WWE History Vol. 5: Brothers in Paint

#6 Doink the Clown

Matt Osborne, the original Doink the Clown

In late 1992, a clown started appearing at WWE events, mostly playing pranks on the crowd and acting silly. This clown bore a striking resemblance to Krusty the Clown, a character from the popular long-running Simpsons cartoon series. The resemblance was no accident, as WWE writer Bruce Prichard pitched the idea of an evil clown to WWE officials based upon the Krusty character.

In 1993, Doink made his proper debut, wrestling mostly enhancement talents and often playing cruel pranks. The idea was that Doink had a happy and silly appearance but was really evil and sadistic. Doink even had a match against Bret Hart, if you can believe that.

Eventually, Matt Osborne was fired and a new man donned the Doink face paint, Ray Licameli. With Ray under the face paint, Doink was strictly a face and only played pranks on heel wrestlers. He also had a midget sidekick named Dink. Mostly, the character was played for comic relief.

Doink's final match in the WWE was a losing effort to Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the man who would go on to be The Game Triple H. The character has reappeared several times since, but always with a different man playing Doink and never for very long.