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The family of the late Matt Osbourne, who was professionally known within the pro wrestling world as Matt Borne and was the original "Doink the Clown" for several years in the WWF, filed a lawsuit in Dallas, Texas today against WWE, alleging that brain injuries and other issues suffered while working for the company led to Osbourne's June 2013 death, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Osbourne's children, alleges that “traumatic brain injuries” resulted in “depression and drug abuse, which ultimately resulted in [Osbourne's] untimely death."
Osbourne was a second generation wrestler, the son of Tony Borne. He wrestled two stints for WWF/WWE over the course of his 33 year career. He was with the company as "Maniac" Matt Borne from March 1985 to April 1986 and then returned as "Doink the Clown", debuting in January 1993 and leaving in the Fall of that year. Osbourne was replaced by Ray Apollo, who performed the character for the remainder of it's WWF run. Osbourne returned to reprise Doink in 2007 at the Raw 15th Anniversary broadcast.
While he was contracted to WWF/WWE for several years, Osbourne spent the bulk of his career wrestling for World Class Championship Wrestling, WCW (as Big Josh), a few appearances in ECW and a number of different NWA areas during the territory era of professional wrestling, as well as countless independent and international companies after his WWF run.
The majority of the lawsuit is very similar to suits filed against the company by Billy Jack Haynes and the estate of the late Nelson Frazier Jr. (aka Big Daddy V).
In the lawsuit, Osbourne's attorneys use the fact that WWE not uses helmets to protect trainees' heads while training them and makes the claim that WWE did not provide them to Osbourne while he was training and performing. It would have been extremely hard for WWE to do this - since he wasn't trained by WWE but by his own father, Tony Osbourne in Portland, Oregon. Of course, no professional wrestling event has ever used helmets to protect performers when they were in the act of performing in the ring.
The lawsuit also alleges that Osbourne began wrestling in 1985 after being approached by Vince McMahon. That would be 100% factually incorrect as Osbourne got into the business after approaching his own father about wrestling after having been a successful amateur wrestler.
Osbourne's death in 2013, according to the Morning News article, was due to an accidental painkiller overdose.
It should be noted that as of this writing, there is no way WWE could have been officially served with the lawsuit.
To read The Dallas Morning News coverage, click here.
Thanks to Jay Zachary for his help.
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