As reported earlier, the inevitable finally occurred as WWE released “ECW Original” Francine Fournier, 34, from her contract this afternoon. She was basically let go because Vince McMahon just didn’t like “her look.” Also, fellow ECW Vixen Trinity’s recent return to action from a severe knee injury ultimately sealed her fate.
Francine had been used sparingly on television since the ECW brand’s startup back in June. She often appeared at house shows in bikini contests to put over fellow ECW Vixen Kelly Kelly. Sans a five second cameo appearance on the 8/1 ECW on Sci Fi show, Francine was left off television until September when WWE finally found her a role as the valet of Balls Mahoney. Mahoney had engaged in a feud with Kevin Thorn, and thus she was used to combat his valet Ariel, who had been interfering in his matches. It appeared as though that Francine had finally secured a permanent role with the company as she was starting to appear on television regularly, not to mention that ECW.com had posted up two articles in which she was heavily put over by her fellow peers which made it seem that she was going to get promoted. A slew of pictures from a recent photoshoot were posted up as well. Also, the articles and ECW show previews pushed her feud with Ariel and thus it appeared as though that this would be a long-term feud. However, without warning, the feud between the four individuals was dropped for some unknown reason. Francine last appeared on the 9/26 edition of ECW in an “Extreme Cat Fight” with Ariel and she was left off television the preceding three weeks in which she was available to appear.
Behind the scenes, Vince McMahon was said to have not been a fan of Francine. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported back in August that upon seeing her in person backstage for the first time, McMahon went up to Johnny Ace and asked him as to who would hire someone that “looked like that.” It is believed that Tommy Dreamer was the person who hired her when he was looking to sign some “ECW Originals” back in May for the startup project. Anyways, McMahon believed that Francine wasn’t up to par with the daunting “WWE Diva” looks standard when it comes to beauty. She was said to have been on thin ice from that point on (well actually since the day she was first hired) and dubbed as the person most likely to be let go. It was largely believed that she’d be let go soon after her bikini contest program with Kelly Kelly on the house show circuit ran its course.
Francine’s saving grace for a short while was that it was believed that she could make the 19-year-old Kelly Kelly look good in comparison to her during bikini contests so that she could get over with the fans. Regardless of what people thought of her, Kelly Kelly often received rave reviews regarding her physique. On the other hand, Francine received quite a few negative reviews from people that had seen her firsthand during the bikini contests at ECW house shows, at least initially. It wasn’t so much that Francine was totally out of shape, but many fans in attendance would specifically take aim at how flabby and unappealing her butt looked in the revealing thongs she would sport. Francine was aware of this problem too as it was later revealed that she had purchased a piece of fitness equipment to improve the appearance of her butt and thighs off of eBay in July. She has said this in blogs.
Lastly, Francine has removed all mentions and blogs concerning the WWE’s ECW venture off of her MySpace page (myspace.com/francinefournier).
