Doink the Clown is a professional wrestling persona originally and most popularly portrayed by Matt Borne, who debuted the Doink persona in the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1992.[3] Doink is a clown wearing traditional clown makeup (or a mask decorated to resemble such) and brightly colored clothes. In addition to Borne, Doink has been portrayed occasionally by other wrestlers in the WWE and unofficially on the independent circuit.[2]
Former WWE producer Bruce Prichard said in an interview on The Steve Austin Show that Michael Hegstrand had originally conceived the idea of a miserable clown character.[4]
After making appearances in late 1992 in the crowd and at ringside, playing tricks on the fans and wrestlers, the Doink character made his in-ring debut in the WWF in 1993, originally wrestling as a technically sound heel. Doink played cruel jokes on both fans and wrestlers to both amuse himself and catch his victims off-guard.[2] Some of his villainous pranks included tripping Big Boss Man with a tripwire, "accidentally" poking Tatanka in the eye with a mop, dumping water on Marty Jannetty and attacking Crush with a loaded prosthetic arm. He clashed with Crush at WrestleMania IX, a match which he won after the appearance of an identical Doink (played by Steve Keirn) from underneath the ring. Doink also wrestled Randy Savage on Monday Night Raw, and substituted for Jerry Lawler, who faked an injury, against Bret Hart at SummerSlam in 1993.
Shortly after SummerSlam, Doink slowly began showing signs of a face turn, on the September 13 episode of Raw, he threw a bucket of water on Bobby Heenan resulting in Heenan suffering a (kayfabe) cold. He also turned on Lawler on the September 26 episode of WWF Wrestling Challenge in Lawler's The King's Court segment, making Burger King jokes to amuse the crowd and eventually emptied a bucket of water over Lawler.
Around this time Matt Borne who played the heel version of Doink (also appeared a few times as babyface Doink) was fired due to failing a drug test and Steve Lombardi took over for Doink at house shows and at Survivor Series, Ray Apollo officially debuted as Doink over the video wall teasing Bigelow and Vachon.
After Survivor Series, Doink was paired with a midget sidekick named Dink who was given to him by Santa Claus and Doink continued his feud with Bigelow with which ended at WrestleMania X where he and Dink lost to Bigelow and Vachon in a mixed tag team match.
After the feud with Bigelow ended, Doink was placed in a short feud with Jeff Jarrett where Jerry Lawler interviewed Dink and told everyone that Doink was on vacation but Doink came out nowhere and attacked Dink which many people thought Doink was turning heel again but Doink removed his green hair and revealed himself to be Jarrett.
In summer 1994, Doink restarted his feud with Lawler where he and Dink got two more midget sidekicks Wink and Pink and formed "Clowns R Us" (a play on toy store Toys "R" Us) and Lawler got his own midget sidekicks Queasy, Sleezy and Cheesy and formed "The Royal Family" and the two teams faught at Survivor Series in which The Royal Family won.
In early 1995, Doink became a jobber to the stars and Dink was released from the WWF in June 1995. Doink was losing to big stars such as Waylon Mercy and Hunter Hearst-Helmsley and the WWF decided to stop using Doink in October 1995 and Ray Apollo was officially released after his loss to Helmsley.
Doink (Matt Osborne) also had a few matches in 1994 in southeast Michigan. He faced off against Bastion Booger on July 14, 1994, in Port Huron, Michigan. He also wrestled alongside some other now known names such as Al Snow and Terry Funk when wrestling for MTW.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994)
Following his departure from the WWF, Osborne appeared (as Matt Borne) in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) for several matches as Doink in a blue and green clown suit, setting up an angle where ECW champion Shane Douglas criticized Vince McMahon for turning a talented wrestler like Borne into a comic relief character, and claimed that he knew how to bring out Borne's full potential. Borne then made a few appearances with Douglas as "himself", sporting his face half-painted with the Doink makeup. His ring name under this gimmick was "Borne Again".
World Wrestling Entertainment (2001–2012)
Since 1997, Doink has appeared sporadically in WWE. Ray Apollo returned to play him in the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X-Seven.[5] On December 10, 2007, Doink, played by Matt Borne for the final time, participated in a battle royal of 15 WWE alumni for the Raw 15th anniversary special episode.[6]
At Money in the Bank 2020 on May 10, Doink briefly appeared from behind a chair after Daniel Bryan performed Yes Kicks on Baron Corbin with encouragement from Otis, after which, Bryan attacked Otis. This is, to date, Doink's final official appearance on WWE television.
Independent circuit (2010–present)
In early 2010, Osborne reinvented the Doink character to resemble Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, nicknaming the incarnation 'Reborne Again'.[11] The new character debuted on March 27 for ISPW in New Jersey.[11] On May 23, 2010, Doink the Clown, portrayed by Dusty Wolfe, interfered against Skandor Akbar and his men Dr. Knuckles and Rommel. This caused them to lose the Wrecking Ball Wrestling tag titles. In retaliation Akbar called on the original Doink Matt Borne. Wolfe and Borne were scheduled to meet on August 15,[12] but Wolfe never arrived at the event. On August 8, 2010, Borne, as Doink the Clown, won the Wrecking Ball Wrestling Championship.[13]
Portrayers
Matt Osborne[8] (1992—2013) – Borne was the original Doink in the WWF, but left the promotion in December 1993. He made one final WWE appearance as Doink on the 15th anniversary episode of Monday Night Raw in 2007, losing in a battle royal. He died on June 28, 2013.
Steve Lombardi[8] (1993—96, 1998, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2016) – Lombardi occasionally wrestled as Doink at house shows and later dressed as Doink for various WWE appearances. He is the last person to wrestle as Doink on WWE television, losing to Heath Slater on a 2012 episode of Monday Night Raw.
Ray Licameli (Ray Apollo) (1993—2010, 2014) – Apollo wrestled as Doink in the WWF in 1993 to 1995 after Osborne left the company, and once more at 2001's WrestleMania X-Seven in the gimmick battle royal. He continued to use the gimmick on the independent circuit until his retirement in 2014.
Dwaine Henderson (2000s—2018) — wrestled as "Alabama Doink" on the independent circuit, notably competing in a battle royal at Game Changer Wrestling's Spring Break event in April 2018. Henderson died on June 19, 2018, at 40 years old.
1 2 Oliver, Greg (April 12, 2010). "Doink the Clown 'Reborne Again'". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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