As a multi-time champion Test was undoubtedly one of the underrated stars of the Attitude Era.
While Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock rank among the top stars of arguably professional wrestling’s biggest time period with The Undertaker and Triple H following not far behind, there was a roster of talented athletes helping to bring up the rear.
The biggest names of that time were ably supported by the wrestlers of the lower and mid-card who still left a lasting impression on viewers.
It’s hard not to count Test among them given he was a former tag team champion in WWE alongside Booker T, and also enjoyed runs with the Intercontinental, European and Hardcore Championship.
His on-screen love affair with Stephanie McMahon helped launch the latter and Triple H into supervillainy but, for all Test’s talents, there’s also little to question the fact he was an absolute menace in the ring and not someone you’d want to cross.
Unfortunately, relative rookie Maven made that mistake unintentionally during a match against Test during his WWE tenure, the two sharing many a battle during 2002 and 2003.
Speaking on his popular YouTube channel, Maven, now a successful personality outside the ring, recounted a mid-match mishap that saw him nail the big man with an ‘ill-timed’ spinning heel kick, crushing his nose in the process.
That earned him a receipt – the wrestling term used to describe a very real and usually extremely painful payback given to a wrestler who has – intentionally or otherwise – hit a little too hard when in the ring.
Maven explained that Test very subtly let him know that, as a result, some very real pain was coming his way in return.
“Executing a spinning heel kick is one of the moves that as I’m rotating, I can’t see where my opponent’s face to time and properly measure up the distance.
“A lot of times I would just warn the guy and encourage him: ‘Have your hand up because… I don’t want it to crack you directly in the nose.’
Canadian powerhouse Test, it seems, either didn’t get or failed to heed that warning, as the former Tough Enough winner added: “As I threw my patented easy-money spinning heel kick, the big man did not put his hands up. I could literally feel the cartilage on his nose hit the outside of my boot.
“I caught him, and I caught him a lot more solid than I wanted to. As I went over to him, I apologised immediately, and all I felt was two pats on my side. Those two pats were [him saying]: ‘Don’t worry, it’s coming,’ and I wouldn’t have to wait long for it.”
Many wrestlers are forced into an anxious wait of days or weeks before they discovered their punishment from brooding rivals but, describing the eye-watering receipt he promptly received, the now 48-year-old went on to say: “Test, being at the top of his game in intensity, would place his opponent in the corner and deliver what looked like a very stiff elbow. On this night, he shot me off into the opposite corner and would deliver the elbow with a running head of steam.
“I felt every bit of his 280-plus pounds frame coming directly at me. That was my receipt.”
Test made his final appearances in WWE in 2007, wrestling for a further two years before retiring shortly before his untimely death in 2009 at the age of just 33.