ECW icon Spike Dudley has long carried the reputation of being one of the toughest performers in wrestling history, both in scripted matches and in real-life situations.
In a recent interview, he shared a story about a WWE house show where a match with the late Andrew “Test” Martin unexpectedly turned into a legitimate fight after an accidental stiff dropkick.
Speaking on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Spike explained the incident, which occurred during a standard multi-man tag match at a non-televised live event: “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.”
The accidental stiff shot hit Test square in the face, and according to Spike, the big man was not pleased.
Spike continued, explaining that Test—who he described as not a natural wrestler and someone who “didn’t love the business”—immediately retaliated with real punches. “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 story only reinforced Spike’s reputation as one of the toughest and most resilient wrestlers of his era—never backing down, even when facing a much larger opponent in a real-life situation.
