Officers were called to Chyna’s Redondo Beach apartment after a friend found her in bed not breathing, the city’s police department said in a statement. “There are no indications or signs that the death was a result of foul play”, Redondo Beach police said in a statement.
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In today’s episode of The Taz Show, Taz paid tribute to Joanie “Chyna” Laurer, who passed away last night.
We’ve learned she was in her apartment in Redondo Beach, CA. south of L.A. – and police got the call around 7:30 PM.
Chyna, the WWE star who became one of the best-known and most-popular female professional wrestlers in history, has died at age 45.
Chyna went on to pose for Playboy before transitioning to reality TV.
He credited her with being a pioneer for women’s wrestling and how she drew money for WWE. Police initially reported the death as a “possible overdose”, Los Angeles County’s Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said.
The wrestler, as those familiar with her career know, had battled substance abuse and emotional issues for much of her life. But it was immediately clear the raven-haired Chyna could break through as a star in her own right, said Jack Jorgensen, an editor with the sports and entertainment website Fansided. On this show, Ms. Laurer confided on camera that she had no friends and once tried to end her life by taking pills in the hopes of overdosing. If you believe many WWE rumors for many years, her ex-boyfriend Triple H and Stephanie McMahon pushed her away from the company.
After a almost 10-year run in WWE, Chyna left in 2007. She also appeared on four seasons of “My Fair Brady”, “Celebrity Rehab with Dr”.
Though she was not a fan of the sport, Ms. Laurer eventually joined a wrestling school led by Killer Kowalski, one of the sport’s dominant figures from the 1950s to the ’70s. She was introduced as a heel-wrestling speak for an antagonist-and was a founding member of the D-Generation X stable of wrestlers, along with Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Rick Rude. Neighbors also say that Chyna seemed “under the influence” of drugs in the days before her death.
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Born Joan Marie Laurer on December 27, 1969, Chyna first rose to prominence in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1997.
