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 TNAwrestling.com has a new Tracy Brooks article up released on the 31st of January title "TRACI BROOKS: LIFE AFTER ROBERT ROODE, INC.". Traci vs Robert Roode has been one of TNA's most pushed feuds over the last couple of months, and with Ms. Payton Banks aka Rain officially on the the roster, things can only heat up more. Its great to see secondary feuds within the Women's Division.
Click Here for the article or read below.
TRACI BROOKS: LIFE AFTER ROBERT ROODE, INC.
By Gerry Strauss
She has endured months of verbal abuse and public humiliation. She has put her own career on hold, instead devoting her attention to supporting an ungrateful superior. Worse yet, instead of being rewarded, she was unceremoniously fired in callous, cold-hearted fashion.
So why is Traci Brooks so relieved?
“I’m free,” she smiled. “I’m finally free.”
ever since the tumultuous partnership between Brooks and Robert Roode officially came to an ugly end, the sun has been shining a little brighter for one of TNA’s original Knockouts.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have been a part of TNA since the first year,” Brooks reminisced. “What most fans don’t realize is that I’ve been plugging away even longer than that, working my butt off from day one, trying to make a name for myself. Don’t get me wrong… it’s been a great ride. It’s just that wrestling isn’t a 9-to-5 job… it’s a lifestyle. It’s hard, and in the beginning, I wasn’t making much money. It didn’t matter to me, but then my mom…”
Traci had to stop and collect herself at this point, clearly emotional about the topic at hand. “My mom is the toughest person I know. She’s my hero. When she fell ill, it just threw me for a loop. For the first time that I could remember, she was helpless, and it was up to me to step in and take care of her. Nothing else mattered.”
“We did OK for awhile,” Traci continued, “but I could tell that the stress of all those mounting medical bills was really upsetting her. My heart was breaking, watching her fight to get better while dealing with all of these financial problems. I had to do something.”
“Something” was a career move that would potentially earn a lot of money for her family… a job as CEO of the newly-formed Roode Enterprises. Enter Robert Roode, talented up-and-coming TNA star-turned-corporate entrepreneur, thanks to a sizeable inheritance from a deceased relative. Roode had it all: ability, charisma, and the financial resources to support his push to superstardom. All he needed was a business associate to look out for him, someone who could watch his back while helping to synergize his new lifestyle with his wrestling career. Despite an impressive list of candidates that wanted the job, Brooks simply would not take no for an answer and persuaded Roode to give her the job.
“Things weren’t bad in the beginning,” Traci recalled. “Robert was always so stiff and uptight, and I really missed the freedom to let loose and be myself. At the same time, he really convinced me that I’d be appreciated… respected, even… for my intellectual contributions. Things didn’t turn out quite that way, did they?”
In fact, it didn’t take long for Roode to stop treating Traci like a business equal, instead ordering her around like an underling. He began to blame her for a variety of losses and setbacks, but never gave her credit for the wins.
“Everything I did, I did it for my mother,” Brooks stated bluntly. “I never did it for Robert… or as I call him, ‘Bob’. But I was definitely loyal. I never said no to anything, not even when he asked me to seduce Eric Young into joining us.”
“Actually,” she smiled slyly. “Eric is a good guy. That might have been the only assignment during that whole time that I actually enjoyed.”
As the weeks passed, the friction between Traci and Roode became more and more noticeable.
“I was tired of being dragged into his drama…drama that was caused by his ego,” said Brooks. “He terrorized poor Eric for so long, and when that was all over, he took his frustrations out on Kaz, who was only trying to help me. I was insulted as a woman when he began insulting [Booker T’s wife] Sharmell, but I was disgusted as a human being when he hit her.”
On the following iMPACT, the relationship in question finally exploded, with Roode not only firing Traci, but politicking his way into a match with her (thankfully cancelled by TNA’s Jim Cornette). Despite being overmatched, an enraged Traci was nevertheless ready for a fight, and she certainly got one... from an intensely devoted female fan whom had been faithfully attending iMPACT for months to support her favorite wrestler.
“She is a psycho, plain and simple,” said Traci. “I mean, the way she would scream and howl that she wanted my job… any normal man would stay as far away from her as possible… but I guess ‘Mr. Ego’ isn’t exactly normal, is he?”
Apparently not, as Roode almost immediately brought the mystery woman, revealed to be Ms. Payton Banks, into his company, giving her Brook’s old job.
“She is loopy enough to obsess over him day and night, and he craves that kind of attention,” said Brooks. “Whatever, they deserve each other, if you ask me. But I don’t understand her obsession with me. For months, she howled at me from her seat like a lunatic. Now, she dresses like me, she walks like me… I don’t know if she is more obsessed with him or me. Either way, I don’t like it. I don’t like her, and I don’t like feeling threatened. If she wants to be a part of this thing, I’ve got no problem taking her down.”
Traci sat back, tense but empowered by her own proclamation.
“Since day one, I’ve been a TNA Knockout,” she declared. “For the first time in a long time, I get to show the world, ‘Bob,’ and Ms. Banks exactly what that means.”
And with that, Ms … I mean, Traci Brooks stood up and walked confidently out the door… strong, sexy, on her own… and loving it.
Traci Brooks's Profile and Pictures
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Posted by Arron Carlton @ 04:59 PM CST
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