Doink the Clown as a heel

[Via Armbar]

Often thought as nothing more than half ass comedic relief, Doink the Clown is usually written off as such. Sure on the outside that evaluation is pretty accurate. If you look deeper however, you'll see that as a heel, the character played by Matt Borne was one of a kind. He was genuinely creepy and come across more evil and sinister than some of the other heels at the time. Borne was a truely talented technician and in my opinion an underated performer. He pulled off the characters heel incarnation perfectly. Let me take you back to the early nineties:

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Tell me that's not creepy. When people discuss great heels of the past, rarely is Doink mentioned. This could be for numerous reasons, the biggest being because people tend to remember him for being a terribly unfunny face.

What do you remember Doink the Clown for? How do you feel about his heel character and where he ranks among other great heels in wretlings past? Or does he not rank at all?

 

[hatehabsforever]

Often thought as nothing more than half ass comedic relief, Doink the Clown is usually written off as such. Sure on the outside that evaluation is pretty accurate. If you look deeper however, you'll see that as a heel, the character played by Matt Borne was one of a kind. He was genuinely creepy and come across more evil and sinister than some of the other heels at the time. Borne was a truely talented technician and in my opinion an underated performer. He pulled off the characters heel incarnation perfectly. Let me take you back to the early nineties:

[YOUTUBE]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hJ7vUAB25_o&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hJ7vUAB25_o&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

Tell me that's not creepy. When people discuss great heels of the past, rarely is Doink mentioned. This could be for numerous reasons, the biggest being because people tend to remember him for being a terribly unfunny face.

What do you remember Doink the Clown for? How do you feel about his heel character and where he ranks among other great heels in wretlings past? Or does he not rank at all?

I agree with you 100% about Doink the Clown. I have stated in these forums many times in the past that I feel he's one of the most under-rated heels in WWE history.

At first, when he came to the ring, they used to refer to him as the evil clown Doink. He would come out acting all silly, but when the match started, his demeanor changed, his actions changed, he got very serious and almost violent very quickly, and when the match was over, he reverted back to his clown-ish behaviour. But when he was serious he was the real deal.

They screwed him up when they turned him into a comedic face, aligning him with Dink the Clown, riding a tricycle, etc., He became a joke, and unfortunately that's all he's remembered for today.

I feel he had good in-ring skills and as you quite correctly stated, he was creepy. He had kids freaked out a little (as clowns do in general I think) because he was evil.

 

[wrestler36]

I'm glad someone made a post about heel Doink. He was legitimately demented and scary, well before his time. If he debuted around the attitude era, with perhaps different wardrobe, he would've been sick. Maybe even a face while still being creepy. He was a respected veteran, so he knew his way around the ring. But his promo psychology was right up there with Jake and Pillman. I've seen youtube videos where he's even compared to Piper. Once they turned him face and put him with Dink, and also, like Jake, dealing with drug and personal problems, he was on his way out. But heel Doink could have been AWESOME. Great character, great promos and great wrestling ability. Its a shame he wasn't promoted better

 

[Muttley]

I almost hate to admit it, but when I first started watching WWF, Doink the Clown was probably one of my favorite wrestlers. Granted, it wasn't based on how well he worked in the ring or anything, but just as a character, he was entertaining.

I agree though, he was a great heel, and I think that a character along those lines would have been great for something like ECW when they were looking to make it more sci-fi/fantasy...which they never ended up doing, but now we have NXT, which is great.

I actually JUST watched the gimmick battle royal from Wrestlemania 17, and Doink the Clown got one of, if not the biggest, response in that battle royal...even when he was eliminated, the fans actually boo'd. I mean, that's gotta stand for something, right??

But I think Doink as a heel was great, it worked perfect for his clown character...cheating, mind games, and creepy as hell.

