Doink the Clown
Encyclopedia
Doink the Clown is a professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 gimmick, originally used by Matt Osborne
Matt Osborne
Matthew "Matt" Wade Osborne is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. Osborne is a second generation wrestler, being son of "Tough" Tony Borne, but he is best known as the first wrestler to portray the character of Doink the Clown, which he still uses to this day.-Independent...

 in the World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

 from 1993 to 1995. Since Osborne's departure from the WWF, the character has been played by several wrestlers, primarily on the independent circuit, as well as in sporadic special appearances on WWE programming.

World Wrestling Federation

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 but mentally unstable villain
Heel (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a heel is a villain character. In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the "bad guys" in professional wrestling; the term heel coming from the term take to you heels, which means to run away which heel champions tend to do to avoid losing their titles.storylines...

. Doink played cruel jokes on both fans and wrestlers in order to amuse himself and put them off guard. Some of his villainous pranks included tripping The Big Boss Man
Ray Traylor
Ray Walter Traylor, Jr. was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name Big Boss Man and World Championship Wrestling under various ring names, most notably Big Bubba Rogers.-Early years:Traylor, a prison guard in...

 with a trip wire, dumping water on Marty Jannetty
Marty Jannetty
Frederick Marty Jannetty is an American professional wrestler, best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation as part of tag team The Rockers with partner Shawn Michaels, and later as a singles competitor. While in the WWF, he became a one time Intercontinental Champion and a one time...

 and attacking Crush
Brian Adams (wrestler)
Brian Keith Adams was an American professional wrestler. Adams gained fame in the 1990s while performing for the World Wrestling Federation , under the name Crush, and for World Championship Wrestling under his given name.Trained in Japan by Antonio Inoki, Adams was a two time WCW World Tag Team...

 with a loaded prosthetic arm. He clashed with Crush at WrestleMania IX
WrestleMania IX
WrestleMania IX was the ninth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. The event took place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 4, 1993 and was the first WrestleMania event held outdoors...

, a match which he won after the appearance of an identical Doink (played by Steve Keirn) from underneath the ring. Doink also briefly feuded with Randy Savage
Randy Savage
Randall Mario Poffo , better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was an American professional wrestler, best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling .Savage held twenty championships during his professional wrestling career and was a...

 on an early edition of Monday Night Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...

, and Bret Hart
Bret Hart
Bret Hart is a Canadian on-screen personality, writer, actor and Semi-retired professional wrestler. Like others in the Hart wrestling family, Hart has an amateur wrestling background, including wrestling at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College...

, after substituting for an "injured" Jerry Lawler
Jerry Lawler
Jerry O'Neil Lawler is an American professional wrestler, wrestling commentator, musician, businessman, commercial artist and film actor, known throughout the wrestling world as Jerry "The King" Lawler. He is currently signed to WWE, working on its Raw brand as the color commentator and occasional...

, at SummerSlam
SummerSlam (1993)
SummerSlam was the sixth annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on August 30, 1993 at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan....

 in 1993.

Doink then turned on Lawler on the September 4 episode of WWF Wrestling Challenge
WWF Wrestling Challenge
WWF Challenge is a professional wrestling television program produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It was syndicated weekly and aired from 1986 to 1996. The show premiered as WWF Wrestling Challenge and became simply known as WWF Challenge in 1995. The show featured matches, pre-match...

in Lawler's The King's Court segment, making Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...

 jokes to amuse the crowd and eventually hitting Lawler with a pie. Matt Osborne
Matt Osborne
Matthew "Matt" Wade Osborne is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. Osborne is a second generation wrestler, being son of "Tough" Tony Borne, but he is best known as the first wrestler to portray the character of Doink the Clown, which he still uses to this day.-Independent...

