There are specific individuals you take one look at in the wrestling business and can quickly point to them and say, that guy is a prototype of a wrestler in appearance. Road Warrior Hawk would be a good example. For more modern fans, most likely either a John Cena or a Batista. So when a young Canadian billed at 6 foot 6 and just shy of 300 pounds caught the wrestling world's attention, it seemed like it was destined to be. 

Andrew Martin was born in 1975 in Whitby, Ontario, a small suburb near Toronto. In 1996, his hulking figure caught the eye of Carl DeMarco, the WWF’s Canadian point man at the time. DeMarco wanted to connect the future Test with Bret Hart regarding entering the wrestling business. Bret himself would recall this moment in a blog post on his official website shortly after Martin’s passing in 2009.

I met Andrew, along with his equally huge friend George, at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in downtown Toronto in 1996.  WWE exec, Carlo DeMarco brought them both up to meet me and to see if I’d be interested in possibly training them as wrestlers.  Andrew was, as my father would say, a fine specimen; 6’ 6”, lean, hard and handsome with a big, boyish smile.  I wasn’t actually looking for any more prospects but I saw something in him and told him if he could get over to Calgary I’d personally teach him, free of charge.

Martin, realizing what a huge opportunity it was to sit under the learning tree of Hart, made the trek to Calgary and began training under the tutelage of both Bret and Leo Burke. Bret would remark in that same blog post that given Martin’s size and natural ability to understand in the ring, he saw big things in his future. Martin would begin working across Canada before moving to Florida to continue his training under yet another certifiable legend, Dory Funk Jr. Following some fine-tuning in the Funkin’ Dojo, Martin was finally set up for success by entering the World Wrestling Federation in one of the more auspicious debuts of all-time.

With the WWF red-hot at the time, it was arranged for Motley Crue to do a live performance on an episode of Sunday Night Heat when that show still mattered, with the storyline debut of Test being that he was a bodyguard for the band, who just so happened to be interested in getting into wrestling. When a plant would get too excited about the band’s performance, Test would manhandle the fan, “protecting” the band and their performance. Soon enough, Test would be working a new bodyguard style, this time as one of the enforcers for the newly formed Corporation stable, alongside the new WWF Champion The Rock, Vince and Shane McMahon and others.

Test’s alignment with the Corporation would be the first of many stable alliances to come throughout his WWF career, and also maybe one of the least exciting in terms of his overall career. After several months and following the Higher Power storyline (woof, there’s a story for another day!) and the formation of The Corporate Ministry, Test would soon find himself battling against his former comrades when he became a member of the short-lived, yet somehow hilariously remembered Union. The Union consisted of Test, Ken Shamrock, Mankind and The Big Show, all four having been wronged by the Corporate Ministry and its members at some point along the way. Shortly after this, Test received arguably the most significant push of his career when he entered into an on-screen romantic relationship with Stephanie McMahon.

It would not be an easy relationship, but the two made it seem entirely viable in the unreal world of professional wrestling. The first major roadblock to their love would come from Stephanie’s brother Shane, who began a feud with Test that would culminate in a fun and exciting “Love Her Or Leave Her” match at that year’s SummerSlam. Eventually, however, Test would seemingly gain the respect and acceptance of big brother, even allowing the two of them to become engaged. Unfortunately, at a UK PPV in September of 1999, Stephanie was hit in the head by a garbage can thrown by an enraged British Bulldog, upset at not getting a WWF Title shot in his home country. This led to Stephanie getting amnesia and needing to fall back in love with her fiancé. One has to wonder given what happened later, if this was meant to play into the bigger storyline or not but was just quietly dropped. Unfortunately for Test, once the two were set to be officially married on an episode of RAW IS WAR, the infamous angle showing that Triple H had drugged and married her the night before would play out. This would lead to the beginning of the McMahon-Helmsley Regime once Stephanie revealed she was in on the ruse the entire time, turning heel. This would lead Test into a brief fling with the main event, but it was not to be, and he would soon be making an impact in a different division.

Test would soon find himself teaming with Albert to form the team of T&A (because, Attitude Era). While they weren’t a non-factor in the tag division, the thing the team is most remembered for is that they were the catalyst for the debut of future WWE Woman’s Champion and Hall of Famer, Trish Stratus. The run with T&A would last nearly a year before Test would get another run as a singles babyface, which would again be uneventful, save for a memorable battle over the European Championship against Eddie Guerrero at WrestleMania X-Seven. As the Invasion from WCW and ECW loomed, Test would again fall into the background until he would become accused by the WWF locker room as being a turncoat and helping the Alliance. While he was not, the beatings and accusations he took would lead him to jump ship. This would give him a run with the Intercontinental Championship, which he would lose to Edge at that year’s Survivor Series in a Unification match with the United States Championship. Despite losing, he would enter himself into the Immunity Battle Royal and win, seemingly setting him up for another big run.

Sadly, the storyline would of his immunity soon be dropped and Test would eventually become a part of the new Un-Americans stable, riffing on the massively successful Hart Foundation versus America storyline from 5 years earlier. Despite the talents of Test, along with Lance Storm, Christian and later William Regal, things sadly never took off, though one highlight was Storm and Christian dethroning Edge and Hulk Hogan for the Tag Team Titles. Perhaps the most significant thing for Test during this run was competing in a match at the 2003 SummerSlam against The Undertaker during his super pro-American phase, a match that Test would lose despite interference from his cohorts. 

