FiredUp Network
Saturday, September 20: Brittnie Brooks Up Close
welcome into this close-up on Wrestling Spotlight. Gerald Bentley and I'm joined by the center of attention. It's Brittany. Brittany crooks one of the best female independent wrestlers in the country. Brittany, I've been able to see you in person a few times, wrestling for future stars of wrestling. And just wanted to get an update because I know the fans have been asking how you do. And I'll you move over a little bit and say, there you go. Just recovering from the ACL. You're out there. You're working hard. What's the prognosis? When will fans be able to see Brittany brooks back in the ring? Oh goodness. Well, first off, thank you so much for that introduction. That was very, very kind. I really appreciate all of those compliments. Recovery has been going. It's definitely a process. You have to relearn all the basic human functions, right? Like bending your leg, walking, going up and downstairs. I still can't really do. Building my quad back. Like right now, there's like no muscle on it anymore. It's definitely going. My goal is to be back by like March, April. One of my biggest goals is to be back before WrestleMania weekend, so I can literally do all the shows. Like I want to see like a no sleep, WrestleMania weekend, show to show to show. I want to have so many matches, so many opportunities for people to see me because I know Vegas is like my home away from home. So it's literally perfect that it's going to be there. So I really want to run that weekend. But yeah, I would say recovery is going pretty well. I think so I tore my other ACL two years ago. And I think I've worked a lot harder and been a lot more motivated this time than I was last time because last time I was just starting to wrestle and only really wrestling in Arizona and barely wrestling. Like I think I had like 11 matches in an entire year. So this time I had to cancel like 20 matches within a couple of weeks, the couple of months that I had scheduled ahead. So there's a lot more going on this time. So I'm like, all right, I need to get back as soon as humanly possible. So well, that's surprising. So I was going to ask you, how did you get started in wrestling and who were your influences? Because when I saw you a couple of times at FSW, I thought you were extremely polished. It's hard to believe that that's only three years in after a major injury. How did you get started and who helped train you out? So I got started. I think around 2019 was my first like class. I started in a kids class because I was 14 or 15 years old, which is crazy. And then I slowly started getting kind of okay. Like I could take orders kind of well. So then they moved me up to the adult class and that was a whole experience because I was taking all these crazy bumps from grown men, it was wild. And then, but I was trained by Lawrence Tyler out of Arizona wrestling federation. And I've had like a lot of help from so many incredible people that actually trained at FSW a few times. Chris Bay has helped me a lot, a lot. Yeah. So I'm thankful to everybody 'cause there's just so, I feel like wrestling is such a community and there's so many people you can be like, Hey, can you watch my match? Hey, like I've had so many agents, like names that I couldn't even believe were watching my matches. I was like, you guys are watching my matches. Like, thank you so much. And then they're just so awesome with so much feedback. But I had my first match in 2020, then the world got shut down, obviously. And then I came back in like November. So I had a couple matches. I had about 10 matches. Then I won my first title at 16 years old, one of the youngest like champions in history of anywhere at 16. And then I tore my right ACL in 2022. So I bounced back from that injury. I was out for like five, six months. So I'm trying to like replicate that again because they're telling me nine to 12. And I'm like, that's so long. I cannot physically wait 'cause I already had to wait two months to get the surgery 'cause I tore my ACL in June. And I couldn't get surgery until August. So that killed me. But anyways, so I came back from my first knee injury. Right after I turned 18, I came back in like December. And then from December to June, like December 2022 to June 2024, I was trying to wrestle anywhere, everywhere. I mean, I was having triple shot weekends. I was going all over the country to Canada. It was so awesome, so much fun, getting extra work for all the major companies, doing so much. I became the first ever Dreamwave Women's Champion last year, almost a year ago in October. And just wrestling for places I couldn't even believe. I'd be like, I debuted for GCW. I did so many cool places, New Texas Pro, Texas Wrestling Cartel. I mean, coast to coast. I did some