Matt Borne

I missed the news while I was away—Matt Borne has died. Borne was a minor wrestler who managed to turn one of the dumber gimmicks into an icon of an era. You see, Matt Borne was the original Doink the Clown.



Everyone hates clowns, of course. And Doink was a little frightening and weird as well. Despite being a kiddy gimmick, as the match embedded above shows, Borne could go. Indeed, I didn't even remember how technical he was—or how announcers actually used to know the names of holds!

Doink got pretty nuts after a while. There were multiple Doinks, and a little person version called Dink, plus Wink and Pink. Matt Borne was already gone—the thing about mask and make-up is that it can be anybody under the facepaint. It was all rather embarrassing, despite Borne's original uncanny performances. Sad he's gone though, and given his age and how his body is found, I'm sure we'll be hearing about another wrestling tragedy.