Former TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion, Brooke Tessmacher, has been one of 2011’s rising stars in the Knockouts division, but there was a time when she never thought she’d step into a wrestling ring again.
Prior to joining TNA — now Impact Wrestling — in 2010, Brooke was once part of WWE as one third of ECW dance group, Extreme Exposé, with Kelly Kelly and Layla. However, following her release from WWE in 2007, she thought she was done with wrestling. That is until TNA came a-knockin’.
Speaking to Diva Dirt exclusively on DD360 earlier this week, Brooke says that joining the TNA family, where she has had championship success recently with veteran Knockout, Tara, “couldn’t have been a bigger dream come true.”
Of her time in WWE, Brooke says: “I had a lot of fun in WWE. I was training. At first they moved me out to Atlanta to learn how to wrestle. I mean, I was only there a month before I got brought up and I was full time on the road with Extreme Exposé. We were dancing every week, and we had a few matches — battle royals and stuff like that — but I never got a chance to show there what I was learning back off the road.”
“It was fun, but I wanted to wrestle then. It’s great to go out there and be eye candy and an exhibitionist, and I got to work with Layla and Kelly, who are amazing and have gone way further and far beyond than what I think a lot of people would have thought, and they deserve every bit of it. But I never got to show that [her wrestling ability] before I left, so that’s what’s great now in TNA. It’s a great company. I love where I’m at, though. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime to travel with WWE.”
Meanwhile Brooke says that her release from WWE was expected. “There were a few little issues then. It did suck because I didn’t get to make the stamp that I wanted to. I was kind of unhappy about it. It’s something that I don’t talk about too much. I kinda knew it was coming, put it that way.”
Brooke would be off the wrestling radar, as it were, for over two years. In that time, she reveals that she went back to modelling and owned a clothing store, never believing that she’d one day return to the ring.
From Diva to Knockout
In early 2010, Brooke emerged in TNA as Eric Bischoff’s secretary, Ms Tessmacher. Fans were surprised to see the former WWE Diva in TNA, and as you may recall, there was no news of Brooke’s TNA arrival prior to her appearing on TV, which is pretty unprecedented given the “internet spoiler” age we live in.
For the first time, Brooke reveals the story of her TNA signing.
She says: “I did a wrestling appearance with a promoter and he asked me, ‘Why don’t you go to TNA? Those are the girls who know how to work’. It’s all about how you can work in the ring. It’s not all about tits-and-ass and who can be the sluttiest. This is about going out there and showing their skills. We have the best of the best where we’re at now.”
“He gave me a number to call [TNA] and kind of set it up for me,” she reveals. “They said, ‘Yeah, why don’t you come out’. I was just like, ‘Wow’. I never in a million years thought that I’d be doing it again. Then I started training, getting better and learning how to be a so-called ‘wrestler’ from a ‘model’. [Laughs]”
“It really was out of the blue. It couldn’t have been a bigger dream come true.”
Brooke further discusses her time in TNA, including her partnership with Tara, and the training she’s undertaken to step up her game in the ring.
To hear the full interview catch the replay of DD360 at this link.
