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Matt Borne passes away

Doink was one of the more original, and great characters of the WWE. A shame they went the safe route with him after a while.

He was a bit before my time, but I loved using him in the RAW game for the SNES. Especially his super-move where he'd roll you into a ball and punt you out of the ring.

Comments

  1. It really was a shame that they never went darker with the heel persona of this character. It would've been a nice contrast with the overly PG product of the time. Matt Borne's portrayal of this character was pretty awesome and I loved how my younger brother was terrified of him.

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  2. If WWE had wanted to bring back another heel version of the character I think Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose would have been the way to go. I know some have made a Heath Ledger Joker comparison to his promo style and overall look. I think face paint only would have sufficed, not a full clown suit. Less cartoony and more sinister.

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  3. Awww man... I met him back at the old Raw tapings in the Hammerstein. Really nice guy. I was one of the few there that knew him as 'Maniac' Matt Borne from his World Class days and I was a big fan. Rest In Peace, Mr. Borne.

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  4. He could go:

    http://youtu.be/CGoOaFHaPEM

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  5. Didn't heel Doink and Bret have a kick ass Raw match?

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  6. Evil Doink was a really great character, and one that should be brought back.

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  7. He was Lawler's replacement in the Summerslam 93 angle and I recall that being pretty great. I'm also pretty sure that was the last notable appearance of the real Doink.

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  8. What really sucked was that Matt was too fucko to do Borne Again in ECW for very long.

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  9. Sadly his last RAW appearance involved jobbing to Heath Slater... or was someone else under the costume that night?

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  10. Heel Doink vs Savage. Fun little match.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_L2FjcMiRE

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  11. I loved him as Maniac Matt Borne in World Class.

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  12. This is so shocking. I was just watching his match vs Crush from Wrestlemania 9 this morning! Rest In Piece, Doink. Gone too soon.

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  13. The 1993 Raw DVD is FILLED with solid Doink matches.

    Man, Bourne was honed in on that depraved character. Like Dean Ambrose, only 20 years (!) earlier.

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  14. I hope one day when I die, I'm remembered as a character in a video game.

    RIP General Leo.

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  15. ^^ Brooklyn Brawler

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  16. His Borne Again character in ECW kicked ass, too bad it didnt last long

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  17. Your_Favourite_AssholeJune 28, 2013 at 3:07 PM

    i saw him at a convention a few years ago. it was weird, he was sittin' there in full makeup and hair piece etc... wearin' a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops

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  18. Your_Favourite_AssholeJune 28, 2013 at 3:07 PM

    'Especially his super-move where he'd roll you into a ball and punt you out of the ring.'


    kick the baby!

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  19. Rest in peace sweet clown

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  20. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJune 28, 2013 at 3:34 PM

    RIP, he was definitely one of the more memorable characters for me as a kid growing up watching WWF.

    That's put the total of wrestlers in the WWF RAW game who are now dead up to 5: In addition to Doink, there's Owen, Yokozuna, Luna, and Bam Bam Bigelow. Sad indeed. =(

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  21. Years before Dark Knight came out, I thought they should've given Stevie Richards the Doink gimmick & had him play it like a grungy, homeless clown. Victoria could've been his Harley Quinn!

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  22. When I grew up and first discovered wrestling Tuesdays & Thursdays on Viacom 6 in San Francisco, Buzz Sawyer & Matt Bourne were the tag champs, managed by Percy Pringle III. That's always how I will remember Matt Bourne. Classic.

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  23. Oh Snap!! that was the taping I was at. I was right on the right hand side of Mr Perfect right beside the curtain. I haven't seen this in 20 years... Memories!!!

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  24. Wow.. Perfect, Doink and Crush.. all three of them are dead now.. :(

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  25. His Summerslam match with Bret was really good too.


    And his best work was already behind him at that point! Really underrated worker.

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  26. Yep, and a way better worker.

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  27. For you young cats: He was Heath Ledger Joker before Heath Ledger was Heath Ledger Joker. Scary in a John Wayne Gacy way, but could wrestle extremely well and sell the character with facial expressions. A true innovative character when he was heel.


    Rest in peace.

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  28. Holy hyperbole Batman!

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  29. 12 men who wrestled on WWE PPV in 1993 are dead: Doink, Crush, Savage, Owen, Bossman, Bigelow, Hennig, Booger, Quake, Yoko, Borga, and Gonzalez

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  30. People are gonna get their knickers in a twist because it sounds like you're backhanding Ambrose, but I'll get out in front of it and say that we haven't seen a a fraction of a sliver of what Ambrose can do in WWE yet. However, Doink was legit amongst the top ten or even five workers in WWF in 93, so you're right there.

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  31. Anyone who gets a chance should watch that Best of Raw 93-94 dvd. Doink was all over it and the matches were legit great (up until he wasn't Matt Borne anymore, of course). Its too bad he never resurfaced under a more pushable gimmick. He had the ring work to go to the top. And while he was so great at playing Doink it's hard to say he shouldn't have done it, realistically there was never gonna be a clown gimmick in the main event. Very sad indeed.

