They were responding to a 911 call from a friend who said the former World Wrestling Entertainment performer failed to answer her phone for a few days.
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Winter, from the L.A. County coroner’s office, said an exact time of death has yet to be established but investigators believe she died Sunday night or Monday. During her career, Chyna made it known that women can compete and defeat men in wrestling.
The 46-year-old Laurer was dead when officers arrived, police said. She posed for Playboy magazine in 2000. She also appeared on four seasons of “My Fair Brady”, “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” and “The Surreal Life”. Wrestling icon Triple H, who was closely associated with Chyna throughout her career both personally and professionally, said Thursday he is “still coming to terms” with the news and spoke glowingly of her career. TMZ reports that officials are investigating a possible overdose as the cause since she had a history of drug abuse.
Back in June of past year, it was announced that director Erik Angra put together a Kickstarter fund for a documentary he was working on titled “The Reconstruction of Chyna”. But her impact was long-lasting, doing things that had never been done before and paving the way for future female wrestlers. She adopted her ring name Chyna and was billed as the “Ninth Wonder of the World”, André the Giant having been named the eighth.
Now that she has passed on, I suspect the WWE will induct her posthumously into their Hall of Fame next year.
The entertainment website also reported that there were no signs Chyna committed suicide but law enforcers did find legal prescription bottles.
She posted a video to her YouTube page earlier this week – she looked like she was struggling. She went on to graduate from the University of Tampa, serve in the ROTC, and teach reading as a member of the Peace Corps.
This is pretty cool of Bayley to do, as Chyna arguably paved the way for women like her to play big roles on WWE TV.
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Chyna was a native of Rochester, N.Y. In 2001 Chyna wrote an autobiography, “If They Only Knew”. She first appeared in WWE-then WWF-on Feb.17, 1997, making an immediate impact on a brand that has been historically male-dominated since its inception in 1952.
