• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Tim Brooks: The Most Interesting Wrestler You’ve Never Heard Of

Posted: Feb 25th 2025 By: Griffin Kaye - RingTheDamnBell.Wordpress.com

“Killer” Tim Brooks may never have been a household name as he never worked for an extended period in a major promotion but he is an interesting character! Described by Greg Oliver as “one of the toughest SOBs that ever created havoc in the ring”, he was a “Hitman” before Bret Hart and “Bad News” before Brown and trained one of the industry’s greatest modern day workers.

Breaking Into The Business

Brooks’s entry in the business was more casual than most.

At a family funeral, Brooks’s cousin, the popular wrestler Dick Murdoch, told Brooks he could tour with him, to which Brooks agreed.

One night in 1969 in Odessa, Texas, a performer on the card no-showed and Brooks was unwilling but eventually convinced to get into the ring for the first time by Murdoch and Terry Funk.

By his second match, he was on television wrestling Dory Funk Jr.

Brooks would concede he was not the greatest wrestler, noting: “I think what the people liked about me, when they knew I was going to have a match, it was going to be a fight. It was going to be chaos. It was going to be wild. It wasn’t going to be your average wrestling match.”

He would cite performers like Terry Funk and Lou Thesz amongst his biggest influences in the business.

Although he had a brief stint in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1971-1972, wrestling some of the big names of the era like Frank Gotch, Victor Riveria, and Chief Jay Strongbow, he would instead say The Sheik gave him his greatest exposure early on. The Sheik, real name Ed Farhat, was the booker of the Big Time Wrestling promotion, of whom Brooks said: “He was my father in pro wrestling. He gave me my first break.”

Carving Out An Identity

His demeanor was often likened to Clint Eastwood. The kayfabe magazine The Wrestler defined the character as such: “From a cloud of plain’s dust, he appears without warning or reason. His manner is calculated, his confidence taunting. As he strides through town, his stares are met by the townspeople with a guilty lowering of heads; his eyes, a promise of icy death, foretell a vengeance built upon years of careful waiting. Justice in its most violent form is his vocation, and he has many wrongs to set straight before he can move on.”

Brooks’s look was one of his stand-out traits, with Slam! Wrestling describing Brook as “the unpredictable madman with the long, scraggly hair, and an unkempt beard.”

His appearance seems to be an amalgamation of the wrestler John Tenta, the Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, and Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton. Of the three, you would have to say he is closest to Earthquake as both are wrestlers. Brooks has not – if my research is correct – ever managed one of the most acclaimed bands in commercial music history or ever killed sex workers and allegedly tried to sell their meat to unwitting customers.

A Noteworthy Career

In 1974, he won the Detroit NWA tag title with Abdullah the Butcher. This was the first of many tag title reigns, with Brooks later winning the NWA Texas straps with Stan Hansen and Stan Stasiak, the Pacific Northwest belts with Roddy Piper, and Texas Six-Man titles with the One Man Gang and Mark Lewin.

In 1977, he also saw success north of the border in Canada winning their North American heavyweight title belt. “Killer” Tim would have a relatively long reign of 127 days before dropping the belt to Dan Kroffat (the original, not Phil LaFon, who later used the name). According to Bruce Hart’s book, Kroffat was supposed to drop the belt back to Brooks but decided to quit wrestling and return to selling cars without dropping the belt.

That year was the only one that Brooks recorded more wins than losses, according to Cagematch.

In Texas especially, he had marquee bouts the Von Erichs and at Star Wars 1981 was chosen to lose to Mexican sensation Mil Mascaras.

He won the WCCW TV title in 1985 and was also part of Skandor Akbar’s Devastation Inc. faction alongside Kamala, “Iceman” King Parsons, and Cactus Jack.

Elsewhere, in 1983, he was involved in a memorable angle in which he sold his NWA National Heavyweight title to Larry Zbyszko for $25,000.

Pro Wrestling Illustrated called it a “reprehensible” move that was “tainted,” adding that it “sets a dangerous precedent.” NWA President Bob Geigel vacated the strap, choosing to not give it back to Brooks due to his treachery and greed.

This angle would be replicated four years later in the WWF between Andre The Giant, Ted DiBiase, and Hulk Hogan.

During the mid-80s, he went to Puerto Rico for a series with Hercules Ayala in a number of stipulation bouts like dog collar, cage, and barbed wire matches.

Reflecting on his career, he stated his favourite match took place in front of 50,000 fans in Japan in a six-man tag team match in which all five other competitors were ex-NWA World Heavyweight championship titleholders.

After runs in the CWA and GWF in the 1990s, he hung up his boots in 1998.

Personal Life
Brooks has said his greatest friend in the wrestling business was Bruiser Brody. During Brody’s last All Japan match, he would turn the match into a shoot, with the Wrestling Observer noting that “he would not have done so if he didn’t have confidence in Brooks as his partner and backup.”

In Montreal, Brooks worked as Brody’s kayfabe brother Buster Brody.

Another friend was Roddy Piper.

He said of partying with Piper, “that took plenty of time off of my life! If I die tomorrow I’ll blame it on Roddy Piper!” Piper helped Brooks meet his “one of a kind” wife Kitty.

He too was noted for drug issues. His manager and friend Gary Hart stated he had a “tremendous drug problem” and was “a complete and total druggie in every way.”

Brooks admitted to having “swallowed, snorted, and smoked” almost every substance, so much so that his kids were taken into care at one point. He was a partier, cigar-smoker, albeit with a great sense of humour.

He seems to have done well enough for himself in the business, reportedly owning a Cadillac.

Wrestling Training & Accolades
After retiring from the ring, he set up the North American Wrestling Alliance in Texas.

It made sense given his status as a solid hand. Gary Hart noted how he was instrumental in helping develop the Von Erichs in their in-ring work while he also had one of the first matches of Booker T who complemented his efforts to create a “perfect” (incidentally, Booker T claims for that match, Brooks was paid $500 while he was paid $10).

As he said: “I figured I might as well start a school. I built a barn, then another building with it, built a ring in it. I got about 10 or 12 students and said I think I’m gonna run some shows. This was in 1988. I started a company called NAWA, North American Wrestling Association. Believe it or not, by 1989 or 1990, I was drawing as many people, or more, than the Sportatorium. I got us up on Channel 39, then eventually on Channel 11. It was a big channel around there, ran in about 30 states on cable.” From this latter venture, he earned as much as $40,000 a month before it would fold shortly thereafter.

Here, Brooks would train the beloved performer Keith Lee.

In June 2020, Brooks would die in hospice care, having been suffering from terminal cancer. Five days earlier, Keith Lee had visited Brooks and dedicated his NXT title win to his mentor and training, stating: “when I had nothing and no one, he was all I had.”

In another tweet, he added: “He was my birth, my knowledge, my preparation. Home when I was homeless. Had I not seen him when I did…I never would again. Thank you Killer Tim Brooks for training me. I love you.”

In the decades prior to his death, his legacy was solidified by his induction into several Hall of Fames. These include a 2006 induction into the Cauliflower Club, a 2008 induction into the Texas Wrestling Hall of Fame, and 2020 induction into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.

As Wrestling Revue wrote of him, “From his reluctant start in the business, through his tough climb to the top, “The Killer” was able to play the game and come out a winner. Entering the business without a silver spoon, he was able to pave his own road, using numerous persona along the way, until his hard work and determination were finally richly rewarded.”