Setting: ECW Arena, Philadelphia, PA late 1996
The ECW World Television Champion "The Franchise" Shane Douglas has been on a tear ever since he stole the title and Francine from The Pit Bulls at ECW Heat Wave 1996 on July 13th. He has another big idea in mind as they head to the ECW Arena for that week's TV taping.
ECW World Television Champion "The Franchise" Shane Douglas (w/"The Head Cheerleader" Francine) vs. "The Innovator of Violence" Tommy Dreamer (w/Beulah McGillicutty)
RING ANNOUNCER BOB ARTESE: "The following contest is scheduled for one fall and is for the ECW World Television Championship."
("Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains plays)
BOB ARTESE: "Introducing first, the challenger. Being led to the ring by Beulah McGillicutty, from Yonkers, NY, weighing in at 241 lbs., he is 'The Innovator of Violence' TOMMY DREAMER!"
Crowd cheers and Tommy and Beulah shake hands with various fans.
("Perfect Strangers" by Deep Purple plays. Oddly, Shane is not wearing the belt and Francine is wearing a large coat.)
BOB ARTESE: "And his opponent, being led to the ring by 'The Head Cheerleader' Francine and representing The Triple Threat, from Pittsburgh, PA, he is the (pauses, confused) ECW World Television Champion, 'THE FRANCHISE' SHANE DOUGLAS!"
Crowd boos, of course, and chant "Slut!" at Francine.
(Joey Styles wonders why Shane isn't wearing the belt.)
SHANE DOUGLAS: "Cut the music! None of you Philadelphia losers are even worthy of being in our presence. Everyone was shocked by what we pulled off back in July. Well, tonight we're going to shock you again. Francine, drop the coat!"
Francine walks to the center of the ring and takes off the coat to reveal that she is topless and wearing the belt as a bra! Everyone is shocked silent...until the "Show your tits!" chants start.
Referee Jim Molineaux knows he has to present the belt to the timekeeper, but, he's never seen anything like this before, and doesn't know what to do. Finally, he tells Francine to put the coat back on and to take off the belt under the coat, which she does.
The match starts, and Dreamer, who is hungry for gold, goes right to work on beating the hell out of Douglas to the cheers of the crowd. Shane fights back and he and Dreamer go back and forth for a time. Francine is in an unusual situation, since, on the one hand, she wants to get involved and help Shane win, but, at the same time, she doesn't want to lose her coat. Beulah realizes this and gets a mischievous smile on her face. Shane is choking Dreamer on the ropes and Beulah slaps Shane to stop him. Then some more slaps. Shane grabs Beulah and drags her into the ring and she low-blows him. Francine can't take it anymore and runs into the ring, and Joey gets to scream, "CATFIGHT! CATFIGHT!" Francine is trying to keep her coat closed, but Beulah rips it off of her and throws it into the crowd, exposing her to the fans' delight! To make things even worse for her, Beulah pulls out a pair of handcuffs, trapping Francine's arms behind her back! With Shane distracted, Dreamer grabs him and hits the DDT and goes for the pin! Jim Molineux counts 1...2....3!
BOB ARTESE: "Here is your winner, and the NEW ECW World Television Champion, 'THE INNOVATOR OF VIOLENCE' TOMMY DREAMER!"
Molineux presents Dreamer with the belt, and he and Beulah show it off and celebrate with the fans. Shane wakes up and realizes what happened, and seeing Dreamer with the belt and Francine helpless, shakes his head in disgust as Francine screams for him to help her. The crowd chants "Asshole! Asshole! Asshole!," as they realize Shane has gone from merely being an obnoxious, arrogant jerk to being outright cruel and heartless.
As Dreamer and Beulah start to leave, Beulah stops. Beulah insists that they go back and help Francine. They walk to the locker room and pick up a spare "ECW" T-shirt and walk back. Francine is terrified at the thought of what they might do to her. To her surprise, Beulah pulls out a key and unlocks the cuffs and hands her the "ECW" shirt.
FRANCINE: "Thank you, but why? We've hated each other for a year!"
BEULAH MCGILLICUTTY: "I handcuffed you just to stop you from interfering. I didn't expect Shane would abandon you. I thought you two were the same kind of jerk, but I was wrong. You didn't deserve Shane walking out on you like that. Nobody does. I can only hope you have learned a lesson, one I had to learn myself last year. The lesson is, You lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas."
Francine, now wearing the "ECW" shirt, having been exposed, humiliated and abandoned, doesn't say anything and just runs to the back.
The end.
_________________________________________________________________________________I got the idea from a picture on Reddit of Francine wearing the ECW World Television Title belt as a bra. While writing the ending, I thought of a thread I had read on the Kayfabe Memories message boards where someone was reviewing a huge multi-part Four Horsemen compilation. In re the angle with Tully Blanchard hitting Baby Doll, the poster talked about how that removed Tully's one redeeming quality, respect for his woman, and how Tully was always the most viscerally hated of the Horsemen. I know ECW was probably the first shades-of-gray promotion (lack of rules, faces just as violent or more than the heels), but, I knew I needed Shane to do something indefensible to drive home just how different the faces and the heels really were.