, the original man behind Doink, was fired for re-occurring drug abuses, eventually leaving the gimmick (after bouncing through a few others) to Ray Apollo. Now as a fan favorite and with a new midget
Midget
A midget is a short person with relatively average bodily proportions in comparison with other human beings. The term is often improperly used to describe a person with the medical condition dwarfism. The two terms are often used synonymously because both terms originate as words defining small...

 sidekick Dink
Claude Giroux (wrestler)
Claude Giroux is a Canadian-born midget wrestler whose career spans over 20 years. He is still active in the Canadian Independent circuit. Giroux's biggest exposure came when he performed as Doink The Clown's sidekick Dink in the World Wrestling Federation between 1993 and 1995...

, Doink encountered Lawler again the following year in a match at Survivor Series
Survivor Series (1994)
Survivor Series was the eighth annual Survivor Series pay-per-view professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on Thanksgiving Eve, November 23, 1994 at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas...

. In this match, Doink and Dink teamed with Wink and Pink to meet Lawler's dwarf team of 'little kings' Queazy, Cheezy, and Sleazy. As a fan favorite, Doink was more of a comic relief
Comic relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.-Definition:...

 character, but continued to pull pranks on other wrestlers (albeit more harmless and silly than outright cruel), mostly villains such as Lawler and Bobby Heenan
Bobby Heenan
Raymond Louis "Ray" Heenan , better known as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan , is a former American professional wrestling manager and color commentator, best known for his time with the American Wrestling Association , World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation...

. Doink and Dink also battled with Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon in a feud that culminated at WrestleMania X
WrestleMania X
WrestleMania X was the tenth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York on March 20, 1994. The central focus of the pay-per-view was the WWF Championship, which was defended...

. One of Doink's final appearances in his original run was at the Slammy Awards
Slammy Awards
The Slammy Awards is a concept used by WWE, previously known as the World Wrestling Federation and World Wrestling Entertainment, where awards, similar to the Academy and Grammy Awards, are given to professional wrestlers and other individuals within WWE, such as commentators and managers...

 when he was attacked by Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin , better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler...

 amidst chants of "kill the clown".

He was also a playable character in WWF Raw
WWF Raw (video game)
WWF RAW is a video game based on the television show of the same name produced by the World Wrestling Federation, released for the SNES, Sega 32X, Mega Drive/Genesis, and Game Boy in late 1994 and early 1995 by Acclaim Entertainment...

released in 1994 by Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...

 and WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game
WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game
WWF WrestleMania is a professional wrestling arcade game released by Midway Manufacturing Co. in 1995...

released in 1995 by Midway
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...


Extreme Championship Wrestling

Following his departure from the WWF, Osborne appeared (as Matt Borne) in Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...

 (ECW) for a handful of matches as Doink in a blue and green clown suit, setting up an angle where ECW champion Shane Douglas
Shane Douglas
Troy Alan Martin is an American professional wrestler and promoter, better known by his ring name "The Franchise" Shane Douglas. In the course of his career, which has spanned nearly three decades, Douglas has wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling and briefly...

 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 attitude insinuated that he had developed borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person , characterized by depth and variability of moods.The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; the...

 from having been forced to wrestle as a clown; after winning matches he would dress his opponent in clown accessories to humiliate them. His ring name under this gimmick was "Borne Again".

World Wrestling Entertainment

Doink made random appearances in the next decade. He competed in the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X-Seven
WrestleMania X-Seven
WrestleMania X-Seven was the seventeenth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on April 1, 2001 at the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The event was the first WrestleMania held in the state of Texas...

. He showed up in the A.P.A. Bar Room Brawl at Vengeance
Vengeance (2003)
Vengeance was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on July 27, 2003 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. It was the third annual Vengeance event and starred wrestlers from the SmackDown brand.Eight professional wrestling...

 in 2003. Doink was played by Nick Dinsmore
Nick Dinsmore
Nicholas "Nick" Dinsmore , better known by his ring names Eugene and U-Gene, is an American professional wrestler...

 and selected by Rhino to face Chris Benoit
Chris Benoit
Christopher Michael "Chris" Benoit was a Canadian professional wrestler whose career and life ended in a murder–suicide...

 on July 31, 2003 edition of Smackdown!. He also fought Rob Conway on an October 2005 episode of Raw. On the June 2, 2007 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Doink (Dwaine Henderson) teamed up with Eugene
Nick Dinsmore
Nicholas "Nick" Dinsmore , better known by his ring names Eugene and U-Gene, is an American professional wrestler...

 and Kane to defeat Umaga
Eddie Fatu
Edward Smith "Eki" Fatu was a Samoan-American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Umaga...

