In a story picked up by DallasNews.com, the family of Matt Osborne (Doink The Clown in the mid 80’s-early 90’s) is suing the WWE in relation to his passing in June 2013. The Collin County Medical Examiner ruled that an “accidental” overdose of morphine and hydrocodone was to blame for his passing. He also suffered from heart disease, which had been a contributing factor.
However, the Lawsuit filed in the Dallas federal court on Friday has his family blaming Wrestling. Specifically Vince McMahon’s WWF/WWE, who are the sole defendant named in the lawsuit filed by Osborne’s widow, Michelle James, on behalf of Doink the Clown‘s children.
WWE lawyer & lead attorney Jerry McDevitt had this to say in response;
WWE is “being targeted by attorneys who tell [wrestlers and their families] there’s hundreds of thousands of dollars”. It’s just another one in a long line of legal filings aimed at “drumming up people … looking for NFL money.” And they don’t have any merit, They’re all different from the NFL. We never had anyone claim they had these kinds of injuries until [these attorneys] did it. They find the destitute, people who have no money, and told them there’s money to be made. That’s what is going on… And I feel bad for these families, because they think they’ll make money off of this, and they’re not.”
Matt had a successful career in the WWE as one of the more famous “mid-card” talents in a period of time between 1984-1993. Matt was fired at the end of 1993 for repeated drug offenses. In a interview in 2007, Matt said the following about his firing and drug use;
“I had a very bad cocaine problem and then when Vince fired me at the end of ’93, I really went off the deep end for about a year and a half. That’s when I really tried to run from it. It kept coming back to me, it kept coming back to me.”
He would make occasional appearances before his death, including a 2007 Battle Royal on the RAW 15th Anniversary Show,