting me know, ‘Okay, you got a minute to come back from commercial. You have 30 seconds,’ and so then he points to me and I’m sitting there waiting for my name and he’s like, ‘Stand up,’ and I go, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘Stand up.’ I go, ‘Now!?’ He goes, ‘Yeah,’ so I stood up and didn’t hear it so I said, well what do I do? I said, I’ll start an E-C-Dub chant. Just starting chanting (she laughed). Didn’t know what to do, because I’m waiting for my name to be called and it was never called. But I was told they did put me on the titantron or whatever they call it these days, and I got to watch the match up close and personal which was a lot of fun, and that was basically it.
Francine went on to share that prior to the show when her vitals were being checked, her blood pressure and heart rate was up.
She admitted that she was nervous and anxious. The doctor on hand wanted to keep her backstage a little longer until she calmed down.
They took my blood pressure, they put the little gimmick on my finger for my heart rate and my oxygen and my blood pressure is always 120/80 and that day it was not. The bottom number was too high. My thing was at 106 which was high so the guy’s looking at me and he’s like, ‘Are you nervous?’ And I was just like, ‘Well right now, no, I’m very relaxed.’ I said, ‘But I was anxious to come today.’ So, I had to be on holding. They had to hold me until everything dropped, or else I wouldn’t have been able to go out there and I said, ‘Listen, let’s just talk a minute.’ I said, ‘I’m not doing anything really, but sitting in the crowd.’ I said, ‘Are you gonna fail me?’ The guy was like, ‘No. We’re not gonna fail you.’ He’s like, ‘But you need to come down,’ and I was like, ‘Oh.’ So I sat there for maybe 15 minutes or so and then he’s like, ‘Well you should really go to a doctor and check.’ I was like, ‘I’m always perfect. It must be this environment because I’m fine usually.’ I guess my heart rate was a little elevated. It was just a little overwhelming, you know what I mean? I didn’t know who I was gonna meet and what was gonna happen…
NXT is back to its regularly scheduled Tuesday programming. The brand is moving towards their Deadline P.L.E. on December 6th from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Eyes Up Here with Francine with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.