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Post by sungod2020 on Sept 27, 2021 10:54:19 GMT -5
There was like five different times where they tried to elevate Test and make him into a bigger deal and it would just never work. 99 when he was Stephanie's boyfriend, 2001 as a heel in the Alliance, 2002 as the muscle of the UnAmericans, 2003 during his Testicle face run with Stacy as his manager which he screwed up because IIRC he missed a show due to bad weather after ignoring requests to fly in a day early, and then when they brought him back for his ECW run in 2006 when he was super roided up. Apparently he was kind of a cocky guy behind the scenes so I could see him maybe rubbing people in power the wrong way and them then deciding to not go any further with his pushes despite him checking a lot of the boxes they were looking for. He was pretty over during that time and a little bit afterwards. The problem was, after the wedding that never was, he never tried to get revenge on Triple H and his push fizzled out(I think he might've had a one-off match against Hunter which was him getting owned). Then they put him in a random tag team with Albert and he wasn't the same after that. Not saying he couldn't have bounced back at some point, but his momentum seriously stalled after his on-screen relationship with Stephanie was severed.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Sept 27, 2021 11:00:15 GMT -5
I genuinely don't understand why Test didn't become a bigger deal. His physique and in-ring style are like Vince's ideals, and he's not terrible on the mic. Vince has pushed many guys who were much worse but with similar physiques. Though I guess he just happened to be around during an era when larger than life personalities are what really worked and drew people in, and there were just...so many of them that a guy with a good look and a decent personality can't compete with a bunch of dudes who have incredible and vibrant personalities all over the card. Dude had a great physical presence but had the charisma of a roast beef sandwich. And it was a time where a lot of dudes had a great physical presence. He was Kevin Nash without the awesome promos, although that f***ing Big Boot was one of the best finishers EVER. He murdered dudes with that! Sooo much fun when the put running finishers into the Smackdown games
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Post by James Fabiano on Sept 27, 2021 11:04:44 GMT -5
Remember when he won that immunity battle royal and could go a whole year without being fired….and nothing came of it? Lesnar came in and I think that might have been the final nail for him. Yeah they only reminded us every show. Test to me is most memorable for somehow being likened to Bentley Raccoon by us, as part of some meme.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2021 11:54:29 GMT -5
There was like five different times where they tried to elevate Test and make him into a bigger deal and it would just never work. 99 when he was Stephanie's boyfriend, 2001 as a heel in the Alliance, 2002 as the muscle of the UnAmericans, 2003 during his Testicle face run with Stacy as his manager which he screwed up because IIRC he missed a show due to bad weather after ignoring requests to fly in a day early, and then when they brought him back for his ECW run in 2006 when he was super roided up. Apparently he was kind of a cocky guy behind the scenes so I could see him maybe rubbing people in power the wrong way and them then deciding to not go any further with his pushes despite him checking a lot of the boxes they were looking for. He was pretty over during that time and a little bit afterwards. The problem was, after the wedding that never was, he never tried to get revenge on Triple H and his push fizzled out(I think he might've had a one-off match against Hunter which was him getting owned). Then they put him in a random tag team with Albert and he wasn't the same after that. Not saying he couldn't have bounced back at some point, but his momentum seriously stalled after his on-screen relationship with Stephanie was severed. I've always read (don't know if it's true) that Test was one of Russo's guys and when Russo left they lost interest in trying to make him a big star.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Sept 27, 2021 12:07:57 GMT -5
I always wondered who came up with his name. "Test" was just a stupid name. And, it led to the dumbest entrance music lyrics:
Test, Test, This is a test... over and over again. So lame; didn't help him at all.
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Post by kingoftheindies on Sept 27, 2021 12:45:03 GMT -5
I thought Test was over on 2001 as European champ and before the invasion. When they had him turn heel though he just never recovered
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fw91
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Post by fw91 on Sept 27, 2021 13:28:37 GMT -5
Just came up in the wrong time and probably would have better luck as a face when he returned in 06.
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Sept 27, 2021 13:42:24 GMT -5
There was like five different times where they tried to elevate Test and make him into a bigger deal and it would just never work. 99 when he was Stephanie's boyfriend, 2001 as a heel in the Alliance, 2002 as the muscle of the UnAmericans, 2003 during his Testicle face run with Stacy as his manager which he screwed up because IIRC he missed a show due to bad weather after ignoring requests to fly in a day early, and then when they brought him back for his ECW run in 2006 when he was super roided up. Apparently he was kind of a cocky guy behind the scenes so I could see him maybe rubbing people in power the wrong way and them then deciding to not go any further with his pushes despite him checking a lot of the boxes they were looking for. He was pretty over during that time and a little bit afterwards. The problem was, after the wedding that never was, he never tried to get revenge on Triple H and his push fizzled out(I think he might've had a one-off match against Hunter which was him getting owned). Then they put him in a random tag team with Albert and he wasn't the same after that. Not saying he couldn't have bounced back at some point, but his momentum seriously stalled after his on-screen relationship with Stephanie was severed. Yeah that was the one time where he actually was over and it was more on the bookers for not capitalizing as apposed to all the other times. I definitely remember him getting a pretty big pop at the 2000 Royal Rumble so what they were doing with him was working. Unfortunately they were just never going to have him beat Triple H. Hell they wouldn't even let him go over X-Pac. As a result there really wasn't much for him and they ended up doing the random team with Albert which I agree was kind of the beginning of the end for him as far him being a potential main eventer. Other then introducing Trish (whom they could've put with anyone else) that team really ended up being pretty pointless as they didn't do much and didn't even make a year as as a team as they were split up by years end with Test being turned back face. However by that point he had lost momentum and whatever following he was gathering in late 99-early 2000 no longer cared. I think if they had ended up sticking with him as face through 2000 I think he might have ended up having a better run.
