I remember when I first saw Aaron Martin, aka Test, on a WWF Broadcast. It was in the Fall of 1998, and he was the roadie for Motley Crüe on an episode of Heat. Aaron would go on to distinguish himself as a member of one of the great WWF stables, The Corporation. He didn’t distinguish himself by what he actually did, no, what made him stand out was all of the untapped potential I saw in him.
1998 was a pivotal year for the WWF. By the back end of that year Vince had finally taken control of the ratings war after a year and a half of being beaten by WCW. There was no more Shawn Michaels or Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart and all the politicking that came with those two. The page had been turned. It was a new era marked by the ascension of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. As such, the playing field was wide open for a new field of those who could distinguish themselves in the so-called rank-and-file of the WWF to be top heels and faces for Austin and Rock. Test was one of many, but again, he was one of the few who truly stood out at the time. At least for me anyway.
I was a fan of Diesal. Always have been. I’m perhaps more of a fan of Nash now than I ever was in his heyday, as he is truly one of the great characters professional wrestling has offered. It’s what makes him ‘stick,’ so to speak. When I saw Aaron, I saw the potential for another ‘Diesal.’ He wasn’t as big as Nash, but he had a great look and was far more natural in front of the cameras the first few times around than Nash was in his days as Michaels’ bodyguard. I thought he can only get better and that some big things were in store from this new guy they were calling Test.
Unfortunately, Test never got better. It’s not to say he digressed. That wouldn’t be accurate. But all we ever saw from Aaron were glimpses of what could have been. There was never any mediocral rise to the top for him. Aaron’s WWF career was primarily one marked by stagnation with a few occasional flashes of that potential I saw back in ’98.
He was of course Stephanie’s first on-screen romance. Hunter Hearst Helmsley of course took over that angle and ran with it all the way to the bank. In a way, that is the story of a lot of the younger talent brought in after Austin’s landmark WWE Title victory at Wrestlemania 14 – Hunter was the one who stood out. He was the one who kind of won out that wild card spot that was open in the company, if you want to refer to it as that. He won it out for a variety of reasons, but point being: more air time for Hunter and DX meant less for everyone else, whether it was deserved it or not. That’s not a knock on Hunter either by the way, it’s just the nature of the beast. I can’t say the WWE was wrong for that at all.
His brief run with Booker T had a few mildly funny segments, but nothing that stood out. Besides, you could tell the WWE had bigger ideas for Booker, and Aaron was just not going to be part of them. I can’t say the WWE was wrong on that either.
He had one of the shorter Intercontinental Title reigns in an era when the IC Title had long lost any relevancy. He gained it in entirely forgettable fashion from Edge, only to drop it back to him just over a week or so later in November of 2001.
Aaron absolutely took it to a young Brock Lesnar in one of the stiffer and more physical matches at King of the Ring 2002. Despite Test having won every WWE strap at one point or another, outside of the world titles belts, this is the match that stands out most for me when I think back on Aaron’s professional wrestling career.
The ‘Un-Americans’ stable had its moments, but it was too contrived and never caught on.
When the WWE brought him back, and stuck him on that abortion of a show known as their version of ECW, they essentially gave him the impossible task of trying to get over in that spot. Nobody was ever getting over in that spot on that show on that network no matter how hard they were pushed. And Aaron received his push there on SciFi, no question bout it. It’s a shame they never gave him that kind of publicity when he was on the A-brands six or seven years earlier. I remember actually being surprised to see Aaron back with the WWE based on some things he had written that were rather critical of Vince and the direction of the company (after they had let him go of course). But it was a happily surprised, I thought maybe this second time around things might pan out and Aaron would do better (I of course didn’t know then how bad the ECW show would turn out to be). And you know what, Aaron almost did it. Aaron brought a lot of fire to that show. You could tell he knew what kind of spot he was in. He was being featured on a program titled ‘ECW’ and understood that there was a responsibility to sort of kinda’ uphold something resembling an ‘extreme tradition’ as a sort of ECWer who was rolled over into that brand. I didn’t really get that from anyone else on that show when it was rolled out. Not even from the original ECWers (I assume they were either told by the company to tone it down, or they just realized that this simply was not the old ECW no matter what anyone in the WWE tried to say, and therefore, why bother to make the effort?).
Then for TNA to release Aaron as a panic-move because Congress was looking into the company over steroids was simply bad luck (and harshly unfair for that matter – but that’s pro wrestling – you’re hired to be fired).
The tragedy in all of this is that Aaron was only 33 years old. That is sickeningly young. That would have made him only 22 when I first saw him, far younger than I even thought he was when he began back in ’98. It’s very sad, because at that age despite ten years of having not made it – he had a whole lot more to offer and may have eventually caught on somewhere still. I was certainly 100% wrong in ever thinking perhaps there was another ‘Diesal’ there with Aaron back in the day – but at 33 years old, there was still an entire career full of possibilities ahead of him. I was just speaking about what a great idea it would be to be create a stable with Edge and Christian as the centerpiece yesterday. Aaron would have been a perfect addition to the stable at some point, and with Edge and Christian, who knows where things could have gone.
It’s yet another song in the paradigm that is professional wrestling that started out with all kinds of bright potential and came to a sad end far too soon. And unfortunately it is a tune that’s becoming more and more familiar to our proverbial ears.
R.I.P. Test, Aaron Martin. You were good.
