Doink the Clown

Doink the Clown
Matt Osborne as Doink the Clown
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Doink the Clown
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Billed weight	243 lb (110 kg)
Billed from	Parts Unknown
Debut	1992

Doink the Clown is the name and persona originated by professional wrestler Matt Osborne in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and used there from 1992 to 1997, and sporadically thereafter. After Osborne left the WWF in late 1993, the character was played by five wrestlers in the WWF (later WWE). Osborne continued to sporadically perform as Doink until six months before his death in June 2013.

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.

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 in order to amuse himself and put them off guard. Some of his villainous pranks included tripping The Big Boss Man with a tripwire, 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 briefly feuded with Randy Savage on an early edition of Monday Night Raw, and Bret Hart, after substituting for Jerry Lawler, who faked an injury, at SummerSlam in 1993.

Doink then turned on Lawler on the September 4 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.Matt Osborne, the original man behind Doink, was fired for re-occurring drug abuses, eventually leaving the gimmick (after bouncing through a few others) to Ray Liachelli (also known as Ray Apollo). Now as a fan favorite and with a new midget sidekick Dink, Doink was more of a comic relief character, but continued to pull pranks on other wrestlers (albeit more harmless and silly than outright cruel), mostly on heels like Lawler and Bobby Heenan. Doink and Dink also battled with Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon in a feud that culminated at WrestleMania X. Doink would later encounter Jerry Lawler again in a match at Survivor Series. In this match, Doink and Dink teamed with Wink and Pink to meet Lawler's dwarf team of 'little kings' Queazy, Cheezy, and Sleazy. Eventually, Doink became a jobber, regularly losing to wrestlers like Jeff Jarrett, Hakushi, Waylon Mercy and, in his final televised match in September 1995, to Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Doink reemerged one last time in 1997 at the Slammy Awards and was attacked by Stone Cold Steve Austin, amidst crowd chants of "kill the clown".