Following the dissolution of The Un-Americans, Test would be paired with his then-real-life girlfriend, Stacy Kiebler. In her infinite wisdom, Kiebler would dub all fans of Test’s as…. Testicles. While it was a one-note joke, it took off and gained some steam until Test entered into a feud with Scott Steiner. First, Big Poppa Pump was fighting for the honor of Stacy, as Test had started rescinding into more of a heel persona. They fought back and forth for her services, with Test eventually winning a match that forced Steiner as his man-servant. Soon enough, Steiner turned heel (and really, the Big Poppa Pump character should never have been a babyface) with both abusing Kiebler. The duo would continue teaming for the next few months, notably being members of Team Bischoff at that year’s Survivor Series. Unfortunately, outside of a feud with Stevie Richards on Sunday Night Heat, this would be the end of Test as a name on the roster. He would soon fall victim to a neck injury and, while recuperating, would be released.

While many saw this as the end of Test’s run in WWE, he would shockingly return in 2006 as part of the newly revamped ECW brand, positioned as one of the brand’s top stars. Unfortunately, the ECW experiment never panned out the way many had hoped it would for many reasons. Test would make the best out of a bad situation, though, frequently presented as the giant beast with the devastating big boot finish that he always should have been. He competed at the one and only ECW-branded PPV post One Night Stand, December To Dismember, as one of the competitors in the Extreme Elimination Chamber for the ECW Championship. He would fall short, however, in both this attempt and his rematches with Bobby Lashley over the next few months. Following these attempts, he would be suspended under the still relatively new WWE Wellness Policy, which would be followed promptly by a release from the company, one that Test himself stated was requested by him.

Later that year, he would show up in TNA under his real name, aligning himself with Abyss and Sting, two of the biggest names in the company at that time. Though once again positioned as a big deal to the fans, he would only compete in one match for the company on a PPV, before disappearing again.

Less than two years later, following sobriety after years of substance abuse, Andrew Martin was found dead in his home on March 13, 2009. His death would be attributed to an accidental overdose of Oxycodone, a frequently available and abused painkiller. His long-time girlfriend Barbie Blank, known as Kelly Kelly in WWE, would reflect on his death years later during an interview to promote the WAGS show she appeared on.

“I saw him up until the week before and yeah it was rough, that was about seven years ago now. He was healthy, he was doing better. We were talking about like future and I was like, ‘you know we’ll see what happens down down the line,’ and I was like, ‘I’ll always love you, I’ll always love you.’ I was like, ‘I still don’t know what I want to do, you need to work on yourself, I need to grow up a little more, but you never know, down the line.'”

In a blog entry from 2009, the Hitman wrote about his friend.

This past November I had the luck of doing a wrestling tour in France for two weeks with Andrew and he seemed to be a new man.  He’d completed WWE sponsored rehab and had a new lease on life. Andrew clearly had his demons on the run and we talked about him becoming the poster child for wrestlers that desperately needed a voice urging, “If I can beat this, so can you!”  Andrew convinced me he had the commitment and the determination to make a difference.  I had a great time with him on that tour.

Following the tour I had  painful knee replacement surgery and now it was Andrew calling me to see if I was doing okay.  A few weeks ago he talked of coming to visit me here in Hawaii.   He seemed so strong and focused that I never thought to question him about how he was doing.  I again urged him to use his experience to reach out to the many wrestlers who are still losing their battle with drug addiction. 

Now I wish so much that I could’ve somehow known that Andrew was losing his grip on his addictions, beginning to slip. I failed to see the signs of him losing a battle that I thought he’d already won.  My heart has been heavy since the news of his passing.  In our last phone call, a few weeks ago, I kidded him about how he worked that entire France tour and never  took one bump and I smile at the memory of his deep booming laugh echoing over the phone. That’s how I choose to remember my friend.  I’m sorry I didn’t see his pain and suffering;  had I known I’d have tried harder to save him.  He slipped and we lost one of the good ones. Nobody has anything but the nicest things to remember about Andrew Martin.  I will miss him. He was a dear friend, one of very few I had left in a profession where too many die too young.  My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his entire family. Somehow, as  hard as we all tried, we lost another good soul forever.

Much like many other talents in the professional wrestling business, Andrew Martin was taken from the world far too soon. At only 33 (he passed only days before his 34th birthday), it was clear that had he beaten his demons, he would still have had much to offer the wrestling business and the world. He was one of the first in a long line of agile big men who could do much more than the plodding big men of the 80s and before. One has to think that he certainly helped lay the groundwork for many similar stars to come after him. As with many of his fellow stars of the time, it would be revealed that Martin suffered from CTE, very likely due to the chair shots of the era and the constant grind of being a professional wrestler in the years before the knowledge to deal with that was established. Regardless of whether that played a role in his death, Martin left behind a legacy of a misused big man talent that could have been much more, but due to a combination of bad luck and some poor choices, unfortunately, became just a number of stars taken far too early in their lives.