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Post by Mr PONYMANIA Mr Jenzie on Jan 1, 2014 19:24:36 GMT -5
The clown part was secondary, really. The Doink gimmick, at its core, was mental illness. He was over huge as a heel because he was a dangerous, unpredictable psychopath who blinded people and beat them with prosthetic limbs. Turning the character face immediately limited his shelf life. Initially you're curious to see what happens when he goes up against a heel (Bam Bam), but then what? You can't have a "sick clown" as a babyface, so he becomes a "regular clown," and then there's no point anymore. I dunno what you were watching, I clearly saw him rip off his own arm and beat Crush with it. one of the greatest things ever i saw  how i larfed heartily as doink was beating the brains out of that tye dye freak!!! |
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Post by tekkenguy on Jan 2, 2014 1:41:51 GMT -5
Here's my take on Doink.
When Doink first debuted, the idea of a wrestling clown screamed WrestleCrap. Surprisingly, Matt Borne made the gimmick work. I think everyone was shocked at how Borne took a character that sounded lame on paper, and made him into one of the best heels of WWF's New Generation era.
When Borne left, his replacements didn't know the magic formula to make Doink work as a face. If the IWC was around in the 1990s, they'd hate face Doink the same way they hate Hornswoggle.
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Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Jan 2, 2014 6:53:19 GMT -5
Face Doink didn't work because it stripped away any subtlety the gimmick had and left him as just a wrestling clown, the embodiment of everything wrong with the WWF style of gimmickry and the fact the character was played by someone who wasn't close to Matt Bourne's level didn't help at all. When they added a cavalcade of little people and had the MoM and Bushwackers don the paint too, there was no way it was ever going to end in an interesting way.
Doink should have turned face by refusing to attack Jerry Lawler's enemy du jour, wiping off the greasepaint and dropping the gimmick with a promo explaining why he had to play the role to begin with, but I guess the Doink merchandise sold to well to let the character evolve in a way that would have kept him interesting.
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Post by bobversion1 on Jan 2, 2014 7:01:06 GMT -5
Man I just thought of something.. Who here thinks at least a one off match would have been cool of when they were doing the double double gimmick, one turned face and one stayed heel and they started facing each other.. Almost an inner struggle to see who would have won out... Good or evil..
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Boo!
Dennis Stamp
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Post by Boo! on Jan 2, 2014 7:18:49 GMT -5
It flopped because 'evil clown' is a great idea and clowns by themselves are crap. No child likes a clown.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2014 7:51:08 GMT -5
He should have presented himself as the spiritual successor to Gacy to turn back to a heel (I know it wasn't Borne but...).
Instant heat.
I mean, he'd be out of the wrestling business and likely trampled on by many wrestling fans old enough to know the implications of such a gimmick, but he'd be the most vilified 90s villain.
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Post by James Fabiano on Jan 2, 2014 9:20:36 GMT -5
Would a face Doink with the same mannerisms have worked in the Attitude Era? (Not that that era seemed to stick with "menacing" freaks, look what they did to the Oddities)
I do know they were going to revive the evil clown character in '99 with Thrasher, supposedly (after Mosh became you know who).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2014 9:42:56 GMT -5
It flopped because 'evil clown' is a great idea and clowns by themselves are crap. No child likes a clown. Plenty of kids like clowns. The Three Stooges were clowns. Red Skelton was a clown. None of those guys were exactly unpopular figures. The problem is that "Silly guy in makeup who falls over" is the stereotype of the clown, and since pretty much any schmuck can do it, that kind of character isn't popular at all. |
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shaker
Team Rocket
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Post by shaker on Jan 2, 2014 11:25:36 GMT -5
Heel Doink was a psychopathic wrestler who dressed AS a clown. Heenan's commentary always enforced this idea - saying that he thought he recognized the guy under the makeup.
Face Doink was a clown who wrestled.
Heel Doink worked well because the basic idea was "This guy is insane and is dressing like a clown. What in the world is he going to do in the ring?"
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Post by James Fabiano on Jan 2, 2014 12:42:46 GMT -5
I dunno what you were watching, I clearly saw him rip off his own arm and beat Crush with it. one of the greatest things ever i saw how i larfed heartily as doink was beating the brains out of that tye dye freak!!! He beat up Man Mountain Rock?  Anyone remember this? Yeah, dude, me neither. |
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Essential1
Hank Scorpio
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Post by Essential1 on Jan 2, 2014 13:03:52 GMT -5
It worked as a heel only because he was playing up to the real life fears kids would have of clowns. Even many adults probably were still creeped out by clowns and found a guy like The Undertaker to be alot more cool than creepy. You turn him face and he comes across as a bit of a conman, trying hard to make people laugh and to overwrite the wrongs the Evil Doink had done. It wasn't interesting, and became just a cheap gimmick.
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SOR
Unicron
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Post by SOR on Jan 2, 2014 13:50:55 GMT -5
I think face Doink is only going to work on family friendly independent shows at the local flea market or primary school where the audience is mostly children.
In the WWF on international TV and PPV it's not going to work. Heel Doink worked because Borne plays dark characters really well. He was great in ECW as a dark character and Evil Doink was sweet as well.
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Anyone remember this? 
