In rereading your code, I think what you want is this:
Code:
<cftransaction>
<cfquery name="RemoveRecs" datasource="#request.dsn#">
SELECT email, first_name FROM contacts WHERE email = 'wendyb@mydomain.com' and first_name <> 'Wendy'
</cfquery>
<cfquery "RemoveRecsCount" datasource="#request.dsn#">
DELETE FROM contacts WHERE email = 'wendyb@mydomain.com' and first_name <> 'Wendy'
select @@RowCount as [RowCount]
</cfquery>
</cftransaction>
Now RemoveRecs contains the the result set of the records that were deleted and RemoveRecsCount.RowCount contains the actual number of rows deleted -- which RemoveRecsCount.RowCount "SHOULD" = RemoveRecs.RecordCount