 

[Mr. TM]

He was a great heel, on person I remember a lot of my youth, as he feuded with Bret Hart. Yes, for much of his career he was a great comedic face, but when he did turn heel, he was a bit of a psychopath. WWE capitalized on a great idea there, as the fear of clowns is one that many people reportedly have, but instead of using cheap tricks, they played Bourne off as a realistic person who was scary. I think they could have went with it deeper, and many people would remember it better, but the comic book era of the WWE made it seem more like a joke than anything.

 

[Marko Markovic]

He was awesome heel.I remember the game WWF in 1996 on Sega mega drive and he was one of my favorite character back then(I was in elementary school and didnt even watched it then because in my country we didnt have wrestling on TV until few years ago but I watched later when I got internet)

 

[mikeyboy]

its a damn shame that a good wrestler like matt bourn got stuck doing such a stupid character,ive stated on this forum before that crap gimmicks like this is why i tend to stay away from wwe/wwf programing. i guess if your afraid of clowns the heel doink may have been effective but im not afflicted with that phobia and it just doesnt resonate with me,but then again i guess a 6ft somethig 250 lb man getting ready to kick your butt could be kind of intimidating anyway like someone else stated the main problem with doink is most people remember him as a face and in that role he was truly horrible.

 

[Via Armbar]

its a damn shame that a good wrestler like matt bourn got stuck doing such a stupid character,ive stated on this forum before that crap gimmicks like this is why i tend to stay away from wwe/wwf programing. i guess if your afraid of clowns the heel doink may have been effective but im not afflicted with that phobia and it just doesnt resonate with me,but then again i guess a 6ft somethig 250 lb man getting ready to kick your butt could be kind of intimidating anyway like someone else stated the main problem with doink is most people remember him as a face and in that role he was truly horrible.

I don't have a fear of clowns either. The character wasn't be played towards people with that phobia. It was being played as a juxtaposition of two different characters. He was on the outside a clown, something usually associated with laughter and fun. When he was in the ring though, he was sinister and calculated. I see it as an expose on the inner workings of ones mind, the things we don't see. It shows you that things are never what they seem and that life can be the opposite of what you think.

Maybe there wasn't that much to the character. I'm sure it wasn't meant for people to think about it that deeply. I just feel like the character itself was more complicated then people think. There was a lot of potential with the character that was never fully achieved.

 

[Tastycles]

Clowns are fucking freaky, and I think that a clown heel is actually a brilliant character. In fact, if they debuted one now, it'd be even better, because scaring children with a clown is easy. Doink ended up being a comedy character, which is something that wrestling has showed us time and time again that it is not capable of doing well.

Doink worked incredibly as a heel, and I think evil clown is actually a quite good gimmick because it is simultaneously disturbing and easy to portray. Doink would be remembered as a truly frightening and successful heel, instead we remember the dark days of Dink and other such awful capers.

 

[Mr.Superstar]

If santa clause a jolly guy can scare little kids then a mean clown can definetly scare little kids. I wasn't around the wrestling world when doink was around but I am familiar with him and I seen some of his matches and he was a very good heel and was a very underated wrestler just because he was a clown and nobody could seem to take him seriously. They could have gave him at least one title reign because even the BIZZARE one had a few title reigns and Doink could have had one title reign. He had a freaky theme and he had a scary look. He should've stayed heel because to be honest it's much more fun to see little kids cry then to see them laugh.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

I'll flex my old school muscle here and NOT talk about Doink the Clown in general, but Matt Borne... the wrestler. See... he's the one who came up to Vince and asked if Doink could be heel. Vince workshopped it at a few house shows and it really got over as creepy, and heelish. Exactly what Borne wanted. Next thing you know... Heel Doink was born.

I think that it's really tough to make a lovable character heel. I'm not talking Hulk Hogan or something... I'm talking a general character like a clown or baffoon or a special Ed person like Eugene. For Borne to take that character and make it such a clever heel was flat out genius in my book. It takes a lot of guts to go to someone and ASK to be heel, when you're entire character is supposed to be comic relief with kids. Borne did that and it paid off by lasting a LOT longer in the WWF than he would have as just a face with no heel turn.

