Matthew Wade Osborne[1] (July 27, 1957 – June 28, 2013), known professionally as Matt Borne, was an American professional wrestler. Osborne was a second generation wrestler, the son of Tony Borne,[9] and is best known as being the first wrestler to portray the character of Doink the Clown.[1][10][11]
Professional wrestling career
National Wrestling Alliance (1978–1984)
Under the ring name Matt Borne, Osborne debuted on December 6, 1978 and wrestled for various National Wrestling Alliance territories, most prominently for Pacific Northwest Wrestling, where he was their heavyweight and four-time tag champion. Borne also would regularly referee matches while in Portland as that territory had only one primary referee (Sandy Barr) and it was not uncommon for wrestlers there to ref when not working a match: his officiating indeed became part of several major angles. In Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling on June 6, 1980, he won his first championship, also the first of two tag titles he would hold with Buzz Sawyer. In Mid-South Wrestling, he allied with Ted DiBiase and Jim Duggan as a member of The Rat Pack, a heel stable, and won their tag title with DiBiase.[1][12] In Canada, he worked for All Star Wrestling and Maple Leaf Wrestling.
World Wrestling Federation (1985–1986)
Borne debuted in the WWF on March 2, 1985, wrestling Rick McGraw to a time-limit draw in the Boston Garden. This was followed four days later by another draw, this time to eventual WWF ChampionBret Hart in Elizabeth, NJ. Two days later Borne suffered his first recorded defeat, losing to David Sammartino in Hershey, PA.
In 1989, World Class merged with United States Wrestling Association based in Memphis, Tennessee. He and Jeff Jarrett won the USWA Southern Tag Team Titles defeating Cactus Jack and Scott Braddock. On May 25, 1990 he defeated Kerry Von Erich for the USWA Texas Heavyweight Title and dropped the title back to Von Erich on June 1.[17] He left USWA in 1991.
After leaving WCW in 1992, Osborne returned to the World Wrestling Federation on September 21, 1992 in Winnipeg, Manitoba at a WWF Superstars taping. Competing as himself, he defeated Bill Jordan.[21] Borne would shortly thereafter become Doink the Clown, in a villainous clown gimmick that would frequently pull tricks on wrestlers at ringside as well as fans.[22] He made his in ring televised debut on the January 31, 1993 edition of Wrestling Challenge defeating Bob East. He would also briefly use the character in United States Wrestling Association in February before returning to WWF television in March.[22] Soon after his televised return, he began feuding with Crush after attacking him with a prosthetic arm on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, which subsequently resulted in a match at WrestleMania IX. During this match, another Doink (Steve Keirn) came out from under the ring and attacked Crush with another prosthetic arm, allowing the real Doink to pin Crush.[22]
In the spring of 1993, Doink was given the opportunity to enter the King of the Ring tournament, facing Mr. Perfect in the qualifying round. After two time-limit draws, Mr. Perfect defeated Doink in their third match.[22] At the Pay Per View itself, Doink (or rather, two Doinks) distracted Crush causing him to lose to Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels. Doink spent the summer months of 1993 continuing his feud with Crush as well as successful house show runs against Marty Jannetty and the 1-2-3 Kid, as well as occasionally losing to higher profile opponents like Bret Hart or Tatanka. At SummerSlam, Jerry Lawler hired Doink to wrestle Hart as he feigned injury, which "the Hitman" won by disqualification when Lawler interfered. Several days later, Doink turned against Lawler, by inciting a mocking chant from the fans directed at him.
On the September 13, 1993 Raw, Doink poured a pail of water over Bobby Heenan, marking his fan favorite turn. On a December episode of Raw, Doink was given a present from Santa Claus in the form of a midget in the Doink costume, which he named Dink. Shortly afterward, however, Osborne was fired for re-occurring drug abuses. His final TV appearance in the WWF for that era was on the December 27, 1993 episode of Raw. Osborne cited in a shoot interview that Bam Bam Bigelow did not like putting over Osborne. Osborne said this subsequently led to Bigelow snitching on him for smoking weed in the hallway of his hotel and getting him fired from the WWF.[9] Following his departure, Doink was played by Ray Licameli (also known as Ray Apollo).[23][24]
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994)
Following his departure from the WWF, Borne appeared in Extreme Championship Wrestling for a handful of matches as Doink. However, the fans hated this,[25] as ECW was viewed as an alternative to the WWF and WCW and seeing a gimmick like this made Doink a villain for a completely different reason.
After Doink lost a match to then-World Heavyweight ChampionShane Douglas, Douglas went on to criticize 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 changed his ring name to Borne Again, and continued wearing the clown suit, albeit without the wig, wearing a minimal amount of face paint, as well as growing out his hair and beard. After beating his opponents, he would make them dress in clown outfits. However, his tenure with the company was short-lived due to personal problems.[25]
Late career (1994–2013)
After leaving ECW, Osborne wrestled on the independent circuit, for several reunion shows and for various independent promotions under his Matt Borne ring name. In 2005, at WrestleReunion II Borne participated in an eight-man tag team match alongside Andrew Martin, Steve Corino and The Masked Superstar. However, his team lost to Dusty Rhodes, The Blue Meanie, Tom Prichard and D'Lo Brown.[26] On December 10, 2007, Osborne reprised the role of Doink at Raw's 15th Anniversary as he took part in a Legends Battle Royal.[26] 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'.[4] The new character debuted on March 27 for ISPW in New Jersey.[4] 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). They were scheduled to meet on August 15, 2010.[27] At that time Wolfe no-showed the event to avoid the wrath of Borne. On August 8, 2010, Borne won the Wrecking Ball Wrestling Championship.[28]
After this, Osborne returned to a full-time schedule, continuing to compete on a semi-regular basis all over the United States for the last several years until a few days before his death on June 28, 2013.
Death
Osborne was found dead on June 28, 2013, in the Plano, Texas apartment he lived in.[29] He was 55 years old. Though no weapons were found near his body, and police said the death appeared accidental, they launched a precautionary homicide investigation.[30] The cause of death was later determined to be an accidental overdose of morphine and hydrocodone. He also suffered from heart disease, which had been a contributing factor in his death.[31]
In June 2015, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against WWE, alleging that "WWE created a culture of violence and sacrificed Matt Osborne's brain for its own profit" which "led to further illnesses and injuries, including depression and drug abuse, which ultimately resulted in his untimely death." WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt said the suit was without merit and blamed the attorneys for taking advantage of the families involved.[32] The suit was filed by the mother of two of Osborne's four children, and was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE.[33] The lawsuit was dismissed by US District JudgeVanessa Lynne Bryant, who ruled that they failed to show that his death was linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy.[34]
^Will, Gary; Duncan, Royal (2000). "Texas: NWA Texas Heavyweight Title [Von Erich]". Wrestling Title Histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. pp. 268–269. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "(Dallas) Texas: NWA American Tag Team Title [Fritz Von Erich]". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN978-0-9698161-5-7.
