Chyna (born as Joan Marie Laurer on December 27, 1969), is an American actress and retired professional wrestler. A former bodybuilder, she is best known for her career with the World Wrestling Federation from 1997 to 2001, where she was billed as "The Ninth Wonder of the World" (with the eighth wonder being André the Giant). She was notable for wrestling in intergender matches.
As a child, Laurer and her siblings had a structured, fairly affluent upbringing. She learned to play both the violin and cello.
Joanie Laurer left home at age 16 for Spain, under a scholarship with the United Nations. By 1987, she had graduated high school in Spain. She spent the next five years at the University of Tampa, graduating in 1992 with a major in Spanish Literature. During college, she also studied French and German; Laurer can converse in either language. She originally wanted to use her knowledge of foreign languages to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Drug Enforcement Administration. Subsequently, she joined the Peace Corps, and was assigned to Costa Rica to teach literacy.
After college, Laurer began to regularly enter fitness competitions. In 1996, Laurer competed in the New York City regional level of the Fitness America competition.
Chyna in the ring at the USAir Arena, Landover, MD, September 15, 1997
Joanie Laurer trained at Killer Kowalski's wrestling school in Malden, Massachusetts. During this time, she briefly dated Perry Saturn. She debuted in the year 1995 and worked for various independent promotions as Just Joanie and Joanie Lee.
Laurer met World Wrestling Federation performers Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a bar in 1997. Struck by her appearance, they helped her get into the WWF. She made her WWF debut on February 16 at In Your House 13: Final Four; her character emerged unannounced from a ringside seat to viciously choke Marlena, the manager of Goldust. Her original role in the promotion was as Chyna, the laconic enforcer/bodyguard for Triple H and later, his D-Generation X group (which included X-Pac and Shawn Michaels). She often helped Triple H (then, a rising villainous character) cheat to win by physically interfering in matches during his feuds with Goldust, Mankind, Owen Hart, and The Rock, by executing her trademark low-blow uppercut to the crotch. At WWF No Way Out of Texas in 1998, she became the first woman to receive Stone Cold Steve Austin's finishing maneuver, the Stone Cold Stunner. Around this time, Laurer underwent plastic surgeries to enlarge her breasts and to re-shape her jawline.
In January 1999, Chyna was the #30 entrant in the Royal Rumble, becoming the first woman ever to enter the contest. The day after the Royal Rumble, Chyna turned heel by betraying Triple H and aligning herself with his enemy Vince McMahon and Kane, his future opponent at WrestleMania XV. Laurer teamed with Kane in her WWF in-ring debut at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre pay-per-view against former allies X-Pac and Triple H. At WrestleMania XV, Chyna turned on Kane in his match by helping Triple H defeat him, appearing to rejoin DX. Chyna and Triple H, however, turned against DX later that evening when they helped Shane McMahon defeat DX member X-Pac. The duo became part of The Corporation and later Shane McMahon's Corporate Ministry, feuding with faces such as Steve Austin, Kane, X-Pac, and The Rock. Following the dissolution of the Corporate Ministry, Chyna remained at Triple H's side.
In late 1999, Laurer became a face again during her long feud with Jeff Jarrett. At Unforgiven, she had a match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship against Jarrett, which she lost. The next night, Chyna and Debra took on Jeff and Tom Prichard, hoping to be rewarded a re-match at No Mercy. She defeated Jarrett for the title in his last WWF match, a Good Housekeeping match, on October 17 at No Mercy, in the process becoming the first and only woman to win the Intercontinental Championship. She also gained the services of his valet, Miss Kitty. According to her autobiography If They Only Knew, Laurer claims that Jarrett demanded (and received) $250,000 from Vince McMahon in order to lose the title cleanly to a woman. His contract had expired on October 16, 1999, and he was therefore not contractually obligated to appear on the pay-per-view. If he had not appeared, the WWF would have been criticized for false advertising, and the lineage of the title would have been broken.
Chyna then feuded with Chris Jericho over the belt, defeating him at the Survivor Series, but losing the title to him at Armageddon. The two faced off again in a match on the December 28 edition of SmackDown!, which ended controversially with both wrestlers pinning each other. As a result, then "head of authority" Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley declared them co-champions. At the Royal Rumble, Jericho and Chyna defended the title against Hardcore Holly in a triple threat match to determine the Intercontinental Champion, which Jericho won. Afterwards, Laurer briefly teamed with Jericho.
