Doink the Clown

Big Josh

Borne Again

Ellwood City, Pennsylvania

Before becoming Doink the Clown, **Matt Borne** debuted in the WWF on March 2, 1985, wrestling Rick McGraw to a time-limit draw. He was primarily a jobber, though occasionally beat other jobbers at house shows. The highlight of this stint was losing to Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at the first WrestleMania in Madison Square Garden. His last match was a loss to George Wells on April 29, 1986.

In May 1986, Borne joined World Class Championship Wrestling. That September, he formed a tag team with Buzz Sawyer under the management of Percival Pringle III. Borne and Sawyer feuded with Dingo Warrior after falling out with him during a six-man tag match, with Warrior turning babyface as a direct result of the incident.

In 1991, Borne signed with World Championship Wrestling and debuted as **Big Josh**, an outdoorsman who danced with bears and was friends with Tommy Rich. He debuted as a fan that would run in from the crowd with an axe handle to save babyfaces from villainous attacks by heels. During his stint with WCW, he won the United States Tag Team Championship with Ron Simmons and the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Dustin Rhodes and Tom Zenk. Borne made his final pay-per-view appearance for the company on May 17, 1992 at WrestleWar, where he defeated Richard Morton; and continued to make sporadic WCW television appearances throughout the summer of 1992 before leaving the company.

After leaving WCW in 1992, Borne returned to the World Wrestling Federation on September 21, 1992 at a *WWF Superstars* taping. Competing as himself, he defeated Bill Jordan. 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. He made his in-ring televised debut on the January 31, 1993 edition of *Wrestling Challenge* defeating Bob East. 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.

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. 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, Doink was released. His final television appearance in the WWF for that era was on the December 27, 1993 episode of *Raw*. Following his departure, Doink was played by Ray Apollo.

Following his departure from the WWF, Borne appeared in Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1994 for a handful of matches as **Doink**. After Doink lost a match to then-ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas, Douglas 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 as he left the promotion soon afterwards

On December 10, 2007, Borne reprised the role of **Doink** at *Raw*'s 15th Anniversary as he took part in a Legends Battle Royal.

On June 28, 2013, Borne passed away.