diff --git a/netty/src/test/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransportTest.java b/netty/src/test/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransportTest.java
index 8d0d656859..d0a6456c43 100644
--- a/netty/src/test/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransportTest.java
+++ b/netty/src/test/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransportTest.java
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ import static org.junit.Assert.assertSame;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 import static org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers.any;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.timeout;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
 
 import com.google.common.base.Optional;
@@ -95,6 +97,7 @@ import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.StreamBufferingEncoder;
 import io.netty.handler.ssl.ClientAuth;
 import io.netty.handler.ssl.SslContext;
 import io.netty.util.AsciiString;
+import io.netty.util.ReferenceCountUtil;
 import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
@@ -187,6 +190,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     startServer();
     NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(newNegotiator());
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
 
     // Send a single RPC and wait for the response.
     new Rpc(transport).halfClose().waitForResponse();
@@ -244,6 +248,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(newNegotiator(),
         DEFAULT_MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE, GrpcUtil.DEFAULT_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE, "testUserAgent", true);
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
 
     new Rpc(transport, new Metadata()).halfClose().waitForResponse();
 
@@ -261,6 +266,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(newNegotiator(),
         1, GrpcUtil.DEFAULT_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE, null, true);
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
 
     try {
       // Send a single RPC and wait for the response.
@@ -287,6 +293,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
       NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(negotiator);
       callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
     }
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000).times(2)).transportReady();
 
     // Send a single RPC on each transport.
     final List<Rpc> rpcs = new ArrayList<>(transports.size());
@@ -316,6 +323,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
             failureStatus.asRuntimeException());
       }
     });
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportTerminated();
 
     Rpc rpc = new Rpc(transport).halfClose();
     try {
@@ -349,6 +357,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     ProtocolNegotiator negotiator = ProtocolNegotiators.tls(clientContext);
     final NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(negotiator);
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportTerminated();
 
     Rpc rpc = new Rpc(transport).halfClose();
     try {
@@ -378,6 +387,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
     final Status failureStatus = Status.UNAVAILABLE.withDescription("oh noes!");
     transport.channel().pipeline().fireExceptionCaught(failureStatus.asRuntimeException());
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportTerminated();
 
     Rpc rpc = new Rpc(transport).halfClose();
     try {
@@ -409,6 +419,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
         }
       }
     });
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportTerminated();
 
     Rpc rpc = new Rpc(transport).halfClose();
     try {
@@ -428,6 +439,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
 
     NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(newNegotiator());
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
 
     // Send a dummy RPC in order to ensure that the updated SETTINGS_MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS
     // has been received by the remote endpoint.
@@ -579,6 +591,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     NettyClientTransport transport =
         newTransport(newNegotiator(), DEFAULT_MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE, 1, null, true);
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
 
     try {
       // Send a single RPC and wait for the response.
@@ -612,6 +625,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
         longStringOfA);
 
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
 
     AtomicBoolean foundExpectedHeaderBytes = new AtomicBoolean(false);
 
@@ -641,6 +655,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
 
     NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(newNegotiator());
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
 
     try {
       // Send a single RPC and wait for the response.
@@ -685,6 +700,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     startServer();
     NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(newNegotiator());
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
     Rpc rpc = new Rpc(transport).halfClose();
     rpc.waitForResponse();
 
@@ -703,6 +719,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(newNegotiator(), DEFAULT_MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE,
         GrpcUtil.DEFAULT_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE, null /* user agent */, true /* keep alive */);
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
     Rpc rpc = new Rpc(transport).halfClose();
     rpc.waitForResponse();
 
@@ -715,6 +732,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(newNegotiator(), DEFAULT_MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE,
         GrpcUtil.DEFAULT_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE, null /* user agent */, false /* keep alive */);
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
     Rpc rpc = new Rpc(transport).halfClose();
     rpc.waitForResponse();
 
@@ -808,6 +826,7 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
     assertEquals(true, clientExecutorPool.isInUse());
     final NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(negotiator);
     callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+    verify(clientTransportListener, timeout(5000)).transportReady();
     Rpc rpc = new Rpc(transport).halfClose();
     rpc.waitForResponse();
     // closing the negotiators should return the executors back to pool, and release the resource
@@ -1098,9 +1117,15 @@ public class NettyClientTransportTest {
       this.grpcHandler = grpcHandler;
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public void channelRead(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Object msg) {
+      // Prevent any data being passed to NettyClientHandler
+      ReferenceCountUtil.release(msg);
+    }
+
     @Override
     public void channelRegistered(ChannelHandlerContext ctx) throws Exception {
-      ctx.pipeline().addBefore(ctx.name(), null, grpcHandler);
+      ctx.pipeline().addAfter(ctx.name(), null, grpcHandler);
     }
 
     public void fail(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Throwable cause) {