In 2005, Ms. Laurer was arrested and charged with beating her former boyfriend, pro wrestler Sean Waltman, known as X-Pac, after returning from the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
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The wrestling world lost one of its legendary performers as Chyna (Joanie Laurer) was found dead at her Los Angeles apartment on Wednesday, April 20.
Redondo Beach police said officers found Chyna, 46, in her apartment on Wednesday afternoon, dead on her bed, after receiving a call from her friend about a woman not breathing. “There are no indications or signs that the death was a result of foul play”, Redondo Beach police said in a statement.
On early Thursday morning, it was announced that former WWE Women’s Champion Chyna passed away at age 45.
She won the WWF Intercontinental Championship title from the World Wrestling Federation two times and the WWF Women’s Championship once. She also held the WWF Women’s Championship during her career and became the first woman to enter the Royal Rumble.
Sadly, despite her relative youth, Chyna’s friends and family say they weren’t entirely shocked by the news of her death.
“She was truly a pioneer in our industry, and she will be missed”, tweeted Stephanie McMahon, an owner and executive with WWE who was once a romantic rival.
While her death is still under investigation, Chyna made headlines recently for wanting to be put in the WWE Hall of Fame. She would also embark on a career in pornography, starring in five films.
The history of women’s wrestling (with WWE by no means the exception) has been mostly regarded as a sideshow variety, in terms of its reception. She left the WWE in 2001 after her breakup with Triple H. At the time of her death, Chyna was working on a documentary about her life entitled “The Reconstruction of Chyna”.
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Watch video Chyna posted just days before her death. “Drew” in 2008. She also performed in adult films. She narrates as she makes and drinks a breakfast smoothie, trailing off and occasionally singing into the camera. Chyna was open about growing up in a home with alcoholism and would later have her own documented struggle with drugs. The sheer breadth and width of the figures commenting on her passing should demonstrate the enormous impact that Chyna had on pro wrestling. She famously battled those addictions on Celebrity Rehab With Dr.
