Mike Reviews The Story of “Evil” Doink the Clown

Happy Spooky Friday Everyone!

The WWE Vault channel on YouTube has uploaded a special video on the evil era of Doink the Clown, which makes sense seeing as we’re approaching Halloween on the horizon and that version of the character was known for being genuinely quite unnerving and a bit scary. I’ve always been a fan of that version of the Doink character, so let’s take a look at what they’ve put together!

– We open up with WWF Superstars from the 31st of October 1992, where Tatanka is taking on an enhancement talent. Whilst that is going on though, Doink is wandering through the crowd with a big hammer doing a wacky dance

– We then head on to the 7th of November episode of Superstars, where Doink celebrates in the crowd when Virgil wins an enhancement match of his own.

– On the 14th of November, The Headshrinkers win a squash match whilst Doink hangs around in the aisleway and begs them not to hurt the enhancement guys. At this point Doink doesn’t even have a name yet, and is just some random clown that shows up and is seemingly chaotic neutral at worst.

– On the 28th of November 1992, Damien Demanto beats an enhancement guy whilst Doink annoys fans in the crowd, which is then repeated on the 5th of December whilst Max Moon squashes someone.

– On the 12th of December edition of Superstars, Bam Bam Bigelow squashes an enhancement talent whilst Doink joins us with a bucket of confetti, that he dumps over the big man. Bammer is kind enough to shrug that off, but Doink gives us the first real appearance of his iconic evil laugh. Doink then heads out later with another bucket during a Marty Jannetty bout, but this time there is water in there, which leads to Jannetty getting drenched whilst Doink has a hoot. Interestingly there was enough ambiguity with these two angles that Doink could have still ended up as a babyface. However, the fact Doink did the harsher prank to the babyface was a nod towards his eventual evilness, but it was done with just enough subtlety that you might just think he was a wacky nutter who could prank anyone.

– On the 19th of December edition of Superstars, Doink sets up a trip wire in the aisleway and Big Boss Man ends up taking a tumble following his bout. Doink is still being mildly playful, but he’s seemingly more focused on messing with babyfaces now, which is another hint that Doink is going to be a Heel, especially as Heel commentators Jerry Lawler and Bobby Heenan really enjoy the antics.

– An interesting aspect to this as well is that Doink has been progressively more unkempt with every appearance. The first time we saw Doink; he had nice detailed looking face paint and seemingly brand new props straight out of the box. However, as the months have wore on, Doink has been going for sparser less complicated face paint and his clothes are gradually looking messier and grimier. His beard is also more pronounced as well, which just adds to the dirtier aura he’s starting to give off. Seeing that sort of stuff play out over the course of a couple of months highlights how good a job everyone did with establishing the character and what he was about.

– On the Boxing Day edition of Superstars; Doink “accidentally” clocks Tatanka with a mop, as he’s basically just a full-on Heel at this stage.

– On the 2nd of January, Crush is winning a squash match whilst Doink is mean to kids in the crowd. This leads to Crush telling Doink to stop making kids cry brah. Doink feigns fear at first, but as soon as Crush walks away he starts cackling like the evil clown he is. That was actually a really good angle, as Crush came across as threatening, but not in a bullying way, whilst Doink came across as knowing he was in trouble by getting on this large man’s bad side, but he was also just nutty/unhinged enough to not be scared about it.

– On the Superstars episode from the 9th of January 1993, Doink has interview time with Ray Rougeau at the interview podium. Doink reveals his name for the first time, and has his arm in a sling. Rougeau recaps all the pranks Doink has done, which leads to Doink talking about how much he enjoys upsetting kids. I can see this character terrifying the heck out of younger kids back in the day actually, especially when he was making it clear that he was specifically targeting them. Doink ends up squirting Rougeau in the face with water and cackling once again. Man, Matt Borne just NAILED this character. Borne was tremendous here, and Rougeau was a solid in his role as an interviewer.

– On the 16th of January 1993, Doink pretends that he wants to make amends with Crush, but he ends up hitting crush with an artificial arm that has been stuffed with batteries. Crush’s acting was actually really good there when he seemed to accept Doink’s apology. Doink is clearly the better performer, but Crush has absolutely carried his end of this storyline just fine thus far. He’s been a good valiant tough guy trying to deal with this insane clown. Even Heel commentator Jerry Lawler thinks that Doink went a bit too far there, which is a good way of getting across the idea that Doink is really unhinged when even the other Heels aren’t quite sure about his tactics.

