After leaving the WWF, and making aforementioned appearances on the independent circuit, Osborne would find his way into ECW. For years, Paul Heyman's cutting edge, alternative take on mainstream pro wrestling criticised characters such as Doink The Clown, feeling they were everything that was wrong with the WWF and WCW. Ironically then, Osborne would end up bringing the clown costume to the land of extreme, but with a pretty darn interesting twist. Over in the WWF, others were acting the fool as babyface clowns, literally, and bombing with fans in the process. In ECW, Osborne and Heyman created an altogether different animal. Going under the title, 'Borne Again', Doink wasn't quite the same in ECW, but instead something Osborne would use to get inside the heads of opponents. His debut promo, viewable in the attached video at around the 3 minute mark, showed the man wearing his Doink get-up, clutching the mask in his hand and donning a small amount of the greasepaint make-up. According to Heyman, he thought the idea of a twisted, even more psychopathic clown had legs, and he was willing to get behind it. Unfortunately, Osborne's personal problems would derail the gimmick before it really got going, and he only lasted a short time in ECW.