Not long after losing the Intercontinental title, Laurer became the on-screen girlfriend of then-heel, Eddie Guerrero. Guerrero and Laurer, originally heels, became very popular during the summer of 2000, with Guerrero dubbing her his "Mamacita". The couple both faced off against Val Venis and then-rookie Trish Stratus in an intergender tag team match at SummerSlam with the Intercontinental Championship on the line. Chyna won the match, but lost the belt two weeks later to Guerrero in a triple threat match with Kurt Angle, causing friction between the two. They officially split in the autumn of 2000 after Eddie was found cavorting in the shower with two of The Godfather's "hos", Mandy and Victoria.
At the same time, Laurer posed nude for Playboy magazine's November 2000 issue; this had been facilitated by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, as a crossover marketing strategy. The strategy was based on the fact that WWE and Playboy naturally share the same primary audience — young males. Therefore, featuring a popular WWE female could give WWE large, mainstream media exposure and potential new customers, as well as give Playboy a fresh novelty draw that could help it stay afloat against rivals like Maxim and FHM. Her Playboy modeling was also worked into an on-air WWE storyline, in which it drew the ire of the Right to Censor (a group of morally conservative and self-righteous wrestlers). Shortly after, Laurer was announced as injured after a double team piledriver at the hands of Ivory and Val Venis.
Laurer returned a few weeks later and began a feud with Ivory over the Women's Championship. This culminated in an angle at the Royal Rumble where Laurer appeared to re-injure her neck while performing a handspring back elbow. In order to sell the injury, color commentator Jerry Lawler left the commentators' booth and entered the ring to check on Laurer's condition, something he had not done since the in-ring accident that killed Owen Hart in 1999. The highly publicized return of Laurer from the "injury" culminated in her winning the Women's Championship from Ivory at WrestleMania X-Seven in a squash match.
Laurer was presented as an extremely dominant champion, defeating challengers Molly Holly and Trish Stratus with little problem. She also defeated Lita, arguably the WWF's second-toughest female at that time, at Judgment Day in 2001. She vacated the WWE Women's Championship in the process, as this was Laurer's final WWF match. During her contract re-negotiations, it was said that Laurer was unhappy with the pay she was offered, and that she was expected to resume performing mainly in women's matches (instead of against men). The relationship between Triple H, her former real-life boyfriend, and Stephanie McMahon (with whom Laurer claims he had an affair and then left her for), was another major factor in her departure. She left World Wrestling Federation on November 30, 2001, several months after contract negotiations had broken down and she had been taken off of television. Jim Ross later confirmed that she was not fired, but rather chose to leave for personal reasons.
Laurer's in-ring career after WWE was quite limited. In 2002, Laurer joined New Japan Pro Wrestling. She made her first appearance at the New Japan Thirtieth Anniversary Show, refereeing a bout between the Steiner Brothers and Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kensuke Sasaki. In September and October 2002, she wrestled four matches for the promotion. After losing to Masahiro Chono on October 14, 2002, Laurer performed her final match on October 26, 2002, teaming with the Fake Great Muta in a loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenzo Suzuki.
In February 2004, Laurer signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) to compete under the name Chyna Doll. She was scheduled to appear on a 2004 talk show hosted by Jonny Fairplay, on a TNA pay-per-view, but she did not appear due to "unforeseen circumstances". These have been characterised as either an illness or differences between Chyna and TNA managment.
Laurer modeled nude for Playboy; her first issue, which featured a pictorial of her, was purportedly one of the ten best-selling issues in the magazine's history. In 2002, following her departure from the WWF, Laurer also appeared in a Playboy adult documentary, entitled Joanie Laurer Nude: Wrestling Superstar to Warrior Princess, which followed Laurer on the set of her second Playboy nude pictorial. Laurer was also the host of Robot Wars: Grand Champions on The New TNN in 2002.
On August 31, 2006, Laurer appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live as a singing barber singing with three other veterans. Laurer also appeared on The Howard Stern Show, Queer Edge, and Opie and Anthony. In November 2006, Joanie announced a new musical project with the band "Plastic Jones".
Chyna autographing her issue of Playboy, on October 8, 2007.
