Chyna, the undefeated WWE female champion and celebrated adult actress, was found dead on Wednesday, April 20, 2016, inside her Redondo Beach apartment south of Los Angeles, California. The friend had gone Wednesday to check on Chyna, whose real name is Joan Marie Laurer, after she had failed to answer her phone for a few days, Redondo Beach police said in a statement.
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On early Thursday morning, it was announced that former WWE Women’s Champion Chyna passed away at age 45. The Redondo Beach Police received a 9-1-1 call from a friend of the apartment unit resident that the female inside was not breathing. Throughout the ’90s, she would train to become a wrestler, officially joining the WWE (then WWF) as a founding member of D-Generation X alongside Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Shawn Michaels in 1997. TMZ reports that officials are investigating a possible overdose as the cause since she had a history of drug abuse. More recently she was creating popular motivational workout videos for her fans. But the way she describes it, the choice was more out of desperation.
That year, Ms. Laurer left the company and released an autobiography, “If They Only Knew”.
She would return to wrestling via the Total Nonstop Action wrestling label in 2011. The friend arrived at the home to find Laurer unresponsive, immediately phoning 911.
Chyna was reportedly suffering from anxiety and sleep deprivation at the time of her passing, and had been taking medications to help her with managing the symptoms. As a public figure, Chyna did not shy away from discussing her struggles with depression; according to NPR, she spoke about it openly on VH1’sCelebrity Rehabwith Dr. Drew in 2008.
“She completely, 100% transcended the business”, Triple H, now WWE’s executive vice president, told Stone Cold Steve Austin on a live podcast on the WWE Network a year ago.
Laurer made great strides in the wrestling world, a sport mainly dominated by men. Her death shocks the wrestling community with WWE chief brand officer and former wrestler Stephanie McMahon posting on her Twitter account: “I just heard the tragic news that @ChynaJoanLaurer has passed”.
Chyna hamming it up at a movie awards night [Photo by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images]According to CNN, Chyna started training in the world of professional wrestling after graduating from the University of Tampa.
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He said in a statement: “I am very sad for Joanie and her loved ones, but I am also terribly angry because I suspect addiction may have taken another life. A pioneer whose star shined bright”.