– On the 31st of January 1993 edition of Wrestling Challenge; Doink makes easy work of an enhancement talent, whilst the commentary team of Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan put over that Doink actually seems to know what he’s doing. That played a big part in getting the Doink character over, as it showed that he wasn’t just a doofus in a silly outfit but he was actually a dangerous competitor who needed to be taken seriously once the bell rang. Bobby Heenan in particular was excellent on that side of things, as he always would put over Doink’s in-ring skills, and he’d even allude to Doink’s prior wrestling experience by stating that Doink looked familiar and might have had a history of some kind in the wrestling business.

– On the 1st of February edition of Monday Night War; Doink easily takes the massive Typhoon down to the mat and works the former Tag Team Champ over. Typhoon wasn’t really getting pushed at the time, but he was still someone with a “name” to a certain degree, so Doink being able to take it to Typhoon with such ease once again did a good job of establishing Doink as a threat to actual wrestlers and not just the enhancement guys.

– On the 27th of February 1993 edition of Superstars; Boss Man becomes the first established WWF wrestler to actually give Doink a bit of a beating in their match together. However, Doink shows that he’s not just evil and tough, but he’s also resourceful, as he throws a disgusting green liquid of some kind into Boss Man’s face and gets DQ’ed. Doink puts a beatdown on Boss Man following that, and this was how Boss Man got written out of the WWF I believe.

– On the 1st of March 1993 edition of Raw; Doink defeats Koko B. Ware and then gets interviewed by Rob “Elvis” Bartlett. Doink is amused by Bartlett’s impression, and gives him a “present” of a banana cream pie to the face. The crowd mostly cheers for it because they hate Bartlett and Bartlett mostly no sells it.

– On the 22nd of March edition of Raw; Doink has a match with Kamala and manages to win by count out by offering Kamala a present, which of course is empty. Kamala’s sad facial expression at getting tricked was really good acting on his part and this was a clever way of giving Doink a scummy win that fit within his character. An evil clown and a Ugandan Savage making such natural foes came a bit out of left field, but wrestling is wacky like that.

– Doink cuts a promo on Crush ahead of WrestleMania IX, and it’s a darn good one too. Doink going from laughing it up to suddenly being serious was just really unnerving and another good example of how Matt Borne totally understood how to play this character. The evil sneer with the face paint is what helps turn the Doink character from a one-note gimmick-of-the-month that one of the jobbers from the New Generation Era that Scott is reviewing to one with a much richer characterisation.

– At WrestleMania IX; Doink debuts the Twin Doink’s trick, as Steve Keirn dresses up as a second Doink and helps the original Doink pick up the victory. From my review of Mania IX

“They actually tell a good story here, with Crush being all mad due to the previous attack and clobbering Doink from pillar to post whilst Doink tries to desperately get a foothold in the match. Crush’s stuff doesn’t look too good sadly and the crowd doesn’t really bite on it, which hurts things a bit, but the match is structured in a way that makes sense given the storyline coming in.

Doink does eventually manage to work a bit of heat on Crush, but the crowd still doesn’t really care that much. Doink gets a nice safe looking piledriver at one stage and also does some good character work whilst working the heat, but ends up landing on a raised foot from Crush. Crush catches Doink with a power slam following that and then preps for the Cranium Crunch.

The ref ends up catching a stray elbow from Doink during that though, which leads to the hold getting broken. We then get the spot this match is remembered for, as another guy dressed as Doink runs in to rescue the real Doink with another loaded prosthetic arm, allowing Doink to get a three count from the revived ref.

WINNER: DOINK
RATING: **

Thoughts: I really didn’t mind this that much to be honest. The lack of crowd reactions was disappointing and Crush’s work wasn’t that great, but it told a good story and Doink bringing in some backup this way was totally in line with his character and made complete sense. I am an admitted big mark for that original Heel Doink character though, so your own personal mileage may vary”

– On the 3rd of May 1993 edition of Raw; Doink takes on Sean Waltman prior to Waltman’s big upset victory over Razor Ramon. Doink makes easy enough work of Waltman here though, which Waltman of course selling everything really well. This was an effective squash match, with both wrestlers playing their respective roles well.

