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Doink the Clown

professional wrestling character

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ646459 ↗
Source-derived summary

Doink the Clown is a professional wrestling gimmick originally and most popularly portrayed by Matt Borne, who debuted the Doink persona in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1992. Doink is a clown wearing traditional clown makeup (or a mask decorated to resemble such) and brightly colored clothes. He began as a heel character, dubbed the "Evil Clown", before becoming a face character. In addition to Borne, Doink has been portrayed occasionally by other wrestlers in WWE and unofficially on the independent circuit.

WWE producer Bruce Prichard said in an interview on The Steve Austin Show that Road Warrior Hawk had originally conceived the idea of a miserable clown wrestling character.

Appearances in WWF/WWE

Debut as a heel (1992–1993)

The Doink character first appeared on the October 31, 1992 episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling where he is seen in the crowd and the camera cuts to him during a match between Tatanka vs Dale Wolfe. He would make further on-screen appearances in the crowd and at ringside, playing tricks on the fans and wrestlers, as of yet still a mysterious character. Doink began feuding with Crush beginning on the January 2, 1993 episode of Superstars. On the January 9 episode, he was interviewed by Ray Rougeau where he revealed his name and mentioned that he enjoys upsetting kids, after which he squirted Rougeau's face and then cackled. His in-ring debut on Monday Night Raw was on February 1 where he faced and defeated Typhoon.

Editorial summary

“Doink the Clown” enters the record as professional wrestling character. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Doink, Clown and professional can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1992, 1993—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Doink, Clown and professional.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Doink the Clown” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Doink, Clown and professional provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q646459. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1992 and 1993.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

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  2. Expand the search: follow Doink the Clown primary sources, Doink the Clown archive and Doink research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Doink the Clown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.