Belphegor666
L14: Freak
Andrew "Test" Martin verstorben:
Quelle: Live Audio Wrestling...
Earlier today it was discovered that former WWE performer Andrew 'Test' Martin had died after being found in his apartment.
Martin, a native of Whitby, Ontario got his start through Bret Hart and training at the Hart House in Calgary with both Hart and Leo Burke. He first got the attention of the WWE by attending a post show party in Toronto at the Planet Hollywood restaurant where he was able to convince security at the door that he was one of the wrestlers and that got into the party and introduced himself to Hart and Carl DeMarco.After training in Calgary, he was sent to Dory Funk Jr. in Florida as part of the Funkin' Dojo.
Martin would make his WWE debut in November 1998 during a live Motley Crue concert on "Raw" and was introduced as the band's security guard "Test". Martin was quickly linked with The Corporation (a faction led by Vince McMahon) with big plans scheduled for Martin during his run.
His biggest push came in the summer of 1999 where he was paired with Stephanie McMahon in an on air romance, which eventually led to Stephanie turning heel on him when she married Triple H in storyline. The ball was really dropped at that point as all logic pointed to a Triple H Vs Test program, but instead the company decided to put Vince McMahon in the 'knight in shining armor' role and headlined the December 12th 1999 "Armageddon" Pay Per View against Triple H and Test was placed back in the mid card and basically booked to forget about the whole Stephanie McMahon angle.
In 2000 he mainly teamed with Matt Bloom (then Prince Albert and later just Albert) as "T & A" until they broke up in early 2001.
In 2001 he was pushed as a singles heel and joined The Alliance during the invasion storyline. This led to one of the best matches of his career at the November 18th 2001 "Survivor Series" where he lost to Edge and later that night won a battle royal to save his job in storyline.
In 2002 he joined The UnAmericans group along with Lance Storm and Christian and climaxed for Martin with a Pay Per View match with The Undertaker at that year's "SummerSlam" event in Long Island, New York, which was booked to get 'Taker over strong to set him up for the next two months of main events with WWE champion Brock Lesnar on Pay Per View.
After that gimmick he was paired with real life girlfriend at the time, Stacey Keibler, and teamed with Scott Steiner, which quickly led to a feud between the two in 2003.
Martin was released by the WWE in November 2004 under very controversial terms as he was let go while he was recovering from neck fusion surgery and Martin was bitter over the release.
He would return to the company in July 2006 as part of the ECW brand and was pushed very strong on that show and positioned as a main event heel in ECW. He would headline two straight months of Pay Per Views with a spot in the Elimination Chamber at the less than spectacular "December to Dismember" Pay Per View in December 2006 and then wrestled ECW champion Bobby Lashley for the title at the January 2007 "Royal Rumble". Martin failed a drug test in February of that year and was released the following week, with Martin saying he requested to be released (it was only his first failure and was technically only subject to a 30 day suspension by the company).
He had a very brief stint in TNA as "The Punisher" Andrew Martin and worked the August 2007 "Hard Justice" event where he teamed with Sting & Abyss to defeat Christian Cage & A.J Styles & Tomko. Martin was released just days later with the company not overly impressed with his work and fearful of what he may have been taking to achieve the look he had (this was right after the Chris Benoit murders and there was a lot of heat on the topic at this time).
Since leaving TNA Martin has only been semi active in the wrestling world doing a few tours for Nu Wrestling Evolution and working in Japan, where he was booked by Leon "Vader" White.
Martin was 33 years old and was set to turn 34 this Tuesday. No cause of death is known as of yet.