– On the 8th of May 1993 edition of Superstars, Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Doink, which leads to Doink making fun of Crush again whilst Mean Gene is disgusted in the way only he can be. This was good fun.

– On the 24th of May edition of Monday Night Raw, Doink and his lookalike try to get the better of Mr. Perfect in a King of the Ring qualifier. We don’t get to see all of the match, but what we do get to see is good action. Perfect ends up managing to defeat the second Doink, but then the Twin Doinks team up to attack Perfect until Crush runs down to make the save.

– After another squash; we move to the 20th of June 1993 edition of Wrestling Challenge; where Doink gets a clean win over Bob Backlund with a pinning hold. That’s a big win over a former WWF Champ back when not everyone won that belt. Backlund wants to show respect in defeat, as we see that some folks have a “D-O-I-N-K” sign in the crowd, which highlights how the character was getting over. Doink instead decides to blind Backlund with something instead, which leads to a blinded Backlund swinging punches wildly.

– After another squash match, we get a Doink Vs Crush re-match on the 10th of July 1993 edition of Superstars. We only get the closing moments, as both wrestlers fight on the floor and Crush wins by count out. I think it’s a testament to how they wanted to keep Doink strong here, that after months of feuding against an over guy in the mid-card they were still reticent to have Doink get pinned or submitted, instead going with a count out. A second Doink ends up running down to attack Crush following the bout, leading to a Heel beatdown on the man from Hawaii.

– On the 31st of July 1993 edition of Superstars; Doink is interviewed by Mean Gene again, and Doink is still happily evil and Gene is still angered at Doink’s antics.

– On the 2nd of August 1993 edition of Raw; Randy Savage out-thinks Doink by dressing up a little person as the Macho Man, and Doink is so distracted by the hilarity of it all that it allows Savage to pick up the win. I’ve always enjoyed this moment so I’m glad they included it, as it was a way to give Savage a win without hurting Doink and it made sense from a character and storytelling perspective. Getting distracted by a little person in fancy dress is just very on brand for an insane clown for some reason.

– At SummerSlam 1993; Doink has a fun match with Bret Hart that is part of a larger storyline with Jerry Lawler. Doink is actually protected once again, as Bret does win, but only by DQ when Lawler gets involved. Doink not doing a single clean job on TV shows how committed they were to getting this character over, and it’s a shame that this was essentially the last hurrah for this version of Doink as they started turning him babyface in the autumn and babyface Doink was NO BUYS!

– Speaking of babyface Doink; Doink throws water on Bobby Heenan on the 13th of September 1993 edition of Raw; which is the beginning of an ill-fated babyface turn. I don’t know why a babyface clown sucked so much when a Heel clown was so awesome, but it’s pro wrestling so not everything makes sense sometimes.

In Conclusion

This was a fun trip down memory lane, with the promos and character work in particular showing why the Heel version of the Doink character was so effective. Matt Borne managed to get the mixture between being a cowardly villain and being a genuine threat just right, and the insane antics only made the Doink all the more unnerving.

Matt Borne being a solid worker really helped as well, as he could get over with the character work and then hold his own in a match once the bell rang. Sadly they didn’t really put Doink in there that often with super workers who could really allow him to showcase his skills outside of the odd match with someone like Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect or Randy Savage.

My only critique of this compilation would be that there were a few too many squash matches of faceless goobers. Doink squashing an enhancement guy with the Stump Puller is good fun, but you don’t really need to see it more than a couple of times, especially as Doink was working his way through the lower mid-card in the first half of 1993 and you could have possibly shown some of those wins over the likes of Typhoon, Kamala and Backlund in a bit more detail.

I honestly would have loved to see Doink get to work a feud with The Undertaker, as it would have been as close as the WWF in 1993/94 was going to get to doing their own version of Joker Vs Batman, which the maniacal face painted bad guy trying to grind the gears of the stoic good guy.

Doink would have been a nice break from Undertaker working against immovable monsters, as Doink actually could have sold and taken bumps for The Deadman and they might have actually been able to speed up exposing the more mortal elements of Taker’s character that we got to see when Taker feuded with Mankind.

If you’ve got an hour to spare then this is a fun way to fill it!

If you’d like to read more about Doink in 1993; then check out Logan’s review archive