Alex Gracia was confident that Traci Brooks would deliver in her in-ring return.
After more than 11 years away from action, IMPACT Hall of Famer Traci Brooks returned to the ring for the 1000th episode special of IMPACT Wrestling. There, she teamed alongside former X-Division Champion and real-life husband, Frankie Kazarian.
For this occasion, Brooks enlisted “The Pink Dream” Alex Gracia and AEW’s Scorpio Sky to help her get ready for this tag team match. With Sky’s existing friendship with Kazarian, Gracia naturally became acquainted with Brooks as well.
Speaking with WrestleZone’s Ella Jay, Gracia recounted her experience training with Brooks in preparation for her tag team match on IMPACT 1000.
“I met Traci a few years ago because Frankie Kazarian and my boyfriend (Scorpio Sky), they’re like best friends. So, we had met at one of the pay-per-view weekends in Vegas. That was the first time I’d met her, and of course we had both heard so much about one another. I was like, ‘You were just sent to me. I needed someone like you.’
“She’s from Canada, and she’s like, ‘We both started wrestling late, later in life, and we both moved far away from our families. Then we both fell in love with wrestlers.’ It’s like, I can learn something from this woman. She’s become such a great friend that you can trust. She’s like, ‘If you just need to vent to somebody or complain or whatever, I’m here,’ so that’s been so cool.”
Getting Back In The Ring
“It’s funny because when I first met her, she had no desire to wrestle at all, ever again, so when she started preparing for the mixed tag, I feel like she still, herself, didn’t care to wrestle but she’s like, ‘I wanted to do this for our son to see that.’ [And wrestling] with her husband, I was like, ‘That’s literally goals, your child seeing your parents together kicking butt.’ That’s going to be a memory he has for the rest of his life. So, I think that’s so cool she wanted to do this for him, to give him that.” Gracia said.
While Brooks felt a little rusty wrestling again, Gracia provided reassurance for her throughout the process.
“It was so fun training with her. She would say, ‘I’m rusty,’ this and that, and I’m like, ‘You’re great, stop.’ Again, we all underestimate ourselves. I was like, ‘You sell yourself so short now, it doesn’t matter how long it’s been, you pick it up just like you’re picking up a bike.’ That’s exactly what she did and she kicked butt. It was so cool her doing that and seeing it.”
RELATED: Traci Brooks Reacts To Being Inducted Into The IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame
Watch our full interview with Alex Gracia below:
