Traci Brooks is worried that she’s having a “fat day.” For a guy like me, who more resembles George Costanza than George Clooney, I’m not sure that’s really cause to be upset. But then again, nobody’s ever going to pay to see me in a bikini top, schoolgirl’s skirt and fishnet stockings either.
Traci’s fans, on the other hand, will have that opportunity to do just that later this summer when TNA Wrestling releases a DVD featuring the company’s Knockouts, including, in addition to Brooks, Gail Kim and Jackie Gayda.
Traci Brooks at a recent Toronto show. Photo by Emanuel Melo
Brooks told SLAM! Wrestling all about the project, including how excited she was to be a part of it.
“It was awesome,” she said excitedly. “It was my very first photo shoot like this. Obviously, Gail and Jackie had done this soft of thing before (while in WWE), but nobody’s ever seen me in that kind of atmosphere before. Hopefully it will give the fans something to look forward to.”
Though if they’re looking for sleazy exploitation, they’ll have to go elsewhere. Brooks is proud to say that the DVD won’t be strictly, pardon the pun, T and A.
“It’s going to be something really different. It’s going to be classy, and something you can show your kids, it’s not at all trashy.”
She hopes that the end result turns out to be as wonderful as the experience she had working on it. The full-day shoot provided the Knockouts a good opportunity to get to know each other away from the locker room.
“We spent the whole day together,” explained Brooks. “We got up at five in the morning and got ready, then went to Universal Studios where we shot for twelve hours. It was a good opportunity for the three of us to bond. I’ve been the only girl for a while now in TNA, so it was good to get a chance to do this with some other people.”
Now, she’s hoping that they will get to interact in the ring. To date, the women have had little exposure on TNA’s TV or pay-per-view shows, and it’s a trend that Brooks hopes will reverse in the future.
“We’re getting involved a little more every time, so hopefully they will let us wrestle some more as time goes on. Right now, we only have an hour of TV a week, or about 45 minutes of actual show time. In that, they have to showcase a full 30-man roster. We still bug (management) every week to have some (women’s wrestling), but we understand that there’s only so much that can be done.”
In the meantime, Brooks is keeping busy wrestling on the independent scene, wrestling so much that it almost seems like a full-time schedule. To wit, it was a Twin Wrestling Entertainment show in Toronto where she talked to SLAM! Wrestling. Later that week, she was in Detroit for the first TNA house show, wrestling at a show in Charlotte on Sunday, and then back in Toronto on the Sunday for a Blood, Sweat, and Ears appearance.
It’s that kind of schedule that has helped make Brooks one of the most recognizable women in wrestling today. The fact that it’s her wrestling that has people talking, and she’s not just eye candy, is something she is proud of. And even though she realizes that she won’t ever be seen as a legitimate threat to the NWA Heavyweight Championship, or any other men’s title for that matter, she’s not upset by that, as she prefers to stay out of the men’s game.
“It’s not much of a competition for me to go up against a man. If a guy hits me, I’m going to get knocked down. There’s a time and place for (wrestling against men), and sometimes I like to wrestle mixed tag matches, but I really prefer to stick to women’s matches. I think we give the fans something different.”
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