Haystacks Calhoun
Brooks got his start in 1967, joining his cousin Dick Murdoch in the Detroit and Toronto territories. He wore a hard hockey player's elbow guard and used it as a weapon. He fought Ben Justice, Tex McKenzie and Tiger Jeet Singh among others. Into the early 1970's, he also wrestled in the Cleveland based NWF taking on Haystacks Calhoun, Fred Curry and Tony Marino. He worked as a mid-level heel often being managed by Skandor Akbar, Armand Hussein and Gary Hart. Long before the infamous 1988 angle in the WWF between Hulk Hogan, André the Giant and Ted DiBiase over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, Brooks had, in 1983, sold his NWA National Heavyweight Championship to Larry Zbyszko some time after winning it from Paul Orndorff. In this case, however, no interference from Zbyszko had happened during the match; and Zbyszko, despite being obviously stripped of a title he had not legitimately won, won it legitimately in the tournament that subsequently took place.