10 Next Generation Wrestlers You Didn't Know About
10. Matt Borne
The first and longest-running guy behind the Doink The Clown character, the late Matt Borne was also the most talented wrestler to slap on the greasepaint. Its thanks to Bornes stellar commitment to the role that Doink became as successful a character as he did. But then Borne was born into the business: his father was Tough Tony Borne, a mainstay of the territories in the fifties and sixties who wrestled Lou Thesz for the NWA world heavyweight title and Verne Gagne for the AWA world heavyweight title. Borne was an inspiration to wrestlers like Rowdy Roddy Piper and Rick the Model Martel growing up, and once hed trained his son Matt to step into the ring, the two of them would tag together for years until the younger Borne found success with the World Wrestling Federation. Tony Borne retired in 1981 and found a second career awaiting him in real estate until he passed away through heart problems in 2010 at the grand age of 84. No such fortune attended Matt, however: when his various substance abuse issues became common knowledge, the WWF fired him. Matt would drift in and out of sobriety and in and out of the Doink make-up over the next two decades, until dying of an overdose complicated by heart disease in June 2013.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
