I'm just Adam from Dingley who likes wrestling
He hails from Dingley Village in Victoria, Australia. This is the Loose Ledge, Adam Brooks!!
Image credit: Owen Jones
He grew up in a suburb of Melbourne watching a Jeff Hardy VHS tape at a neighbour’s house and decided, on the spot, that this was his life. He was signed to a Ring of Honor contract when a pandemic swallowed the world whole. He never made it to America. He’s still here, still wrestling, still the most recognisable face on the Australian indie scene and still, somehow, genuinely surprised when people know his name. Adam Brooks is a pivotal part of Australian wrestling. He just wishes someone would tell him that in a way he could believe.
You grew up in Dingley watching Jeff Hardy on a VHS tape. How do you look back on that kid now?
That kid had no idea what was about to happen to him.
I mean, the first dream was AFL. I wanted to play for the Richmond Tigers. There was this footballer Nick Daffy and he was my guy. That was the plan. And then one day I’m out in the street with the neighbours and one of them says, “I’ve got this tape, it’s wrestling, it’s really cool, come watch it”.
He was halfway through a VHS of WrestleMania 2000. And the match he was up to was that three-way ladder match; the Hardys, the Dudleys, Edge and Christian. I’m sitting there watching it going … what the hell is this? There are ladders, there are guys in these wild outfits, and then there’s this one guy with the coloured hair and these sleeve things on his arms doing all this athletic stuff and then Boom! He does this massive flip off the ladder onto someone through a table. And then he’s standing on top of that ladder and all these cameras and lights are flashing and I’m just… “what is this”?
After that I was down at the local video shop constantly. It’s a Thai restaurant now called something like Sun Go Pho, right here in Dingley. I was renting every wrestling tape I could find. The WCW ones, the WWF ones. But that Hardy guy wasn’t in the WCW ones, so I didn’t want those. Just the WWF ones. And it just grew from there. Mesmerised, studying it, more and more obsessed.
This was a pivotal turning point. Watching that tape was going to dictate the entire journey my life would take. I just didn’t know it yet.
“MCW is home. I’ve been there since I was nineteen.”
The ROH deal that never happened due to COVID — how do you process something like that? Does it still sting or has it become fuel?
(laughs) That was bad timing.
Look, it was really unfortunate timing. And I’ll say this: I know exactly how it would have worked out. If things had gone the way they were supposed to, I probably wouldn’t be here in Australia right now. I’d be over there, either still with ROH or somewhere else by now. I genuinely believe someone would have scooped me up.
And what I was hearing about the direction ROH was going at the time, it sounded so cool, man. So appealing. And then everything just happened at once. COVID hit, and then the whole Marty Scurll situation went down. Marty was a big fan of the Aussies, he’d helped get us signed, and there were plans for us to be involved in things. I think we would have done well there. But it was just this trickling effect of one unfortunate situation after another, and then it just … went to shit.
I can sit here and think, yeah, if it had all worked out, something cool would have come from it. But everything was out of my control. It’s not like I sucked and they said no. I never even got the chance to get there and prove myself.
Does that refocus you?
In a way it did. Once you get through that period of being annoyed and frustrated and a bit depressed about it, yeah. It still frustrates me, honestly. But it was out of my control. So now it’s about refocusing. Switching on. People say things happen for a reason, and maybe something better is on the horizon. Only time will tell.
Sitting around moping and being depressed isn’t going to make things better. I have to keep getting at it. People constantly say positive things like, “you should be on this platform, you should be here” and yeah, cool. Let’s work hard and get there. That’s all I can do.
When this is all said and done, I just want to be able to say I gave it everything. That’s it. That’s all I can do.
“When this is all said and done, I just want to be able to say I gave it everything. That’s all I can do.”
You’ve built quite a career here Australia and worked in the US, UK, Japan, Mexico and Italy. What’s it like building a career from Australia when so much of the industry is centred overseas.
It’s definitely harder. We’re in such an isolated part of the world, and we don’t have a big Australian wrestling product on television. It’s all America, America, you’ve got to be in America.
But I think we’re very lucky now that we’re in the era of social media. People can look beyond what’s in front of them and go, “Oh, there’s some talented guys in Australia, I can actually access that now”. Back when I first started it was still pretty isolated and there weren’t many Australians on the big platforms.
But then we had Tenille who went on to be Emma in WWE. And Buddy Matthews, the guy who trained me, he ended up in WWE. And I think as soon as people like that opened those doors, or made it to those platforms, a lot more people started thinking “OK, maybe it is possible to get there”. Then the TMDK guys, Shane and Mikey, doing their thing in Japan and then NXT. Now those companies are seeing talent on those platforms and they realise that there’s some good shit in Australia.
Would you rather stay here if the opportunity was big enough?
