Traci Brooks

Our resident philosopher looks at the Canadian beauty that has wowed fans in the wrestling ring and impressed thousands of fans as one of the most popular models on the Playboy website.

Starting Out
Tracy Brookshaw was born in St. Mary's, Ontario, Canada on May 22, 1975. She worked on her family's pig and chicken farm until entering a beauty contest at the age of 24. She won Toronto's Toronto Sunshine Millennium Calendar contest and ended up as Miss June 2000. That calendar led to a career as a model. During one of her interviews, as a model, Tracy admitted that she wanted to go to the WWE and become their next superstar Diva. The interviewer set up a meeting between Tracy and former wrestler-turned-trained, Ron Hutchinson. Hutchinson felt that Tracy's beauty and strength (from working on the farm) would make her a natural in the ring and accepted her to his training facility. She trained for several months, before debuting in January, 2001, under the name "Tracy Brooks".

Tracy began to work the indy circuit around Southern Canada and the Northeastern United States. She actually won the AWF Heavyweight title from Joey Knight. She also worked many dates for Border City Wrestling, which produced numerous TNA stars. Her time in BCW would lead to an offer from TNA.

The "T" in TNA

Tracy showed up in TNA, on April 30, 2003, to attack Lollipop. Brooks, dressed in a Catholic School Girl outfit, felt that Lollipop's character was demeaning to women. That led to her first big storyline. Tracy demanded to be entered into the Gauntlet for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. When she was denied entry, she threatened legal action against the NWA (the governing body, at the time) and its President, Bill Behrens. After several weeks of threats, Tracy was given a chance to earn her way into the Gauntlet. She faced Trinity and Desire in a Triple Threat Match. Both Trinity and Desire were struck by male wrestlers before the match. Desire's strike was accidental. Tracy easily won the match. Tracy was jumped by Lollipop just before she was scheduled to face Kid Kash in the opening round. Due to the attack, Tracy was easily eliminated by Kash. Brooks then participated in an "Anarchy Alliance" tournament to determine the top contenders for the tag team titles. She and partner, David Young, made it all the way to the finals, before losing to America's Most Wanted. Tracy worked a stable similar to The Beautiful People called Bitchslap. The name brought a lot of heat to TNA and when Nurse Veronica refused a TNA contract, the group was disbanded. Tracy was pulled off television, for a short time, and repackaged.

From a "Y" to an "I"

When Tracy Brooks returned to TNA in November of 2003, she was known simply as Traci. Traci joined Shane Douglas and Michael Shane (Matt Bentley) to form "The New Franchise". The trio feuded with Triple X (Low-Ki, Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper). The union fell apart when Michael and Traci turned on Douglas. Traci managed Michael, as well as Frankie "Kaz" Kazarian. They set their collective focus on the X-Division title. Traci would eventually leave both Kazarian and Shane to aid Dusty Rhodes, who had taken over as "Director of Authority". The job certainly wasn't given to her, she had to recruit a tag team (The Harris Brothers) to defeat a team selected by Trinity (Phi Delta Slam). Traci would move back into the world of managing, as she aided Chris Sabin in his feud with Michael Shane and Trinity. The feud got really weird when Shane turned on Trinity and Traci turned on Sabin. Traci went back to the side of her former charge, Michael Shane.

Shane, now known as Matt Bentley, decided to hold out on the renegotiation of his TNA contract. Traci was offered interview work while TNA waited on Bentley. She accepted and became a very popular backstage interviewer. When Bentley finally did re-sign with TNA, Traci went back to his side. That relationship ended when Bentley was injured and had to take some time off. Traci went back to interviewing until the next step in her career kicked in.

C.F.O. -- Miss Brooks

At Bound for Glory, 2006, Robert Roode announced Tracy as his new assistant (manager/valet). Her name was switched to "Ms. Brooks". Brooks was (storyline) abused by her "boss" during their relationship. When she lost a bikini contest to Roode's old partner, Eric Young, Roode demanded that Ms. Brooks encourage Young to sign on with Robert Roode Inc. Brooks flirted with the naive Young to try and convince him to join the organization. She eventually seduced him into signing on with the "evil investor". That led to several weeks worth of battles to earn his freedom.

Miss Brooks began to expand beyond Roode to work the blossoming Knockout Division. She challenged, unsuccessfully, for the Knockout Championship. Over time, the relationship between Brooks and Roode was revealed. Many thought they had a romantic relationship. In fact, she only worked for Roode to make enough money to help her ailing mother. Brooks would begin a turn on Roode that came to a head when she "fainted" at Genesis. It was originally believed that she fainted due to heat exhaustion. it was later revealed that Vince Russo (head writer for TNA) asked Brooks to fake the fainting spell.

Roode "fired" Brooks on January 10, 2008, and replaced her with Miss Payton Banks. Brooks and Banks were scheduled for a feud but Banks disappeared soon after joining Roode. Brooks went back to the name Traci Brooks. After Banks left the company, Brooks re-entered the Knockout Division. She competed in the first Queen of the Cage match at Lockdown. She lost to the eventual winner, Roxxi. She also participated in the first Knockout Makeover Battle Royal, losing to Gail Kim. It was time for a different kind of makeover for Traci.

Laying Down the Law

Traci went into talks with then-commissioner, Jim Cornette, in July of 2008. She wanted to have a more pronounced position in the Knockout Division. Cornette placed her as the special Knockout Referee to handle the most difficult Knockout matches. She was eventually "promoted" to the position of "Knockout Law (Enforcement Officer)". She continued with that position through the end of the year and then the position was eliminated and power restored to Cornette.

The Birth Defect Angle

Traci took off for six months to do some model and acting work. She also posed for some very steamy Playboy pictures. The pictures have yet to be used in the magazine but nearly melted computer screens around the country on the Playboy web site (I've seen them and they were incredible).

When Traci finally returned, she put herself into a Battle Royal to earn a chance to become a member of the Main Event Mafia. The other Knockouts thought she was there simply to serve as the ref for the match. Traci pitched out both Tara and Awesome Kong to earn the spot in the elite group, as well as $50,000. Traci turned heel by trash talking TNA for never giving her a fair opportunity in the company. Traci worked with the group until it disbanded. Traci then went into a minor feud with Alissa Flash aka Cheerleader Melissa aka Raisha Saeed. During one of their first matches, Flash attacked Brooks arm and the Canadian shrieked in mortal agony. It was announced that Traci had some kind of birth defect with her arm that she had hidden her whole career. It was never made clear whether the birth defect was real or a storyline work. The feud came to an end on March 4, 2010 when Traci was released from her contract. Traci wanted to leave wrestling to re-focus on acting career.

In Conclusion:
Tracy/i Brooks has been one of the most popular Knockouts in TNA history. Her pictorial on Playboy.com were some of the highest rated photos, ever. Her career in acting looks very bright. She also has the option to fulfill her dream as the next "WWE Diva". The future looks bright for Our Miss Brooks.

Be sure to check out all her video clips at ClickWrestle.com. You can also see her slightly less-racy photos and much more detailed biographical info over at OnlineWorldofWrestling.com.

Peace

Jay Shannon
Jade89512@yahoo.com