This Day in Wrestling History is one of those we hate doing because we lost someone that we enjoyed as a kid, but it’s great to remember those times and the work that went into creating them.
Many children have a phobia of clowns, and we’re pretty sure Doink the Clown didn’t help with that. While numerous wrestlers, 11 in total, portrayed Doink for various promotions, none were more memorable than Matt Borne.
Because of that, Borne is considered by many to be the real Doink, and when he passed away on June 28, 2013 from an accidental overdose of morphine and hydrocodone.
Like many others, Borne left us too early, but the effort he put into making Doink believable and fun won’t ever be forgotten.
Remembering Matt Borne
Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the transcript.
“When I first had that pitched to me, I don’t know if I lost my ability to speak or what. It caught me totally off guard. I never would have ever dreamed of being a clown out there. But that soon changed; when it was presented to me as ‘This is an idea’ and it was Vince’s idea to pitch it to me and I didn’t really respond. I think he kind of read my body language and said, ‘You don’t really have to do it’. If you’ve got something else you want to do, put it on the table. We’re pretty open here. Go home and think about it’.
“He told me he thought I could pull it off, but if I thought I could do it then he really believed I could do it. So I just went home and I was living in Atlanta at the time and for the next four to five days; I ate, slept, drank; everything was having to do with this conversation I’d had with Mr. McMahon. So I called him and said ’Ok, let’s roll. I want to do it.’
“We just kind of rode it as we went. I just fell right into it.
“I did my homework and watched a lot of freaking old Batman flicks with the Joker and Jack Nicholson. Just a lot of standing in front of the mirror, making goofy ass faces and switching from being happy to being out there and just changing things on the drop of a dime. I think that’s what really helped me get it over with being able to use my face so drastically and change my emotions under that character.
“And plus the fact of my wrestling ability, I always had that when I was Matt Borne or Big Josh or whatever.
“I did the same thing except I was painted up as this freaking clown. It actually enabled me to take it to the next level. Let’s exploit this a little more. Actually, it was fun, it was probably the best time of my career.” – Matt Borne Kayfabe Wrestling interview, March 6, 2013
Doink was one of those character we could never forget, and that’s thanks to Matt Borne’s efforts. For that, we thank him and are grateful to have seen his work and honor him on This Day in Wrestling History.
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