work in New York, Jersey, Massachusetts. It was awesome. - Just knocking on the door. - Yes, I was hitting up everybody I could. And I knew the moment I got hurt that with my work ethic this time, I was comparing, 'cause last time I was still a kid, I was still in high school. I mean, like, literally I pushed off my knee surgery 'cause I needed to go in person to do my ACT. So this time I was like, all right, I'm going to get the knee surgery as soon as possible. And then I couldn't, 'cause my surgeon was booked up. But this time the drive and dedication has been so much more, 'cause I knew that if I was doing all those things when I could wrestle, like hitting up places and doing signings and appearances, if I was doing all that and had that type of drive, I knew that I was going to still try to be as involved as possible now, being hurt. So I still have some appearances coming up. I'm really excited and I'm still doing a ton of podcasts. - Yeah. - Just trying to stay as involved as possible. - Well, we're excited to have you on. So I mean, I went through all the knee injuries myself. So I know how difficult it is because you're standing on the sidelines and you know, man, if not for this, I'd be in there. You gotta feel good though, because I mean, hey, you're just so close. And featuring an FSW, just look at the people that have come through FSW recently. I ain't carrying cross, Zoe Stark, Sola Secoa, Chris Bay, the ultimate Vanessa, Alexander Hammer's stuff. I mean, you're in FSW, you're just a phone call away from TNA, from WWE, from AEW, that has to be exciting. Knowing that every match you have, and you mentioned some people that have reached out to you, you can't believe you're watching your matches, that's gotta be a huge motivator, knowing every match I do, hey, it's online, somebody can be watching it. Oh my gosh, I told myself that every time I'm about to wrestle, I'm like, you never know who's gonna watch this match, so make it good. Like, I always get those pre-show butterflies, and that's like literally what runs through my head, like anybody could be watching. This could be the match to get you signed, so. Yeah, and I tell Joe to Falco, every time I walk in that building, I was like, my poster's gonna be up there one day, like, just wait, just wait. And so, yeah, FSW, since the moment I started wrestling, I was a place I absolutely wanted to go. I had my first match there last April, and I had my first championship match in, I wanna say it was the gauntlet, which was in like last September. So, in just a few months, I grinded my butt off in FSW and wrestled everybody I could to get championship opportunities. And then, unfortunately, I was supposed to have a last man standing match for the FSW women's title, but then it got hurt. So, I hope that when I do come back, I can prove myself and get right back to that title picture because I need that championship. Like, you know how people need air to breathe? I need the FSW women's championship and I need the Dreamwave women's championship that I had a vacate. I need every championship to show people just how good I am. So. Well, who have been some of your best opponents, your best matches? Who do you hold up as being the, your Rick Steamboat to Rick Flair? - I honestly think I had a match with Zeta Steel at Dreamwave for the first ever Dreamwave Women's Championship, both 19 years old, we're both super like new to indies, like a lot of places weren't taking chances on us. And then we got the opportunity to wrestle for that first ever title for a company that's so huge. Like, I walked in there. So, I had my first match there in August, last year. And by October, which was their next show, I was wrestling for their first ever women's championship. And there was like crazy names on there, like Machiido, Mac Cardona and Steph. We got Masha Slamovic, like their roster is stacked. And I got to do the main event on a show. And then Zeta and I just worked so well together. She's one of my favorite people in wrestling. And it was so awesome. And I feel like both of our efforts were so there to make it the best possible match. Like, we worked so hard and talked to so many people, got so many people's advice and just really try to craft the best possible match. For the first women's main event, the first women's championship, we were the cover on IW TV. So, that match will always hold a huge special place in my heart. And I hope that one day we wrestle again at WrestleMania against each other. 