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'Killer' Tim Brooks passes away at 72 after battle with cancer

Posted: Jul 1st 2020 By: Dave Meltzer

Tim Brooks, best known as "Killer" Tim Brooks, who wrestled full time around the U.S., Puerto Rico and Japan from 1970 through 1989, passed away today at the age of 72.

Brooks had been battling cancer for several years that was known to be terminal.

He was from Waxahachie, TX, and spent most of his career wrestling out of the Dallas office. His original stardom came while working for The Sheik in Michigan where he held the NWA World tag team titles twice with Ben Justice and once with Abdullah The Butcher. He was also a regular mid-level heel during the heyday of World Class Championship Wrestling when it was syndicated nationally.

As Bad News Brooks, he was the regular tag team partner of Roddy Piper in Oregon. It was Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskoski's (aka Col. DeBeers) attack on Brooks when he was scheduled to leave the territory that led to Piper's babyface turn that was one of the hottest business periods in the history of the Pacific Northwest.

Brooks was also a good friend of Bruiser Brody. In 1985, Brody had his last match in All Japan before he was to leave for New Japan. He turned a match against Olympic wrestlers Riki Choshu and Yoshiaki Yatsu into a fight, noting that he would not have done so if he didn't have confidence in Brooks as his partner and backup.

In 1986, he got a major push in Montreal as Brody's brother (Big Buster Brody) with the idea he was insane.

He was also part of a key angle in Georgia when he defeated Paul Orndorff to win the National heavyweight title in 1983, "selling" the belt to Larry Zbyszko. NWA President Bob Geigel was part of the angle when he stripped Zbyszko of the title who ruled that you can't sell a championship.

Brooks continued to wrestle on independent shows through 1997 in Texas and opened the North American Wrestling Alliance training school, promoting shows in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

He trained a number of wrestlers with the biggest names being the original Awesome Kong (a male wrestler who was a Texas star) and current WWE star Keith Lee who honored him on Twitter.