One thing Dark Side of the Ring has always shown the audience is that behind all the bright lights, colorful costumes, and glitz and glamor, the wrestling business is home to a lot of pain and personal struggle. Perhaps no episode makes this more clear than the fourth episode of season four, which focuses on Matt Borne, who was famously known as the original Doink the Clown.
Despite portraying a clown with bright green hair and rainbow-colored clothes in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), Matt Borne had dark demons that followed him throughout his life.
“As soon as I heard Matt Borne was going to WWE as an evil clown, I thought, ‘He’s going to sink his teeth into this.” It was a gimmick, but he breathed life into this gimmick.” —@foleyispod
“What Happened to Doink the Clown?” premieres Tuesday at 10pm on @VICETV. pic.twitter.com/83186qm2wK
— Dark Side of the Ring (@DarkSideOfRing) June 17, 2023
Matt Borne was an Influential Second-Generation Wrestler
Matt Borne was the son of “Tough” Tony Borne, a wrestler who was well-known in the Portland area. Matt initially made a name for himself in territories all across the country, including Pacific Northwest Wrestling, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, Mid-South Wrestling, and beyond. He managed to get over in every territory he worked in, because of his personality, technical skill, and toughness.
Mick Foley states that he was very much inspired by Borne and that he styled some of his wrestling after him. However, despite his skill, Borne had trouble holding down a steady job in the industry, largely due to his often abrasive personality and, more often, his issues with substance abuse.
Borne had at Least Two Instances of Nearly Removing Someone’s Eye
One of the clearest examples of Matt Borne hurting his own career with substance abuse issues comes in the form of a story told by former wrestler B. Brian Blair. While in a bar with several other wrestlers, Borne confronted Blair and accused him of “messing with his girl.” Blair claimed to have no idea what he was talking about and walked away.
Borne attacked him from behind. He then tried to pick him up, but Blair landed on top of him. Borne tried to bite Blair’s nose, but Blair ended up biting a part of Borne’s lip off! Blair then hit him several times and walked away, assuming the fight was over.
It wasn’t.
Later on, Borne attacked Blair again. This time, he tried to reach his fingers into Blair’s eyes. He was almost successful at pulling Blair’s eye out when he was stopped by Ivan Koloff. Blair described the situation as similar to fighting a zombie, since Borne was on so many drugs he wouldn’t stop no matter what happened to him.
The second eye-related situation happened in Louisiana, while Borne was teaming with Jim Duggan. The two were hated heels and, one night while leaving the ring, a fan punched Duggan. Duggan slugged him back. Then Borne went after the fan, kicking him in the side of the head while he was down, striking him hard enough that he broke the fan’s orbital bone and popped his eye out.
Borne was fired from the promotion after the fan sued.
Borne was Fired from WWF Twice for Drug Use
After the incident with the fan, Borne was given a chance to wrestle in the WWF. He faced a variety of opponents and even wrestled Ricky Steamboat at the original WrestleMania, but was eventually fired for drug use.
He then had a brief run in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as “Big Josh“, before returning to the WWF where he and Vince McMahon would create the Doink the Clown character. The dark, twisted clown was somewhat based on Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons and was very successful.
However, after getting a big win against Crush at WrestleMania IX, Borne started to feel unhappy with where the character was going. This, of course, was the match where the second Doink (portrayed by Steve Keirn) entered the match and cost Crush the victory.
Shortly after this match, Borne was again fired for drug use. However, the Doink character continued to appear on WWF programming, first with Keirn and then Ray Apollo wearing the makeup.
He Signed the Doink the Clown Trademark Over to Vince McMahon
After being fired from the WWF, Borne took the Doink gimmick to Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), of all places. In ECW, the gimmick became even darker and Borne started to be known as “Borne Again“, a man with borderline personality disorder who often switched between the Doink the Clown personality and his own, dark, Matt Borne character.
At this point, the WWF sent Borne legal papers demanding that he stop using the Doink the Clown gimmick since Borne had signed the trademarks over to McMahon while he worked for the company. Borne countersued, stating that he never received the residuals owed to him. They settled. Borne agreed not to use the gimmick and he received his residuals every month.
Why Borne was able to play various versions of the Doink the Clown character on the independent scene for years after this was never quite explained, but it might be because these companies were too small for Vince McMahon to care about.
He Nearly Got Into a Shoot Fight with Jim Duggan
Years later, Borne was working an independent show in White Plains, New York, and was booked to face Hacksaw Jim Duggan. While Borne initially wanted to involve chairs and Duggan’s 2×4 in the match, Duggan told him that there was a very small crowd and that they should avoid doing anything too crazy and just do their respective big spots and taunts and have a simple match.
Borne apparently did not want to do this. During the match, he hit Duggan with a legit low blow. Duggan yelled at him, asking if he wanted to work or shoot, and Borne replied by grabbing a steel chair. Duggan picked up his 2×4 and it looked like the two were about to have a legitimate fight, when Borne left the building via the emergency door.
Duggan speculates that Borne was still mad at him for the firing that happened back when they were teaming and Mick Foley laughs, saying that everyone likes Jim Duggan.
Some Say his Death with Suspicious
Matt Borne was found dead on June 28, 2013, at the age of 55. He was living with a girlfriend at the time, despite still being legally married to someone else whom he had two children with. This girlfriend, named Connie, claims that Borne was helping to care for her sick mother, but he also stole a bunch of her medication for himself. She says she confronted him about this and he left.
Later that night, someone knocked on her door and said that Matt was unconscious in the hallway of their building. She brought him inside and thought that he was fine when he passed out on a chair. She assumed he was sleeping and she went to bed herself.
According to the police report, Connie woke up at around 6:30 in the morning and found Matt Borne gurgling. She called a friend to talk about the situation, then went back to bed. At 9 am, she called 9-1-1. Matt had overdosed and died.
Matt Borne’s daughter Tegan claims that Connie killed her father. Tegan’s mother, Michelle, whom he was legally married to, says that Matt called her the night before he died and said that he was leaving Connie and that if anything happened to him, to not let it go.
In her defense, Connie claims that the police report is wrong and that she did not go back to sleep after finding Borne in the morning. She said she called a friend first, then called 9-1-1 right after. She said she was heartbroken by his death and did everything she could to save him. The death was investigated, but no foul play was found and it was ruled to be an accidental overdose.
After he died, it was discovered that Matt Borne’s heart was six times the size it should have been. Michelle states that Matt had kept his heart issues a secret because he didn’t want them to jeopardize his wrestling career.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
Header photo – Vice. Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. Catch Dark Side of the Ring on VICE, with new episodes airing each Thursday at 9 PM EST.