'Cause she's so talented. And I know it's just like destined to happen. She just got back from Japan. It's where from Marigold. So, she's doing the most. And I'm so excited for her. She's blowing up on social media. She's amazing. So, I really had to wrestle here one day at WrestleMania. - That'd be awesome, yeah. And it's good to have that goal, right? And then, like you said, you got that goal now and should be able to do it. You got the time there. It's worth a while. We got another six months, basically. Now, a little bit more. We got almost eight months between now and WrestleMania. Yeah, eight months. How are you feeling about WrestleMania coming to Las Vegas? I've talked with David Difference with FSW. And he had told me that the FSW arena was already booked out. I mean, this is like a month ago with independent cards. And that's only some of the cards that are going to be there because you got the Silver Tank Casino, you got other wrestling venues. I mean, there's going to be like 20 shows going on around WrestleMania. And that's before you get to WrestleMania, NXT, SmackDown, Raw. - Crazy. - And there'll probably be an AEW show somewhere around there too. It's going to be just an absolutely packed week. Of wrestling, how does that feel to somebody who's part of that Las Vegas wrestling scene that it's going to be coming to the entertainment capital of America? - It's so awesome because this past year, it was obviously in Philly. And that was like so far from me. I had to worry about like a $600 flight. Two of the shows that I was supposed to wrestle on got canceled so much so that I didn't even wrestle during WrestleMania weekend this year. I did extra work for WWE, which was super cool. I got to do WrestleCon. And that already felt jam-packed just from doing, you know, extra work, WrestleCon, and showing up from GCW shows just to watch, that felt jam-packed. Now the fact that I'm already being considered, like obviously I'm hurt right now, but I'm already going to be considered to be on these shows because, and I heard like, I was talking to Joe literally the day that WrestleMania got announced because I was like, I know that some people really want to do some shows. I can help them get in because like, you know, I have a working relationship with FSDU and he's like, we've already been blown up, like we're already booked out. And I was like, what are we gonna do? I just got announced a couple days ago, like what? Yeah, between that, obviously the collective is probably going to do like 16 shows, how they always do. I'm so excited. And I think it will be such a good thing to be like, guys, Britney Brooks is back. She had an a surgery, but she's freaking back. So it obviously could go either way. I have really, really high hopes. So I don't know. I had really high hopes to get that WrestleMania try out. And now that I'm hurt, I don't know if it's realistic because I know that I'm gonna have to be at such a different level to get signed from a trial like that with so much talent. So I'm like, I don't know, maybe it's not a good idea. Maybe it's a good idea if I don't get it, you know, like I've been working so hard for a trial lately. And then this happened obviously. So I don't know that I'm gonna be completely ready. So we could either go, I take no bookings and do a trial or I take a ton of bookings. Don't get the trial, but know that there's one close because I just don't know if my knees are gonna be ready for that or my body like cardio wise because I'm relearning how to like work out my legs right now. It's so crazy how weak they are. 'Cause I literally have many-- - Oh yeah, it's scary at first, yeah. - Yeah, but no, I'm so excited. And the fact that I don't have to worry about a super expensive flight, having shows canceled on me, having things fall through, having to Uber everywhere, it's gonna be so awesome to have my car. I love my car. And like two years ago, it was obviously in LA, which is obviously a place that I wrestle in a lot too 'cause it's driving distant. But that was just when I was coming back for my other knee surgery and I really wasn't well-versed in the scene yet. But now I wrestle in Vegas every two weeks. So like, I think it's gonna be so awesome and I'm so excited for WrestleMania weekend. - Well, you're there in Philadelphia and I was up there. I mean, if you haven't gone to WrestleMania, it does. It takes over the city. - It does. - The Philadelphia is a huge city. It was WrestleMania pretty much everywhere. Every Odell was sold out, packed the Wells Fargo Center, Friday night, Saturday morning, Monday night and jam-packed sellout to the rafters of the football stadium both nights. And that's not even counting. WrestleCon, all the independent shows, the tail note that Paragon Entertainment puts on. I mean, it's a massive event. And if you're a pro wrestling fan, I mean, you gotta get out to one just to experience it because it is a different level. I went to all in in London just recently and that was great. But it doesn't, it's not WrestleMania. It hasn't grown to that level yet. I think it'll get there. But