Alex Marvez's weekly look at professional wrestling

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Life is good for Traci Brooks now that she is no longer ''bad.''Brooks has started a promising baby-face turn in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. After months of teasing a storyline split, Brooks is finally growing wary of Robert Roode's browbeating and appears ready to quit as his manager.Brooks already is receiving a positive crowd response from TNA fans, which admittedly is something she is still growing comfortable with."Usually, I don't like being a baby-face but I'm excited about this and want to see where it goes,'' Brooks said last week during a telephone interview. "I've always been with a heel in TNA and screaming and yelling. It feels more natural. I'm not your typical blond-haired, blue-eyed baby-face. Usually, the people with dark hair are the bad guys."Brooks has admirably filled that villainous role during her four years with TNA. But she does work as a baby-face on some independent shows and admittedly finds it hard to extend the meanness of her character when not performing."A lot of (TNA) guys give me crap because I'm the nicest heel outside the ring,'' Brooks said. "You're supposed to be a heel from the time you leave the house, but I do sincerely appreciate the fans. TNA wouldn't be where we are today without them.''In turn, Brooks wouldn't be in TNA if she followed an original career path that would have made the Godwins proud. Brooks said she was supposed to return from college to run her father's pig farm in St. Mary's, Ontario. But while holding part-time bartending and greeting jobs, Brooks said she entered and ultimately won a Toronto newspaper's calendar girl contest.The bigger prize was being contacted by renowned Toronto-area wrestling trainer Ron Hutchinson. Brooks had listed ''being the next (World Wrestling Entertainment) superstar'' in the biography accompanying her cheesecake photographs."I was a big fan growing up,'' said Brooks, 27. "Wrestling-wise, Ricky Steamboat is a god and he's the first boy I've ever had a crush on. I bought (wrestling) magazines when I was a kid because we could only get certain shows on TV in my small town and I didn't have the chance to watch pay-per-views.''Brooks started in the same beginner's class as former WWE women's champion Gail Kim. Almost eight years later, Brooks was so proud when Kim captured the TNA's women's title on October's Bound for Glory pay-per-view show that she cried backstage."After our first match together, Gail and I said we were going to change the face of women's wrestling,'' Brooks said. "'Bound for Glory' was a very emotional time. This was something we had dreamt about doing."Brooks and Kim both have a better platform to showcase their athletic skills now that TNA has introduced a women's division. The unit has been well received thanks to solid matches and a varied array of performers like Brooks, Kim, Awesome Kong and ODB."I think we are changing the way people look at women's wrestling,'' said Brooks, whose real name is Tracy Brookshaw. ''We have beauty and good bodies but we also have ability. You can keep coming back to watch us because of the way we wrestle.''More information about Brooks can be found at www.tnatracibrooks.com and www.tnawrestling.com.A RAW RETROSPECTIVE: This week's Monday Night Raw 15-year anniversary show on USA Network provided some fun nostalgia. Besides highlighting Raw's most memorable moments, WWE brought back a slew of former stars like Hulk Hogan, Trish Stratus, Lita, Jim Neidhart, Tammy ''Sunny'' Sytch and Pete Gas of the Mean Street Posse. Rob Van Dam also returned after an extended absence.Noticeably missing were Dwayne "The Rock'' Johnson -- he declined an invitation -- and Bret "The Hitman'' Hart, who reportedly had another commitment.(Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro wrestling column for Scripps-Howard News Service.)