Dark Side of the Ring has wanted to tell Test’s story for years, but Evan Husney says the episode keeps hitting the same wall: they can’t find the right people to talk.
While speaking to The Knockturnal, the Dark Side of the Ring co-creator made it clear that Test is not some forgotten idea sitting outside the show’s plans. The team has discussed him internally, tried to make it work, and still sees his story as one of their dream episodes. The problem is that they do not want to build it only around wrestlers talking about his career.
Husney said the issue has always been finding family members, close friends, or people who knew Andrew Martin away from the wrestling business.
“Oh, Test. Yeah, Test is similar too. That’s a story I’d love to tell, but for whatever reason, the times that we’ve attempted, it felt like we couldn’t find anybody.”
That is what has kept the episode from moving forward. There are plenty of people in wrestling who could talk about Test’s time in WWE, his run during the Attitude Era, and what he meant in the locker room, but Husney said Dark Side needs more than that.
“We couldn’t find any family members, or from my recollection, we couldn’t locate anybody who was close to his family — a family friend or something.”
For Husney, the missing piece is the human side of the story. He said the team wants voices that can reveal something fans have not already heard, not just people repeating what happened on television or backstage.
“Obviously, there are plenty of people in the wrestling business to talk to, but beyond that, to get more of the story that hasn’t been out there, we’ve been unsuccessful in locating anybody to tell that.”
That does not mean Test is off the table. Husney actually made it clear that the episode is still very much on their wish list: “But that’s definitely on the list of dream episodes, for sure.”
He also explained that Test is not the only name stuck in that kind of limbo. Dark Side of the Ring has a board full of possible stories they have explored over the years, but some of them never move forward because the team does not feel they can tell them properly.
“And there’s a whole board full of those, you know, that we’ve tried, and it just doesn’t feel right to do the episode.”
That is where Husney drew the line. He said the show has a standard when it comes to telling someone’s life story, and without firsthand information, it risks feeling wrong.
“We’ve never done that. Unless everyone has passed away or there’s no other alternative, we’ve never told somebody’s story or the story of some incident without firsthand information because then it just kind of feels cheap, and it doesn’t feel like that’s part of our ethos, you know?”
Husney also shut down the idea that fans are suggesting stories the team has somehow never considered. According to him, they have been through almost every possible Dark Side idea already.
“And I know that’s tough because some people think we just didn’t think of those ideas, but trust me, we’ve thought of every idea you can do for the show at this point.”
So the Test episode is not dead. It is stuck waiting for the right voices. Husney clearly wants to do it, but Dark Side of the Ring is not willing to turn Andrew Martin’s life into an episode unless they can tell more than the wrestling version of his story.
Should Dark Side of the Ring keep waiting for Test’s family or close friends, or should they move forward with the wrestling voices they already have? Let us know in the comments.
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