Francine Meeks (née Francine Fournier; born February 19, 1972), known by the mononym Francine, is an American semi-retired professional wrestling valet and professional wrestler. She is best known for her appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2001 and with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2005 and 2006. During her tenure with ECW, Francine managed several of the promotion's top wrestlers.
Early life
Francine was born on February 19, 1972. She grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she attended West Catholic Preparatory High School in West Philadelphia. She became a fan of professional wrestling as a teenager, attending events at the Spectrum.
While working for a life insurance company in 1993, Francine saw a television commercial for the "House of Hardcore", the professional wrestling school run by Extreme Championship Wrestling, on SportsChannel Philadelphia and decided to enroll as she "didn't want to be stuck behind a desk".
Professional wrestling career
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994–2001) Francine trained with J. T. Smith at House of Hardcore. During her training she made a handful of appearances on the independent circuit. After seven months, she began appearing on ECW house shows. Francine made her first ECW in-ring appearance in 1994 under the name "Miss Montgomeryville", portraying a beauty pageant winner who acted as a guest timekeeper until being chokeslammed by 911. Early into her ECW career, Francine was approached by the World Wrestling Federation about joining the promotion as "Sister Love", a valet for Brother Love.
In summer 1995, Francine debuted in ECW at Barbed Wire, Hoodies & Chokeslams as a devoted fan of Stevie Richards and later became his manager and on-screen girlfriend. The new partnership angered both Richards's tag team partner Raven and Raven's valet Beulah McGillicutty. This rivalry led to several catfights between the women. These culminated in a match between the two women in August 1995 with Stevie Richards as the special guest referee; the match ended when Richards turned on Francine due to the influence of Raven, with Beulah winning the match.
Francine then allied herself with The Pitbulls tag team, who had left Raven's Nest, adopting a leather-clad dominatrix persona to fit with the Pitbulls' gimmick. She led The Pitbulls to a victory over Richards and Raven for the ECW Tag Team Championships on September 16, 1995. At Cyberslam '96 in February 1996, Francine and the Pitbulls defeated The Eliminators and Richards in a triple dog collar match; despite being superkicked by Richards at the outset of the match, Francine ultimately won the match for her team and gained her revenge by pinning Richards after he was superbombed by The Pitbulls. She went on to lead Pitbull #2 to win the ECW Television Championship from Shane Douglas at Fight the Power in June 1996 after Douglas insulted her and gave her a belly-to-belly suplex.
On July 13, 1996, at ECW Heat Wave, Francine turned on The Pitbulls and became the manager of Shane Douglas. The Pitbulls gained their revenge by superbombing her through a table. At Holiday Hell '96 in December 1996, Francine and Douglas defeated Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty in a mixed tag team match; the two teams faced one another repeatedly until mid-1997. Francine managed Douglas from 1996 until his departure from the promotion in 1999. Referred to as his "Head" Cheerleader, she twice helped him become ECW World Heavyweight Champion. During this time, she could also occasionally be found at ringside in support of Douglas' Triple Threat teammates Chris Candido and Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow, however, legitimately broke her pelvic bone while performing a press slam on her. In November 1997, she was by Douglas' side when he defeated Bigelow for the World Championship. She remained Douglas's manager until he left ECW in 1999.
In 1999, Francine began managing Tommy Dreamer. In mid-1999, Francine feuded with Steve Corino, whom she defeated in multiple singles matches. Her partnership with Dreamer lasted until March 2000, when she left Dreamer after he accidentally DDT'd her while temporarily blinded, aligning herself with Raven.