I would love it if there was something big and permanent here so that guys and girls wouldn’t have to keep leaving. I would love it if a place like MCW was on television and I could just stay. I wouldn’t need to go overseas. I’d be totally fine with that.
I’m doing everything I can to help grow that place, but it’s not just on me. It’s the group as a whole. I really hope one day things get to a point where people are making a full-time living here without needing to go overseas, unless they really want to or unless bigger money comes in. Who knows? Time will tell.
The talent’s here. The fucking talent’s here, man.
Does Austrlia make different wrestlers because of things like that?
A lot of us work a lot harder because we know we’re isolated. In America you can just rock up and do extra work and help at a WWE or AEW or TNA. We can’t do that. If we want to do that, we’ve got to jump through all these hoops with visas, flights and funding your life while you’re there. You’ve got to eat. You can’t live in your car.
You could go over there and work the indies without a visa, sure. But how long can you do that before you get caught? A lot of guys are realising that now and doing it properly. They’re getting the visa, doing things correctly, so they can actually show up at these TV places and get an opportunity. But then you’ve got to fork out for the visa, the flights, and support yourself the whole time you’re there.
It’s hard, man. It’s hard. I’ve done it. I continue to do it.
MCW has been your home base for your whole career. What does that promotion mean to you?
It’s my home. I’ve been there since I was nineteen. Through management changes, pre-pandemic, post-pandemic. Just being a focal point of that place, it means a lot to me.
And when my in-ring days are done, I still plan to be part of MCW in some way.
I love wrestling everywhere, I really do. But MCW is home.
Wherever I end up in this business, I just hope it’s a place that makes me happy. A place I’m invested in and that I can proudly fly the flag for. I couldn’t care less about being a mega millionaire or famous or any of that. As long as I’m happy getting to do what I love that’s all that matters to me, man.
“Keep supporting MCW so it continues to grow — and one day it can give me a salary.”
Last question. What do you want people to say about Adam Brooks when it’s all over?
That he was a good dude. Always gave it a hundred percent. And was a pivotal part of Australian wrestling.
It’s weird and I get that now. People say that to me and it’s very flattering, but it throws me off. Because I’m just Adam from Dingley who likes wrestling, man.
I went to a student show last night, actually. A friend’s brother is now a wrestler and I had no idea. He’d come up to me at a merch table a while back, said, “Hey, you know my sister”. I’m like, “Who? What?” It turns out we grew up together. She was at my first match. So I messaged her, asked when he was on next, said I’d come down and say g’day.
I walk in and heads are turning. “Oh my god. Oh fuck. Adam Brooks is here.” Everyone introducing themselves, and I’m just like, “Hey, I’m Adam.” And they’re going, “Yeah, we know, we know.”
It throws me off when people view me that way. But I get it. Because I’ve been in locker rooms like that before. You see someone walk in and you’re like, oh man, that’s Jeff Hardy just hanging out painting his face. The reason my life went in this direction. Just hanging out.
So I get it. But yeah — I’m just Adam from Dingley who likes wrestling. Did a bit of travelling. Competed on certain stages.
What was it like meeting Jeff Hardy the first time?
He’s the only wrestler where my heart was pounding and I was genuinely nervous. I’ve met the Undertaker. I’ve met John Cena, Paul Heyman, guys like that, and I’m just, “Hey, what’s up, I’m Adam, how are you?” But when I met Jeff it was different. Because Jeff is the reason my life went in this direction.
I said it to him straight, “Hey man, I just want you to know you’re the reason my life went this direction.” And he was just so cool. So kind. We hung out, chatted for like twenty minutes.
And then just recently at the TNA stuff, just hanging out again. He’s painting his face, about to go out, I’ve just wrestled. And he goes, “I saw bits of your match, man. It was so cool. You took this move, oh man.”
That right there is the template. No matter what success I achieve, whenever I come back to Australia and see people I want them to just go, “Yeah, that’s Adam. He’s done all this stuff, been on all these stages, but he’s still just Brooksy.” The same dude he was when he was a nineteen-year-old kid who first started doing this.
Good dude. Worked hard. No ego. No arrogance. Just the same.
And to the fans who’ve supported you along the way?
No matter what sort of success I achieve, I will never put anyone through a bad experience. I will never be an arsehole to someone who wants to come up and take a photo or say g’day. Because ultimately, it’s the fans who make you. You can be the greatest performer in the world, but if no one wants to talk to you, what have you got?
I’m getting that more than ever right now, and I’m not even on television. People coming up to me at the gym in Keysborough going, “Oh! We saw you at MCW!” All the way in Keysborough?! It’s really cool. It tells me MCW is growing.
So just keep supporting me. Keep supporting places like MCW so it continues to grow.
And one day maybe it can give me a salary.
(laughs)
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