Traci Brooks

Tracy Brookshaw (born May 22, 1975) is a Canadian former professional wrestler, wrestling valet and referee, better known by her ring name Traci Brooks.

In 2000, she won the Toronto Sunshine Millennium Calendar contest which led to her being named Miss June 2000 and interviewed in the Toronto Sun.

Brookshaw went on to engage in promotional modeling work with the Molson, Labatt and Budweiser beverage brewers.

In her interview, Brookshaw said that she aspired to be "the next WWF Superstar".

This led to her being introduced to Ron Hutchison, a professional wrestler who operated the Sully's Gym professional wrestling school out of Toronto, Ontario.

Brookshaw began training under Hutchinson in March 2000 and debuted in January 2001 as "Tracy Brooks".

Brooks appeared with numerous independent promotions, including Border City Wrestling and the Apocalypse Wrestling Federation (AWF).

During her time in AWF, she worked a program feuding with La Felina and was managed for a short time by Canadian hip-hop artist, Dan-e-o.

On August 30, 2001, Brookshaw (as Miss Apocalypse) defeated Joey Knight to win the AWF heavyweight title.

To this day, she continues to do work for independent promotions, including Blood Sweat and Ears in her home region in Southern Ontario and, most prominently, NWA Cyberspace where she contends for the NWA Cyberspace Women's Championship.

Traci even wrestled in independent custom wrestling matches against wrestlers like Amber O'Neal and Christie Ricci.

She is best known for her work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where she spent most of her career, having been the longest signed knockout the company has had wrestling actively with them from 2003 up until 2012.

Considered by TNA/Impact as the "original Knockout", she was inducted into the Impact Hall of Fame in 2023.

Brookshaw grew up on a pig and chicken farm in St. Marys, Ontario.

Brooks debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on April 30, 2003, in Catholic schoolgirl apparel, attacking Lollipop, a dancer who entertained the live audience during intermissions.

The following week, Brooks demanded to be entered in a gauntlet match in which the winner would receive a shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, threatening to sue National Wrestling Alliance official Bill Behrens for sexual discrimination if he did not comply.

When her threats failed, Brooks instead attempted to charm Behrens into allowing her into the match.

Behrens then placed Brooks in a triple threat match with fellow female wrestlers Desire and Trinity, with the winner gaining entry into the gauntlet match.

After Kid Kash ambushed Trinity and David Young accidentally punched Desire, Brooks won the match.

Later that evening, she was attacked by Lollipop as she approached the ring to enter the gauntlet match.

After she entered the ring, Brooks was quickly pinned and eliminated by Kid Kash.

On May 21, Brooks was paired with David Young in an "Anarchy Alliance" tag team tournament to determine the number one contenders to the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

They defeated Kid Kash and Trinity on May 21 and Ron Killings (whose partner, Don Harris, had refused to team with him) on June 4.

During the match, Brooks was injured by Killings.

Nurse Veronica (who had recently debuted in an on-air role as TNA's backstage clinician) rushed to the ring to aid Brooks.

During this time, Brooks was also involved in catfights with Young's valet, Desire.

Brooks and Young then faced America's Most Wanted in the tournament final, but lost.

After the match, Young threatened Brooks, but she was again saved by Veronica.

During an interview with Goldy Locks, Brooks and Veronica announced that TNA officials would no longer allow women to compete against men; however, they would continue to work together as a stable named Bitchslap.

The duo then issued an open challenge to any women in attendance.

TNA cage dancers April Pennington and Lollipop (who was attacked by Brooks several weeks earlier ) accepted the challenge.

They tried attacking Brooks and Veronica but were stopped by TNA security guards.

The following week, Lollipop challenged Bitchslap to a match.

Veronica (without Brooks present) accepted, but was attacked by both Lollipop and Pennington until TNA security again stopped the catfight.

Veronica then replaced Brooks with a new partner, Cheerleader Valentina (who had earlier competed as JV Love on TNA Xplosion in a match against Brooks ).

The reason for the replacement is because Brooks was unable to travel from Canada to the TNA taping.

The storyline with Bitchslap was eventually dropped because TNA didn't have enough female wrestlers to compete against the group, and Veronica turned down a two-year contract with TNA, instead attempting to sign with either WWE or a company in Japan.

Brooks was removed from television for repackaging, Trinity was placed into other storylines, and TNA stopped booking Valentina.

Brooks returned to TNA on November 5, 2003, helping Shane Douglas defeat The Sandman.

On November 26, Douglas and Brooks, known now simply as "Traci", helped Michael Shane defeat Sonjay Dutt.