Doink the Clown
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Doink the Clown was a gimmick used by several professional wrestlers during the 1990s. The Doink character wrestled in the WWF.
Several men have used the Doink gimmick in WWF (now the WWE). The first and best-known "Doink" was Matt Borne. He was succeeded by Steve Lombardi, who played the character temporarily until Ray Apollo was brought in as a permanent replacement. Steve Keirn and Dusty Wolfe have also donned the Doink gimmick as part of a storyline that involved multiple Doinks, including a notable feud with Crush which culminated at WrestleMania IX with a second Doink crawling out from underneath the ring to incapacitate Crush with a cast during the match.
The Doink wrestling persona was that of a circus clown. He wrestled in a clown costume, complete with face paint, makeup, and bright green hair. His diminutive sidekick Dink the Clown, who was approximately 3 feet tall, wore a similar clown costume.
The Doink character wrestled as both a heel and a face in the WWF. As a heel, Doink played cruel jokes on faces in order to amuse himself and put them off guard. As a face, Doink was more of a comic relief character, but continued to play jokes on other wrestlers, mostly heels. These jokes were considerably less cruel while Doink was a face, however.
Some wrestling purists criticized the WWF for creating the Doink character; others thought that Doink was appropriate given professional wrestling's carny origins.