Rob Van Dam Recalls Backstage Tension Between CM Punk And Test

On the latest episode of 1 Of A Kind, Rob Van Dam shared a story from a WWE European tour about a confrontation between a young CM Punk and the late Andrew “Test” Martin, as told to him by Paul Heyman. You can check out some highlights below:

On Heyman liking CM Punk: “Yeah, I know Paul liked him, like, you know, like right away, like, when he was still new to WWE CM Punk, and I didn’t know that much about him, like, I remember noticing that Paul and him were, like, really close, you know, like, friends, and they sat by each other, you know.  I remember one time when I came in. It must have been during the return, because I don’t think I was regular there, but because Paul was like, you know, ‘Hey, come on, sit, sit down with us.’ And he was sitting with, he was sitting with Phil. And he was introducing us, kind of, you know, and then saying, ‘Yeah, Phil’s a good guy,’ or whatever. And I just remember that sticking out in my mind, you know, like, Paul really likes this guy, you know.”

On Punk dating fellow WWE stars: “And around that time, we did a, I mean, he was, let’s see he was seeing Maria at the time, yeah, he came to WWE, and he was seeing, Maria. With Maria, I remember we were on a split tour overseas where the roster was split in two. Maybe it was Raw and SmackDown, whatever.”

On the tension: “But we had two different busses, two different agendas, and which one was mine? I think CM Punk was on my tour, and Test was on the other one, could have been the other way around. But anyway, Test was seeing Kelly Kelly. I think Kelly Kelly was on our tour, and Maria was on our tour. And maybe CM Punk too, and maybe just Test was on the other one. But anyway, Test was wanting CM Punk to get messages to Kelly Kelly, and from my understanding, he didn’t feel like being the delivery boy. Every day I was getting this information from Paul. Paul was telling me that this was coming to a head one night, we’re over there in Italy or somewhere, and he said that Test was blowing up. Kept telling CM to tell Kelly to call him, and I guess she wasn’t getting the messages or whatever. And Test said something, according to Paul, Test said, ‘What, does he think I won’t smack him?’ And Paul said that he was like, ‘My money’s on the tattoo kid.’ He really didn’t know anything about him then, you know, so that told me a lot, at least, of what Paul thought about him.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 1 Of A Kind an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.