10 Most Criminally Underrated Wrestlers In History
1. Doink The Clown (As Portrayed By Matt Bourne)
Doink The Clown, ironically, was an act too nuanced in its menace for the heavy-handed WWF to grasp in the early nineties - at least when portrayed by Matt Bourne in the heel role.
Bourne was genuinely terrifying under the make up. He made his way to the ring on a unicycle to the strands of 'Nightmare Clown', an arrangement that for four seconds was all car horns and slide whistles before revealing its dark heart of ominous synth and nightmarish cackling. It captured the essence of the act perfectly; Doink was unsettling because he lulled fans and opponents alike into a false sense of security, before puncturing the surface layer with a discomforting leer. He would locate the hard camera and stare a hole through it, when his opponents were trapped in one of his unheralded array of submission holds, like Tim Curry peering between the bedsheets in the horrifying first scene of Stephen King's IT.
His in-ring game was equally effective. Bourne was a gifted technician with a futuristic finisher. His personal troubles hastened his early WWF departure, in late 1993 - but by then, the character was done. The face iteration of it was a lowbrow comedy embarrassment.
Exhibit A: Evidence is thin, but no less monumental. His 2 out of 3 falls match with Marty Jannetty on the June 21, 1993 RAW was a psychological feast, in which Bourne unsettled Jannetty with his eerie body language before succumbing to his nous and pluck in what really is almost a perfect, traditional babyface vs. heel affair.