Francine Discusses WWE Trying To Lure Her Away From ECW, How Paul Heyman Reacted

The Queen of Extreme Francine is best known for her stint in ECW where she managed many wrestlers. But she had interest from WWE at the time and they even pitched a role to her. Francine revealed what that was and why she stayed with ECW when she spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"What I was told was they were looking for me to come in as Sister Love," Francine said referencing that she would be paired with Brother Love. "A man named Ed Cohen was calling me and he worked in the [WWE] office?He kept telling me they were using models or women in the area for that show, but they wanted one girl that was specific for the character. My name kept coming up in meeting because they saw my work for ECW.

"When I wasn't at home to take the calls he would talk to my mom as I was still living at home at the time and I was in my early 20s. He would tell my mom that WWF would pay me so much more than ECW. I would come home and my mom would say, 'That nice man Ed Cohen called and he said you can make more money under Vince than under Paul.' I was like, 'Mom, stop.' I had no desire to leave [ECW]."

She said that after a few months of the calls she started to feel guilty and Ed told her not to tell Paul Heyman about the calls. Francine said she told Paul everything and he told her "I can't compete with their money."

"I knew that so I asked for a raise. I was still green as grass and brand new and he said he'd give me a raise. So I stayed and I stayed until we went out of business," said Francine. "I never had a desire to leave and I wasn't using that as leverage. But at that point I wasn't making a lot of money but I thought if he could get me a couple more bucks that would help. He was on board with it and I stayed."

Paul Heyman brought Francine into the pro wrestling business and she talked about working with him.

"Oh my gosh, he was the best boss I ever had. Without Paul, there would be no Queen of Extreme. He gave me the ball and I was able to run with it but I wouldn't have had that opportunity without Paul. He was so approachable. He listened and cared about my opinion. He was always easy to reach. I can't say enough good things about Paul Heyman. I'm thankful he came into my life," stated Francine.

Francine has launched her own podcast called Eyes Up Here and she discussed the genesis of it.

"I never wanted to have a podcast. I didn't want social media and didn't want anything to do with wrestling anymore," revealed Francine. "But a couple of years ago one of my best friends, Daffney from WCW, she asked me to do WrestleCon with her in New Orleans. I hadn't done anything in years but I said I'd go with her for a girls' weekend or whatever.

"She said if I do this then I need Twitter. I thought that no one would want to talk to me because it's been like a million years. I signed up for Twitter and realized that ECW is still a thing 20 years later which I was shocked at. I then started my own YouTube channel and my co-host Chad asked if I wanted to do a podcast."

She was initially hesitant about a podcast because she didn't want to talk RAW and SmackDown. So her podcast is a lifestyle podcast and she talks more about things she is passionate about, like Disney.

"There is an aspect of wrestling but it's me talking about being on the road or wrestling related. It's not necessarily what's going on in the world of wrestling," said Francine. "This is a personal podcast. I incorporate family life, friends, entertainment, whatever I feel like talking about.

"I talk about entertainment. I'm a Big Brother fanatic so we've been discussing that. Any reality shows ? I like to talk about that. If there's gossip in the world, I'll throw that in there."

Disney is a big part of Francine's life and thus her podcast as well. She'll discuss ride or food reviews on her podcast and isn't ashamed of her love of Disney.

"I'm a complete Disney nerd and dork and I'm proud of it. [My co-host] Chad likes Disney too so we can banter for 20 minutes about Disney. And the fans are liking the Disney talk so I'm happy about that. Whatever pops up, we'll talk about," said Francine.

Subscribe to Francine's new podcast Eyes Up Here by clicking here: https://apple.co/33IppUm.

Francine's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.