Today was a solemn day in wrestling for your Wrestling God as our world; our industry mourns another tragic loss just three months after William Moody. You know, people say that wrestling is fake and predetermined and everything else in between and that is their right. It’s how they see this business of ours and no matter how many tragic real life events happen in front of their eyes, they refuse to believe that wrestling can sometimes be sad a place in which to live. When Owen Hart died it was common belief that it was a mere stunt. When Chris Benoit, Bam Bam Bigelow, Andrew ‘Test’ Martin, Mike Awesome, Davey Boy Smith ‘The British Bulldog’ plus countless other passed away people chose to see it as ‘just another wrestler’ gone. Many even blamed it on those who had gone, simply putting it down to jacked up wrestlers who take too many steroids.
To that I say bullshit. These people may mean nothing to Johnny Dickhead on the street but to us, they were our heroes. Our memories of better days, times passed that we shall never experience again. Which is why I am deeply saddened to be mourning the death of Matt Osborne aka Doink the Clown who was found dead by his girlfriend in their Texas residence on June 28th. Whilst there have been many Doink’s throughout WWE’s illustrious career, Osborne was the first and by far the very best. He conveyed horror when it was needed and a good laugh when comic relief was sparse in what was then the World Wrestling Federation.
Matt Osborne also wrestled under many other names, including Matt Bourne and of course found partial successful in WCW as Big Josh where he was a staunch favourite with the crowds despite his heel or face status. Outside World Wrestling Federation Osborne racked up many accolades under various guises in doubles action, holding the USWA Tag Team Championship twice with Jeff Jarrett, the WCWA Tag Team Championship twice with Jeff Jarrett and Buzz Sawyer, the NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship with Buzz Sawyer, the WCW United States Tag Team Championship with Ron Simmons, the WCW World Six Man Tag Team Championship with Dustin Rhodes and Tom Zenk. Osborne was also Mid-South Tag Team Champion with Ted Dibiase and captured the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championships an impressive four times with Steve ‘William’ Regal twice and Rip Oliver a further two times.
Though he never held any Championship gold in WWE, single or doubles, Matt Osborne’s singles career hit many heights and he is recognised as a former IWA United States Heavyweight Champion, Championship Wrestling International Alliance World Heavyweight Champion, Championship Wrestling United States Heavyweight Champion, NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion, WCWA Texas Heavyweight Champion, TWF Heavyweight Champion and USWL Unified World Heavyweight Champion.
Through all his success though as a doubles and singles wrestler, it would be the role of a menacing clown named Doink which really shot Osborne to fame when he stepped foot on the shores of the World Wrestling Federation. It’s as Doink that many only remember Osborne and no matter how bored or frustrated Osborne became with the gimmick he eventually took to ECW, as Doink the Clown, Matt Osbourne will be immortal forever. During his WWF tenure, Osborne’s most successful and memorable feuds were against Crush, Bam Bam Bigelow, Jerry Lawler and Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart. At WrestleMania 9 Doink fought Crush in a match that may have been stoic throughout but will always be remembered for its double Doink ending, the second being played by Steve ‘Skinner’ Keirn. Then at SummerSlam 1993, Doink the Clown contested a very respectable match against Hart in which Osborne showed his prowess as a singles star and that he wasn’t just a one trick pony.
Though Doink’s feud against Bigelow in 1993 and 1994 were not Osborne under the mask as he was fired for recurring drug abuse shortly after his face turn on Bobby Heenan on September 13th 1993 Monday Night Raw, Ray Apollo who assumed the Doink face paint would never have been able to do so had Osborne not laid such perfect foundations. Matt Osborne was the first and original Doink the Clown and it was he that reassumed the role on December 10th 2007 for Raw’s 15th Anniversary, the last time he would appear on WWE television under the mask.
I have talked in the past in excess about my first real memories of the old WWF. Whilst I had been watching it for about two years by the time 1993 rolled around, previously I had been more concerned with WCW, hey I was only a child, one of my first WWF memories was of Doink the Clown. And if you will indulge me for a moment, I would like to take this moment to reminisce. It was 1993 and I was 7. I remember that I was meant to be going to bed and in those days WWE Superstars was repeated at like ten thirty at night. I sneaked downstairs, thinking my mum was asleep and turned on the television. She caught me as she always did but in those moments I got to see Doink was a horror character with a large mallet and sharp nightmarish teeth. He had Crush on his knees at ringside and back then, the thought that this guy could actually bring a man Crush’s size to his knees was wholly daunting. I don’t think I slept that night for fear of Doink the Clown.
For those old enough to remember, WWE used to add a laughter track to his maniacal laugh and it echoed through the screen as the camera twisted and twirled. Doink was the first wrestler I was ever scared of and the character that made me yearn for more WWE action. Like I said, I had watched all WWE pay-per view events and television shows in those three years before Doink but I believe he really was the first man to make me want more. Next to my grandfather, who introduced me to this wonderful world, Matt ‘Doink the Clown’ Osborne is the other man I owe a huge debt of thanks to. Without him, hell I may have grown tired with WWE altogether and then where would we be? So to learn of his death, for me, is like losing a hero.
People say that if you’re a comedian or someone who has a natural gift of making others laugh then you should, no matter if you will never see them again, leave them laughing. The last memory I have of Matt Osborne as Doink the Clown before Ray Apollo assumed the jacket and sidekicks is of him pouring water over Bobby Heenan. It was an angle that made me laugh and the last time I saw Matt Osborne as the playful clown. Whilst Osborne will always be more than the Clown he played on television, he will be remembered for his time as Doink and thus it is almost as if we have lost two men instead of one. Big hammers, fake and prosthetic arms, flowers that squirted all kinds of liquid and entrance music which made children hide behind the sofa were all good but Matt Osborne was also a very good wrestler.
Terry Funk at WWE’s Hall of Fame some years ago said that when wrestlers die, he likes to think that they go to some other place than heaven or whatever you perceive heaven to be. Funk, said he liked to believe that when a wrestler dies he or she goes to a huge wrestling ring in the sky where all those who passed before were contesting an eternal battle royal and waiting for their next brother in arms to enter the fray. It’s a wonderful thought that. The nicest one is that us, as wrestling fans will go there to. To fill out the spaces at ringside and we will have the best seat in the house when our time comes.
Matt Osborne and Doink the Clown will be sadly missed by those who experienced him in the early 90’s and those that didn’t, truly missed out on something special. Whilst he left me laughing the last time I ever saw him nearly twenty years ago, I can’t help raise a smile at the though that Doink the Clown is the next to enter that eternal battle royal in the sky and up there, he will keep them laughing forever.
Thank you Matt! Thank you Doink! You will be forever in our hearts.
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| Matt 'Doink the Clown' Osborne 1957 - 2013 |
