Matthew Osborne was an extremely talented in-ring performer who had a long, tenured career in the professional wrestling industry. He competed for many major promotions throughout his years, including Pacific Northwest Wrestling in Portland, the Mid-Atlantic territory, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation. He portrayed numerous different characters in these various companies, but despite his ring prowess and verbal skills, none of them ever quite stuck. That was until he began his second run with WWE in 1992. Matt was given a gimmick that had the potential to be a real stinker. Instead, the talented and experienced grappler was able to turn it into gold. Matt Osborne is most well known for his time as Doink the Clown. Doink would later be portrayed by a variety of wrestlers and would transition from a menacing, evil heel into a boring, kid-friendly good guy. After Matts departure from the Federation due to drug issues in 1993, he quickly infiltrated the land of Extreme. To the shock and disgust of the ECW fans, Matt didnt debut as himself -- often referred to in wrestling as simply Matt Borne. Instead, he infuriated fans by competing as Doink the Clown. The clown gimmick has become the embodiment of WWEs cheesy and corny cartoon-like characters -- naturally, the ECW faithful hated him. However, after teaming up with ECWs World Champion, Shane Douglas, Doink was born again -- quite literally, as he began calling himself Borne Again. It was an interesting idea that saw Matt often compete in the clown costume minus the headdress and with minimal face paint. The new gimmick didnt last long, however, as Matt Borne would be let go by ECW due to his ongoing personal issues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiU8JY2BBb8 Matt was often saddled with terrible gimmicks throughout his career -- WCWs Big Josh comes to mind -- but he was able to make Doink work, not only in WWE but also in ECW. The Borne Again character was an interesting -- albeit short-lived -- twist on things. Sadly, Matthew Osborne passed away on June 28, 2013 reportedly due to an accidental overdose.
Douglas Scarpa is a freelance writer, independent filmmaker, art school graduate, and pro wrestling aficionado -- all of which mean he is in financial ruin. He has no backup plan to speak of, yet maintains his abnormally high spirits. If he had only listened to the scorn of his childhood teachers, he wouldn't be in this situation.