it hasn't grown to the point that it takes over the Metro, which I mean, WrestleMania does. It's gonna be amazing in Las Vegas. And I think like everything is so centrally located, it will be so beneficial. Yeah, no, I was kind of a little scared to walk around the streets downtown 'cause I was like, you know, downtown of any area is pretty scary. But like, you just walk the streets and there's like a million people in wrestling t-shirts. I mean, like I was working the streets and the people were like, is that Brittany Brooks? And I was like, bro, I'm not well known enough for this. Like I was shocked because I'm like, you know, like there's no way that people can recognize me. But you realize it's such that niche community literally taking over whatever city it's in. So no, it's gonna be horrible. I'm so excited. I like cannot wait to know that I'm probably gonna be healed by then. So it's just a great feeling that sometimes like, you know, in recovery, it just feels like it's so far away. That return is so far away, but I'm working every day. And like if I'm gonna be so upset, I don't even wanna speak it into existence. But I don't, I think it's 1 million percent possible that I'll be back in time for that. - Well, we're pulling for you here at Wrestling Spotlight. Let me ask you just to get your kind of take on the current pro wrestling scene for the women on the highest level at WWE and at AEW. What are you watching? What are you feeling good about right now? - I'm watching a lot of WWE. I'm also watching like a lot of old WWE 'cause like I've been, a lot of important people have told me to watch like a lot of the stuff that does the basics and stuff that may have gotten forgotten or lost and bring it back. So I've been watching like a lot of old British world of sport, funny enough. And it's been boring, but you know, it's cool because I'm like, oh, that's actually a good idea or even like boot designs. I'm like, all right, maybe I could get some boots like that guys 'cause they're cool, but I'll just make them pink. But yeah, I'm watching a lot of WWE. I love the Rhea and Liv storyline right now. I think it's amazing. Tiffany Stratton's so talented. I think she absolutely smells it. Like her rise to success is so meteoric. I'm like, she's sitting in the standard. Like that girl was just sitting next to her a long ago and now she's in the mirror. - Two years, right? - Yeah. And I'm like, do some of the cry out. I think she had no prior experience. She's so good. And it's not even like her athleticism 'cause her athleticism is amazing. Everything about her is so amazing. So she definitely inspires me to like get there and set that standard for NXT. Renson Claire is absolutely killing it. So excited for her. She's so entertaining. She's so funny. And I like, 'cause I feel like when she was first starting there, they didn't really let her shovel off her personality, but now putting her in the no-quarter catch crew. She's so entertaining and she's so funny. Roxanne has always been incredible. So I'm really excited to see her running NXT. Her promos to me are very good. I see a lot of people hating on her and I'm like, no, she gives such AJ Lee vibes. And I was such an AJ Lee fan when I was a kid. I love Roxanne Perez. And then a lot of people recently, I posted that picture that's actually behind you. And a lot of people, it's not so Ruka. So everyone thought that it was so Ruka, 'cause I curt my hair the same way that she does. Yeah, I saw you side by side. So so many people on TikTok found that. And on Twitter that like weren't in my niche. And so like everyone's like, oh my God. So like, but I'm a huge fan of so Ruka. She's amazing. She's so athletic. Everybody's like, you guys do a tag team. I'm like, bro, she's gonna show me up. Her finisher is iconic. He's got hops for days. I was like, I can barely jump. So now women's wrestling is really taking over and it's really incredible. So like I'm so excited, so excited to see all of it. So. Yeah, no, excellent. Athletic background before getting into wrestling. Did I have one? Yeah. I did Karate and Jiu Jitsu. So I did Karate for like 10 years and then Jiu Jitsu for like 11. But it's very different. I don't have those like fast twitch muscles or those like athletic drills. But I guess people are kind of like used to doing. Like I didn't play basketball or volleyball. So like, you know, and I also didn't work on like my plyometrics in the way that those sports would have. So I honestly think that might be the reason for some weeklies and why I keep tearing ACLs. But yeah, no, I'm definitely working a lot. Y'all would care a month. So you'll be good now. Literally. And then my dad was a professional bodybuilder. So I fell in love working out when I was like 13. So I have been obsessed with a gym