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Doink the Clown is a gimmick used by several professional wrestlers since the 1990s. The Doink character originally wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) and now can be found occasionally on the independent wrestling circuit in the United States.
The Doink wrestling persona is that of a circus clown. He wrestles in a clown costume, complete with face paint, makeup, and bright green hair. His diminutive sidekick, Dink the Clown (who was approximately three 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 heel, his most notable clash was with Bret Hart. As a face, Doink was more of a comic relief character, but continued to play jokes on other wrestlers, mostly heels; a notable example was with Jerry Lawler. These jokes were considerably less cruel while Doink was a face, however.
Doink's trademark finishing move in the early 90s was a top rope Seated Senton to a supine opponent, dubbed the "Whoopie Cushion" (by Jerry Lawler). Just before he was removed from the WWE's normal roster, he began to use a submission hold termed the Stump Puller or Stump Runner, which involved seating an opponent on the mat, sitting on his shoulders, and pulling one of the opponent's legs towards the head.
Some wrestling purists criticized the WWF for creating the Doink character; others thought that Doink was appropriate given professional wrestling's carny origins. Others preferred the heel version, saying that Matt Borne made the gimmick work, but once he was turned face his character was neutered.
The men behind the mask
A number of men have used the Doink gimmick in the WWF (now WWE). The first and best-known Doink was Matt Osborne. 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. Also Jeff Jarrett disguised himself as Doink, but only to play practical jokes on Dink.
Chris Jericho donned the Doink costume shortly before WrestleMania X-Seven on March 26 in order to ambush William Regal, while an unknown wrestler (speculated by many to be either Ray Apollo or Nick Dinsmore but never confirmed) competed as Doink in a "gimmick battle royal" at WrestleMania itself on April 1 (the timing of the event led several commentators to speculate that the advertised "battle royal" was an April Fool's Day joke, but the event did in fact take place, and was won by The Iron Sheik). Nick Dinsmore portrayed Doink in a bar room brawl at Vengeance on July 27, 2003 and in a singles loss to Chris Benoit on the July 31 episode of SmackDown!. Doink made still another return appearance on the October 10, 2005 edition of Monday Night RAW, in a match against Rob Conway , this time being played by Lombardi. He is currently played by Armondo Rivera.