Passing the Test
by Mike Pachuta
When people have dreams in life, they can do two things. They can
sit around hoping that the dream comes true, or they can do
something about it. Andrew "Test" Martin's dream was to
become a World Wrestling Federation Superstar. Because he did
something about it and his dream came true.
"I have been a wrestling fan all my life," Test said as
he recalled how he decided he wanted to become a
sports-entertainer. "The whole story really begins when I
was about 20 years old..."
At the time, he was working as a bartender and a bouncer at bars
in Toronto, and many of his friends had the same type of job that
he had. "One of my good friends was a head doorman at a
club, and we would always go over there to watch
Pay-Per-Views," Test recalled.
It was while they were watching one of the Pay-Per-Views together
that they started tossing ideas around. "It was kind of
funny, but we were sitting there joking about becoming wrestlers,
and then it got more serious, and then we looked at each other
and said 'Hey, we're big guys, why can't we do that?'" Test
said.
He and his friend started talking more and more about working for
the Federation. The more they talked, the more they wanted to do
it. So, Test decided he wanted to give it a try. But there was
one problem - he had no idea how, or where to start.
"We tried to phone around, but we couldn't get any
answers," Test recalled about his early struggles breaking
into the business.
"So when the WWF had a show at SkyDome, we decided to go
down there and see what we could do." All they wanted to do
was talk to someone. Anyone. "We thought we should try to
talk to one of the wrestlers, but we would have talked to anyone.
We just wanted to see if they could put us in the right
direction. We would have settled for a security guard."
And they did. "We ran in to a guy working security at the
event and he told us that the wrestlers would be at the Planet
Hollywood restaurant after the show," Test said.
So Test and his buddy high-tailed it over to Planet Hollywood
before the end of the show. It turned out that, because of their
size, they had no problem getting in.
"When we walked in, they thought we were wrestlers,"
Test laughed. "So we just said 'Yeah, we are.' They led us
upstairs to the VIP area."
While he was up in the VIP area, some Federation Superstars
started making their way into the restaurant. One of those men
was Bret Hart, whose father runs a world-renown wrestling school.
But before Test had a chance to begin talking to Hart, the
restaurant owner realized that Test didn't belong. The man asked
Test to stand outside the VIP area.
"After we stood there for a while, Carl DiMarco, the
President of WWF Cananda, started speaking to us," Test
said. The two must have impressed DiMarco, because the next thing
they knew, he had brough Bret Hart out to meet them.
"Bret talked to us for a little bit, and he was just going
to give us the numbers of good wrestling schools," Test
said. But Hart did much more than that. "Two days later, I
got a phone call from Carl asking me to come into the office. I
went down, he asked some background questions, and a few minutes
later, Bret called him and offered to train us himself."
Three days later, Test quit his job, loaded up his truck and
headed out to Calgary, where Hart trained his students. "We
trained right at Bret's house, and Leo Burk trained us and Bret
trained us when he was home," Test smiled. Not bad for a guy
who had no clue how to beak into the business four days earlier.
His first day in Calgary, he stopped at a bank and met a man who
he never imagined he would see again - Chris Jericho.
"I was just standing there and I over heard some guys
talking about how they were going over to Bret's house to
train," said Jericho. "They said that they came from
Toronto and they were nervous about it and everything. And one of
those guys was Test."
After working intensely at Harts' gym, Test finally got his big
break and joined up with the World Wrestling Federation. Now, he
is the European Champion.
"It's absolutely great," Test said of his ride from
bartender to a Federation Champion.
"I'm very proud of him, he's doing good," Jericho
added. "He's coming along great. He's learning the respect
for the business and he's not taking anything for granted.
Test just remembers a time when becoming a superstar, and a
champion, seemed to be an unlivable dream.
"You know," he said, "You grow up watching this on
TV...sometimes I just stop and think 'I'm walking around with a
WWF belt.' It's cool, I don't care what anybody thinks."