, Viscera
Nelson Frazier, Jr.
Nelson Frazier, Jr. is an American professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring names Mabel, Viscera, Big Daddy V, and King V. He is best known for his work with World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment...

, and Kevin Thorn
Kevin Fertig
Kevin Matthew Fertig is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for working with World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring names Mordecai and Kevin Thorn....

. On Raw XV, the 15th-anniversary Raw special on December 10, 2007, Doink participated in the 15th Anniversary Battle Royal.

Doink has also made sporadic appearances since then. On the July 12, 2010 episode of Raw, Doink (Dwaine Henderson) teaming with William Regal, Primo, and Zack Ryder
Zack Ryder
Matthew Joseph Cardona, Jr. better known by his ring name Zack Ryder, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE and works on the Raw brand as a wrestler and the SmackDown brand as an assistant to SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long.Cardona wrestled mostly with his tag...

 was defeated by the team of Santino Marella, Goldust, Vladimir Kozlov, and The Great Khali. The match was set up as a foil for guest host Florence Henderson who starred as Carol Brady in 70's sitcom The Brady Bunch. Doink was pinned by the Great Khali during the match and during the post-match celebration The Great Khali picked up Florence Henderson and proceeded to make out with her while Santino and Goldust danced to Khali's music.

Independent circuit

From 1996 to 1998, Doink the Clown made several appearances for Regional Championship Wrestling.

On Sept. 30, 2006 Doink appeared at Regional Championship Wrestling's Rumblemania 4 event in Florida.

In early 2010, Osborne reinvented the Doink character to resemble Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...

's portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...

, nicknaming the incarnation 'Reborne Again'. The new character debuted on March 27 for ISPW in New Jersey.

On May 23, 2010 Doink the Clown, portrayed by Dusty Wolfe, interfered against Skandar 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. They were scheduled to meet on Aug. 15th, 2010.
At that time Wolfe no showed the event to avoid the wrath of Borne.On August 8, 2010 The Original Doink The Clown-Matt Borne won the Wrecking Ball Wrestling Championship.

IWA Wrestling

Doink has been to some IWA events in Ohio. He has been signing autographs and takes pictures with fans at events. He was spotted signing autographs outside a Frisch's Big Boy in Lima, Ohio
Lima, Ohio
Lima is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwestern Ohio along Interstate 75 approximately north of Dayton and south-southwest of Toledo....

.

Doink appeared at Warlney School on September 25, 2010 as part of a charity event.

Doink's recent show was in Clarksburg, Ohio
Clarksburg, Ohio
Clarksburg is a village in Ross County, Ohio, United States. The population was 516 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Clarksburg is located at ....

 on March 28, 2011 as a fundrasier event for Deerfield Township Fire and Rescue.

Portrayers

A number of men have used the Doink gimmick, as well as wrestlers using the face-paint as a disguise at various times.

The first Doink was Matt Osborne
Matt Osborne
Matthew "Matt" Wade Osborne is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. Osborne is a second generation wrestler, being son of "Tough" Tony Borne, but he is best known as the first wrestler to portray the character of Doink the Clown, which he still uses to this day.-Independent...

. The second was Steve Keirn
Steve Keirn
Stephen "Steve" Paul Keirn is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for being part of the tag team The Fabulous Ones, with Stan Lane, and later for a run in the World Wrestling Federation as Skinner, a gimmick that portrayed him as a tobacco spitting alligator hunter from...

 who played the "illusion" Doink at Wrestlemania IX and occasionally played Doink at house shows. He was succeeded by Steve Lombardi
Steve Lombardi
Steve Lombardi is an Italian American professional wrestler, and road agent. He is also known by his ring name Brooklyn Brawler...

 and Dusty Wolfe, and John Maloof all of whom played the character temporarily after Osborne left the company until Ray Apollo was brought in as the permanent replacement. then years later dewayne Henderson of the Alabama Wrestling fedration took the gimmick to new heights with Heat seekers inc.