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Post by lavelleuk22 on Sept 27, 2021 15:45:05 GMT -5
Test is a funny one, when he was active he was someone I only saw hate for online, it seems to be a retrospective thing of people thinking he deserved more. Which I guess makes sense when you think that was 20 years ago sbd I'm guessing loads of people on here weren't even born yet!
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Post by sungod2020 on Sept 27, 2021 18:43:35 GMT -5
He was pretty over during that time and a little bit afterwards. The problem was, after the wedding that never was, he never tried to get revenge on Triple H and his push fizzled out(I think he might've had a one-off match against Hunter which was him getting owned). Then they put him in a random tag team with Albert and he wasn't the same after that. Not saying he couldn't have bounced back at some point, but his momentum seriously stalled after his on-screen relationship with Stephanie was severed. Yeah that was the one time where he actually was over and it was more on the bookers for not capitalizing as apposed to all the other times. I definitely remember him getting a pretty big pop at the 2000 Royal Rumble so what they were doing with him was working. Unfortunately they were just never going to have him beat Triple H. Hell they wouldn't even let him go over X-Pac. As a result there really wasn't much for him and they ended up doing the random team with Albert which I agree was kind of the beginning of the end for him as far him being a potential main eventer. Other then introducing Trish (whom they could've put with anyone else) that team really ended up being pretty pointless as they didn't do much and didn't even make a year as as a team as they were split up by years end with Test being turned back face. However by that point he had lost momentum and whatever following he was gathering in late 99-early 2000 no longer cared. I think if they had ended up sticking with him as face through 2000 I think he might have ended up having a better run. I feel part of the problem was, the main event scene at the time was crowded and with better talent. The most Test could hope for is upper mid-card and some flirtations with the main event only to come up short when it comes to winning the big one. I do feel if he stayed the course and kept his initial overness throughout the early/mid 2000s, he might have a short for a short World Heavyweight Title run or maybe an ECW title run(that seems more realistic), but in all seriousness, I don't think Test was ever meant to be a main eventer. He had the look, but his mic skills and wrestling ability were lagging. IC title was pretty much the ceiling for him.
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Sept 27, 2021 19:37:03 GMT -5
Yeah that was the one time where he actually was over and it was more on the bookers for not capitalizing as apposed to all the other times. I definitely remember him getting a pretty big pop at the 2000 Royal Rumble so what they were doing with him was working. Unfortunately they were just never going to have him beat Triple H. Hell they wouldn't even let him go over X-Pac. As a result there really wasn't much for him and they ended up doing the random team with Albert which I agree was kind of the beginning of the end for him as far him being a potential main eventer. Other then introducing Trish (whom they could've put with anyone else) that team really ended up being pretty pointless as they didn't do much and didn't even make a year as as a team as they were split up by years end with Test being turned back face. However by that point he had lost momentum and whatever following he was gathering in late 99-early 2000 no longer cared. I think if they had ended up sticking with him as face through 2000 I think he might have ended up having a better run. I feel part of the problem was, the main event scene at the time was crowded and with better talent. The most Test could hope for is upper mid-card and some flirtations with the main event only to come up short when it comes to winning the big one. I do feel if he stayed the course and kept his initial overness throughout the early/mid 2000s, he might have a short for a short World Heavyweight Title run or maybe an ECW title run(that seems more realistic), but in all seriousness, I don't think Test was ever meant to be a main eventer. He had the look, but his mic skills and wrestling ability were lagging. IC title was pretty much the ceiling for him. Main event scene was too loaded for him and even if it wasn't I honestly don't know if he was good enough to be a consistent player at the level. I think he could've found his niche as a upper midcard IC level face if they had stayed the course with him. They were lacking a little bit in that area that year as they only really had Jericho and Rikishi as far as guys who were consistently over and they turned the latter heel in the fall which would've opened an opportunity for a guy like Test. I think he would've been a better choice for the IC title and the upper midcard face push that "The One" Billy Gunn got towards the end of the year.
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mattyy
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Post by mattyy on Sept 27, 2021 19:46:40 GMT -5
I always wondered who came up with his name. "Test" was just a stupid name. And, it led to the dumbest entrance music lyrics: Test, Test, This is a test... over and over again. So lame; didn't help him at all. it was essentially a nickname given to him by The Corporation, that never left. You could see them toying with getting rid of it during the Stacy angle when she never really referred to him as "Test" when talking to him. Always "Andrew".
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Post by johnnyk9 on Sept 27, 2021 19:51:53 GMT -5
The bell rang
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Sept 27, 2021 20:52:04 GMT -5
Test just wasn't that good. Perfectly fine Midcard dude, but that's it.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Sept 28, 2021 17:42:03 GMT -5
Test was not that great, but he was better than his reputation even at the time said.
A guy that size doing an elbow drop - and a pretty nice one - at that time was still pretty novel, and his big boot looked like it could kill people.
I also quite enjoyed that match where he teamed with Mike Knox to murder Dreamer and Sandman in Hammerstein.
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Woo
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Post by Woo on Sept 28, 2021 18:31:50 GMT -5
Remember when he won that immunity battle royal and could go a whole year without being fired….and nothing came of it? Lesnar came in and I think that might have been the final nail for him. That made me so angry. That gimmick had such great heel potential.
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