ECW icon Spike Dudley has a well-earned reputation as one of the toughest performers in wrestling history, a reputation he proved both on and off camera. In a recent interview, he recounted a story from a WWE house show where a match with the late Andrew “Test” Martin turned into a legitimate fight after an accidental stiff dropkick. Spike’s willingness to take a beating was his calling card, but he was also known for being legitimately tough and not backing down from a challenge.
A Stiff Dropkick
Speaking on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Spike set the scene. It was a standard multi-man tag match on a non-televised live event, a show where wrestlers typically “take it easy.” An in-ring sequence with Test went wrong when Test failed to protect himself from a dropkick.
“We’re wrestling a house show. No TV. These are easy shows. Nobody goes out to break their neck… And I’m in there with Test, who is a physical specimen…We did a spot. He throws me in the corner, charges, and I put the boot up, and he backs up. I scoot to the middle rope and hit him with a missile drop kick… But he led with his face, and my feet hit him right in the face, and I didn’t know, because I flared away, and I’m just going, it’s a drop kick, whatever.”
“I’m Laughing at Him”
Test, who Spike noted was not a natural wrestler and “didn’t love the business,” immediately became legitimately angry. He cornered the much smaller Spike and began to unload with real punches. Spike’s reaction was not one of fear, but of amusement.
“And he no sells it and grabs me and throws me in the corner, and he starts wailing on me. And as he’s beating on me like he’s really laying it in with everything, I’m laughing. I’m going, ‘Hey, Test, man, what’s your deal? I thought we were friends. Why are you so stiff? Come on, man, it’s a house show,’ and every time I say something, he’s hitting me harder. I’m like, ‘Test, what’s going on? Why are you so angry with me?’ And I’m just taking it. I’m taking it, and he’s literally trying to hurt me, and I was laughing at him and making jokes… That was the first time, after all the years in the business, that it triggered me that, okay, here’s a guy that’s 150 pounds bigger than me, beat the shit out of me in real life, was pounding on me, and I was laughing at him in his efforts to do so.”
The full interview is available on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet YouTube channel.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