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  32. Only 8 are dead from 93 WCW PPV. Benoit, Pillman, Murdoch, Wahoo, Brad Armstrong, Rude, Davey Boy, Bossman.

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  33. Indeed. And I like Ambrose, but I saw him work in DGUSA, both in person and on DVD, and I was never impressed once the bell rang. Great character guy though, and he can only get better working with guys like Bryan, Christian (probably soon), Cena, etc.

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  34. "He had the ring work to go to the top."



    I wouldn't go that far.

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  35. I was watching some Micheal Cole stuff earlier.

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  36. With the passing of Borne, only four of the nine original Wrestlemania matchups are still possible (that number drops to two if we include managers among the participants)


    RIP Matt.

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  37. Don't worry. I'll always remember King Hippo.

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  38. Don kick the baby...

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  39. Also as a result of Borne's passing, you now have to go all the way to Wrestlemania VIII to find a Wrestlemania where the majority of the matches have wrestlers that are all still alive (and even that's only five out of nine)

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  40. I was at a Wrestling Challenge taping in May 1993. Heel Doink faced Bob Backlund in a match where Doink was unanimously cheered even though he was pulling the heel schtick on Backlund. Every time Backlund got the upper hand, he was jeered mercilessly. Doink won the match and then afterward put his long coat back on, and sprayed Backlund in the eyes with his flower, blinding Backlund. He was still cheered. I never thought I would hear a reaction like that for a heel, and this was before the Attitude Era. Blinding a guy getting a face reaction.
    They really cut the nuts off when they hooked the character up with that fucking midget. I wanted Dink to just DIE!! Is he dead yet??

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  41. Matt Borne hailed from the same tiny area in PA as me - one whose only claims to fame are fireworks, the invention of barbed wire, and Doink the Clown. (And Donny Iris, if you're a Pittsburgher.)

    Oh, Rodney King got a DUI there once.

    Anywho, Matt was a hell of a worker (Check out his WCCW stuff) and someone I always liked. RIP.

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  42. What's the earliest Mania where everyone is still alive?

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  43. I've heard about this...what exactly was the gimmick?

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  44. Wrestlemania X8 (if you don't count the Sunday Night Heat match)

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  45. Evil Doink is in my top 5 gimmicks and Borne was a lot of the reason. I don't know that anyone else could sell it the way he did.


    I remember seeing him in the crowd in the weeks building up and thinking how awful a wrestling clown was going to be, then he attacks Crush in the most psycho way possible.

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  46. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE0CAFySImQ



    Love the music.

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  47. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAqDNsTpq5c



    Classic Vince line at the end.

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  48. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnz5rh_lance-cassidy-in-action-doink-the-clown-interview_sport

    interview starts at about 6:48. so awesome.

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  49. exactly.


    Doink vs. Perfect. Doink vs. Jannetty. Doink vs. Savage.

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  50. What I loved about Borne's work as Doink - and it's something Heenan always pointed out in commentary - was how he would switch in less than a second. My favourite moment, which I can't find online, is when he was being interviewed by McMahon about how Crush was annoyed.

    DOINK; Hahahaha... hooohoohoohoo...heeeheehee
    MCMAHON::But you're making children cry and Crush has warned you about that.
    DOINK: Hooh-- He warned me about what?


    That snap sent shivers down my spine. Ledger couldn't have played it better.

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  51. He killed a goat and resurrected an ancient clown spirit.

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  52. Dink AKA Claude Giroux (Tiger Jackson, The Macho Midget) lives and still wrestles on occasion in Canada. If he's reading this, I'm sorry I wanted you to die. The last thing I need is an internet feud with a little person.

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  53. Yeah, I'd watch it. He has a short fuse.

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  54. He played himself basically, kinda had a grungy look. But he'd paint half his face with the clown gimmick and go in and out of the Doink character. It was cool, and kind of a fuck you to the WWF

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  55. Solid stuff. Interesting to note Vince at 7:30: "Randy Savage, unquestionably, a future WWF hall of famer"

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  56. Why did they switch Doink's? Did he get fired or something?

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  57. Pretty sure he didn't rip his own arm out of the socket there,Vince.

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  58. I thought he had a pretty good run in the early days of ECW as "Borne Again" Matt Borne but unfortunately Paul Heyman couldn't stand the fact that Matt got an offer to make more money in Germany so Paul had to end that push by lying to him.

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  59. Threadjack: whaaaaaaaat. Doink and Linda McMahon?!?!

    http://www.oklafan.com/interviews/1861/article.html

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  60. Trivia no one cares about but me: he was the first wrestler whose autograph I ever got (as Tiger Jackson).

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  61. I swear I'm not just saying this because of his death. The original heel Doink is one of my all-time favorite characters. Sad news. You'll always be remembered, Matt.

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  62. You wanna see sad? I just watched this a few weeks ago. Scary stuff.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3z3y_2kFtQ

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  63. If by sad you mean a better promo that 98% of RAW in a year.

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  64. Likely fully of shit but still a hilarious image.

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  65. I call complete b.s on that.

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