In January 2007, Laurer conducted an interview with Lifted magazine in which she talked about finding religion, overcoming a past full of drugs and violence, and promoted her new movies and TV series The Surreal Life: Fame Games, which began to air on VH1 in January 2007. The filming took place in April 2006, during which she formed a close friendship with actress Brigitte Nielsen. Her elimination from the show, which occurred in the seventh episode, was controversial. Andrea Lowell had accumulated the lowest score in the "Celebrity Call-Back-A-Thon" challenge, but she manipulated Kennedy, the judge, to increase her score and got Laurer eliminated in the process.
In 2001, Laurer was a guest on a special celebrity edition of Fear Factor. Each contestant played for a charity of his or her choice; she garnered $25,000 for the Freedom Families Scholarship Fund. Her competition included Brooke Burns, David Hasselhoff, Kelly Preston, Donny Osmond, and Coolio (the winner). She also appeared on the celebrity game show, Hollywood Squares, where she was introduced as "Joanie Laurer of New Japan Pro Wrestling". She also appeared on MTV Cribs, showing off her home. The following year, Laurer was reportedly up for a part in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, but lost out on the role to Kristanna Loken.
In 2004, Laurer and her then boyfriend, the semi-retired pro wrestler Sean Waltman, made a sex tape. Eager for a repeat success, the company that released Paris Hilton's celebrity sex tape obtained the footage, edited it, and released it under the name 1 Night in China. The video sold over 100,000 copies, with both Laurer and Waltman earning a share of the profits, and boosted both their careers.
In early 2005, Laurer debuted on The Surreal Life, with house mates Da Brat, Jane Wiedlin, Adrianne Curry, Christopher Knight, Marcus Schenkenberg, and Verne Troyer. She remains good friends with Adrianne Curry and made a brief cameo on her reality show My Fair Brady. In March 2005, Laurer re-appeared on The Howard Stern Show, where Stern noted that not only did Laurer look better than she did during her previous visit, but her entire general appearance and attitude were much better. Later in the year, Laurer signed to star in a new movie entitled Illegal Aliens, Anna Nicole Smith's last movie before her death. She did a lot of promotional work for the movie, including appearances on talk shows and radio shows.
On the November 6, 2007 edition of TMZ on TV, it has been documented that Laurer filed papers to change her name legally to Chyna.
On Cristina's Court, a syndicated court-themed reality show appearing on many US Fox Television Network affiliates, Chyna appeared in an episode originally airing Nov. 19, 2007 as a plaintiff in a civil dispute against a breeder of teacup chihuahuas, an exotic breed of dog, suing for $5,000. Judge Perez ruled in favor of the plaintiff, awarding $4,000.
In early 2008, Laurer appeared on the VH1 reality TV show, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.
In her best-selling autobiography, If They Only Knew, Laurer revealed that her breast implants were custom-made for her after her first implants were ruptured duing a wrestling match. She had also complained to her plastic surgeon that their largest implants didn't suit her frame in the way she desired. Laurer's custom implants became the model for the Chyna 2000's, a model of breast implant now marketed to large-framed women and female bodybuilders. Laurer claims to have paid $6,000 for them.
Since 2003, Laurer has had a tumultuous relationship with semi-retired pro wrestler Sean Waltman. They were engaged for a period in 2003, then broke up, then became engaged again, a pattern which continued for the next two years. In January 2005, Laurer was arrested for domestic assault after allegedly beating Waltman.
On February 8, 2007 (the date of Anna Nicole Smith's death), a visibly upset Laurer appeared on Larry King Live to speak about her late friend. On the program, Laurer claimed that she "knew it was coming" because of the way the media had ridiculed Smith, and she drew parallels between the plight of Anna and herself. However, the wife of the CEO of Trim Spa, Monique Goen, claimed that Smith did not consider Laurer a friend. Six days later, on February 14, 2007, Laurer and Shane and Sia Barbi led an animal rights protest at the University of California, Los Angeles. The trio led other protesters to the door of the Neuropsychiatric Institute, a scientific lab where they perform tests on monkeys. The group had to be split up by the police, but not before a violent protester, who was nowhere near Laurer or the Barbi twins, shouted obscenities and attempted to harm the workers.
On a February 2007 edition of the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show, Sean Waltman claimed that Laurer also previously dated Ed "Brutus Beefcake" Leslie.
In November 2007, Joannie Lauer legally changed her name to Chyna.