ever since I was a kid. So yeah. Excellent. Well, hey, let's, we'll go to the championship round here. We got the wrestling spotlight. Belt. Ooh. Just ask you a few quick questions. Biggest inspiration in wrestling. Absolutely, John Cena. He was my hero when I was a kid. I was obsessed with him. He was the one where I was like, all right, I got to do this. Like, he's so awesome. And then also the Bella twins. I was super inspired by them. I was obsessed with them. I watched totally with all Bella's, everything, everything. I loved them. So. Excellent. Britney Spears fan. I noticed there's a little Britney Spears imagery in your presentation. Yes. My theme song is give me more Britney Spears. Obviously, I'm gonna have to change it whenever I go to a place that doesn't allow me to use royalty music. But yeah, no, I love her. I haven't heard all of her songs. I like became a fan of her now that my name is Britney. So like, you know, I definitely didn't start out like a Britney Spears fan, but I've grown a liking to her. So. Okay. Well, we got to get in all eyes on me in the center of the ring, just like the surface. Absolutely. That's the center of attention. That's very nice. There you go. How about who? Who is your dream opponent? I would say unrealistically Nikki Bella, because I know that she has like a lot of neck issues, but she, because she's my advocate. But realistically, Ria or Charlotte, they're both so talented, so in such good shape, so phenomenal, the best of the best. Like, they don't wrestle how girls wrestle. They wrestle, you know, insanely perfect on every angle. So I love them and I would love to wrestle them. And just finally, for all the people watching that are going to be going to Las Vegas for WrestleMania, what's the best place to go watch wrestling in Las Vegas? Ooh, I would say FSW. FSW is so well-rounded. And I think there's so many hidden gems at FSW. Like, we have Bodhi young prodigy, who literally started wrestling when he was eight years old. And he's insane. He's literally a vet and he's 16, 17 years old. He's incredible. He can do things that grown men can't do. Like, he's amazing. He's putting on such great size, and he just looks like a wrestler. He's awesome. There's so many other hidden talent people that I really hope that WrestleMania puts eyes on them that they wouldn't have had before and then start getting opportunities that they wouldn't have had before, because it's so hard to get out. Especially in our little area, like Arizona, Vegas, California. That's about all you can do. There's not much wrestling out here. I'll go to the Midwest and people will be like, "Oh yeah, I have four shows a week." I'm like, "How?" Because there's so many cities so tightly compacted. Out here in the West, we don't really have that much. Or a lot of shows that stream. Like, FSW is really good about streaming. California, like, LA doesn't really have anything, only like, GCW when they go there, prestige when they go there. And then Arizona, we have nobody that streams, only when GCW comes. So like, I'm really trying to get us to stream more out here, but no, I think it's hard to get eyes and it's hard to get people to see you. So yeah, I hope that everyone comes and sees FSW. All the shows that they're doing, they're beautiful arena. Yeah. Yeah, and it's just off the strip. I mean, it's like five minutes from the airport. Yeah, it's like a five minute Uber. It's right there. Super easy. And then you can see a couple of them. I'm sure people, you'll be challenging when you go after that FSW women's title. You got Mazarati, you got Rachelle Riveter, the MOM. So quite a few high-end competitors there. We have such a heated rivalry and I haven't forgotten all that they've done to me. So whenever I do come back, I'm coming straight for them because they literally cost me a title so many times. They've cost me matches. They've ruined so much for me. So I need to finish this rivalry, please. There we go. Well, I'm sure you will be. And we'll be looking forward to seeing you WrestleMania weekend. We'll be talking more with people from Las Vegas as we get closer. The road to WrestleMania, officially on, I guess you can say now. Brittany Brooks, thanks so much for joining us here. Best of luck. I know you'll recover great from that knee injury. And be back in the center of the ring is the center of attention, right? We already know. Thank you so much. Everybody come watch everything. WrestleMania weekend, FSW Arena, GCW. I'll be there. Excellent. Hey, we'll see you. Stay tuned to Wrestling Spotlight for more in the ring, outside of the ring 24/7, your home for Pro Wrestling. Download that TrueTV+ app to get the channel wherever you watch your video. And you can catch us on Sports.TV as well. Thanks a lot, Brittany. Thank you. See ya.