His actions and music were also brilliant. Just shows the versatility of Matt Borne as a wrestler. He was very underrated.

 

[Via Armbar]

Strongly agree with Lariat on the overall skill of Matt Borne. He was trained by another great in his father Tough Tony Bourne, a wrestler who isn't well known but a solid performer. You can look at almost any Doink match and Borne's ability not only in the ring but outside shows how well he could pull things off. Not many people could have worked with that gimmick, let alone made it better than it should have been. I also recommend you check out his ECW work if you've never seen it. He lightened up on the Doink character but still overall had the same creepy vibe to him.

 

[The Brain]

I know I'm a little late on this thread but I'll chime in anyway. One of my biggest frustrations as a wrestling fan is when creative pulls the plug on a good idea before it has a chance to realize its potential. Heel Doink was only scrachting the surface when the WWF gave up on the idea. He wasn't even around a year before they turned him face. Matt Borne had that character down and really could have done something special with it.

Even though the face turn is what killed any potential for Doink I thought his heel character actually suffered even earlier than that. The double Doink at WrestleMania IX was interesting, but it should have been a one and done idea. I think it hurt the character when multiple Doinks started to appear.

Either way it's a shame heel Doink wasn't given more of an opportunity. I also thought Waylon Mercy could have been something (too bad Spivey was past his prime), and Sean O'haire too. These were all good enough ideas that someone came up with that they got approved for tv. Why end them before they get a chance to get started?

 

[spinningtorturerack]

I loved the whole heel idea of it, its a shame it never really got to take off and have a proper mid-card run with the intercontinental maybe.

I was hoping that when Kizarny debuted a few years ago he would have the same type of character, unfortunately we never really got to see, gone after one match.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

I know I'm a little late on this thread but I'll chime in anyway. One of my biggest frustrations as a wrestling fan is when creative pulls the plug on a good idea before it has a chance to realize its potential. Heel Doink was only scrachting the surface when the WWF gave up on the idea. He wasn't even around a year before they turned him face. Matt Borne had that character down and really could have done something special with it.

Even though the face turn is what killed any potential for Doink I thought his heel character actually suffered even earlier than that. The double Doink at WrestleMania IX was interesting, but it should have been a one and done idea. I think it hurt the character when multiple Doinks started to appear.

Either way it's a shame heel Doink wasn't given more of an opportunity. I also thought Waylon Mercy could have been something (too bad Spivey was past his prime), and Sean O'haire too. These were all good enough ideas that someone came up with that they got approved for tv. Why end them before they get a chance to get started?

Sadly Borne himself screwed it up through his addiction issues and got fired... hence Vince being left with a clown character with no-one capable of getting it over as well as a heel (Steve Keirn was not good enough)... so they had to put the character face with perennial jobber Ray Apollo (who also fucked it up...)

As a heel Borne was awesome... it showed when he clicked so well with Bret... they had so much left they could do with him... I'd even venture that Savage v Doink could have been the fued that kept Savage in WWE had it gone right...

 

[Klown_Karnage]

Alright, this probably won't go down all that well, but I'm saying it anyway: I put Doink the Clown, in his time as a heel, on the same level as The Undertaker. That's right, The Undertaker.

I'll tell you why, he's a prime example of taking an extremely out there and unbelievable character and making it not only work but work beyond all possible expectations. If Borne had not been brought down by his addictions, he might even still be in the ring and even creepier than before. I would have loved to have seen a feud between him and Goldust. Maybe an extended feud between him and 'Taker.

Doink was a great storyteller in the ring, a seasoned expert in ring psychology and a helluva wrestler. Why else do you suppose he shows up in just about every WWE game? You can't get rid of him. He's an icon in his own right and I just hope he eventually ends up in the WWE HOF.