Doink was played by Nick Dinsmore
Nick Dinsmore
Nicholas "Nick" Dinsmore , better known by his ring names Eugene and U-Gene, is an American professional wrestler...

 on the July 31, 2003 edition of Smackdown!.

Characters portraying Doink as disguise

Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett
Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett is an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter. He is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , an organization he co-founded along with his father and in which he holds some stock but not total control...

 once dressed up as Doink to pull pranks on Dink. Men on a Mission
Men on a Mission
Men on a Mission was the World Wrestling Federation name for the pairing of wrestlers Nelson Frazier, Jr. and Robert Horne, who wrestled as Mabel and Mo respectively...

 and The Bushwhackers
The Bushwhackers
The Bushwhackers were a professional wrestling tag team that also competed as The Sheepherders during their long career. They wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation and Jim Crockett Promotions as well as a nearly 40 year run on the independent wrestling circuit...

 appeared as "The Four Doinks" to compete in a Survivor Series
Survivor Series
The Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event held in November by WWE. It is one of the "Big Four" events, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam, as It is one of the original four pay-per-views produced by WWE....

 match. Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho
Christopher Keith Irvine , better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is an inactive Canadian-American professional wrestler, musician, songwriter, radio personality, television host, actor, author, and dancer...

 also took on the persona of Doink in order to perform an ambush on William Regal
Darren Matthews
Darren Kenneth Matthews , is an English professional wrestler, author and color commentator currently signed to WWE and competing on the SmackDown brand under the ring name William Regal. He is also known for his time in World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Steven Regal...

 and Goldust was also Doink at one time.

In wrestling

  • Finishing moves
    • Stump Puller (Inverted Boston crab)
    • Whoopie Cushion (Seated senton)

  • Signature moves
    • Repeated Elbow drops
    • Scoop Slam

Championships and accomplishments

  • Allied Powers Wrestling Federation
    • APWF Television Championship (1 time)

  • International Wrestling Association
    • IWA United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

  • NWA Southwest
    • NWA Southwest Television Championship (1 time)

  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    Pro Wrestling Illustrated is a professional wrestling magazine. PWI is currently based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Kappa Publishing Group.-History:The first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated was released in 1979...

    • PWI ranked him #26 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1992

  • Regional Championship Wrestling
  • RCW United States Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jay Love

  • Wrecking Ball Wrestling
    • WBW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
    • Most Embarrassing Wrestler (1994)
    • Worst Feud of the Year (1994) vs. Jerry Lawler
      Jerry Lawler
      Jerry O'Neil Lawler is an American professional wrestler, wrestling commentator, musician, businessman, commercial artist and film actor, known throughout the wrestling world as Jerry "The King" Lawler. He is currently signed to WWE, working on its Raw brand as the color commentator and occasional...

    • Worst Worked Match of the Year (1994) with Dink
      Claude Giroux (wrestler)
      Claude Giroux is a Canadian-born midget wrestler whose career spans over 20 years. He is still active in the Canadian Independent circuit. Giroux's biggest exposure came when he performed as Doink The Clown's sidekick Dink in the World Wrestling Federation between 1993 and 1995...

      , Pink and Wink vs. Jerry Lawler
      Jerry Lawler
      Jerry O'Neil Lawler is an American professional wrestler, wrestling commentator, musician, businessman, commercial artist and film actor, known throughout the wrestling world as Jerry "The King" Lawler. He is currently signed to WWE, working on its Raw brand as the color commentator and occasional...

      , Sleazy, Queasy and Cheesy at Survivor Series
      Survivor Series (1994)
      Survivor Series was the eighth annual Survivor Series pay-per-view professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on Thanksgiving Eve, November 23, 1994 at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas...


External links

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