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Chyna (Joanie Laurer) attended Killer Kowalski's Wrestling School in 1995 which is where she met Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Voted "Rookie Of The Year 1996" by the PGWA, Joanie became part of the WWF family in 1997 by making her debut as "Chyna", Triple H's valet. She was soon declared 'The Ninth Wonder Of The World' by ringside announcers since she was physically one of the largest (5'10" 190 lbs.) women anyone in the wrestling world had ever seen. Most male viewers however were left cold by her unfeminine appearance - she was too muscular, had no chest and was definitely not the desirable sex symbol that wow's the male audience. To the detriment of Triple H's opponents however, Chyna discovered that she could easily make the difference between her man winning or losing a match by giving them her lethal and now famous 'low blow'. Chyna and Triple-H quickly went on to team up with the WWF World Champion Shawn Michaels in 1997-98 and formed the irreverent and comical group D-Generation X. With athletes like X-Pac, Road Dogg and Bad Ass Billy Gunn this group was a major force to be reckoned with each and every week. Chyna became integral to the groups multiple victories and became quite skillful in interfering during a match by taking an opponent 'out' while the ref was being distracted by other member's of DX.
After publicly stating that she had no desire to go after the WWF Women's Championship Title since she didn't feel that there was much of a challenge facing other women, Chyna began blossoming into a well-liked (by fans anyway) and respected woman in a man's world. Obviously reveling in the excitement of testing herself in the ring against the men while enjoying her new found status as an up and coming Diva, she did quite well for herself while seizing several firsts in the wrestling world. In January 1999 Chyna became the first woman to compete in a Royal Rumble PPV as she continued her assault on the WWF men's division. Not content in just confronting her one time mentor Triple H (who was now in real life her significant other) she decided to battle the two Superstars of the WWF - Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock - and held her own against either in several matches.
This opened the door to the newcomer from the WCW, Y2J Chris Jericho who immediately began a hilarious verbal assault that led to some very fine physical and entertaining matches between the two. Eventually in December 1999 Chyna lost her Intercontinental Title Belt to Chris at the Armageddon PPV. Chyna then went on to aid Y2J wherever and whenever she could while at the same time it was rumored that her real life romance with HHH was beginning to go downhill. This seemed to be due to the continuing Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley marriage storyline apparently bringing Steph and Triple H closer together on a personal level.
In August 2000 Chyna regained the Intercontinental Title after Commissioner Mick Foley set up an Intergender Tag Team Match for the Summer Slam PPV. The match pitted Val & Trish Stratus against Eddie & Chyna, but with the stipulation that whomever got the pin would be declared the Intercontinental Champion. After a lengthy and hard fought battle Chyna was able to pin Trish and become the Intercontinental Champion for the 2nd time in her career. To continue her "roll" it was officially announced in September that her first Playboy Photo Shoot would be featured in the November issue. For the next few weeks Chyna and Eddie battled against the "Right To Censor" who were outraged that she would pose in the nude. During this time Eddie began to get upset over her upcoming Playboy appearance and started mistreating the "Ninth Wonder" which obviously wasn't sitting well with her at all. As a matter of fact during an episode of Raw Commissioner Foley decided that Chyna, Eddie and Kurt Angle would be in a triple threat match. Screwed over by Eddie, Chyna lost her Intercontinental Title that night, but there was quite a discussion during the next Smackdown about where their relationship was heading. A few weeks later Eddie asked his "Mamacita" to marry him and Chyna accepted!
Chyna then teamed up with Billy Gunn while battling both Eddie Guerrero and the "Right To Censor" until mid-December, when she received a supposed neck injury from Ivory who delivered a spike piledriver to her opponent. Actually this storyline allowed Chyna to take time off from wrestling to make personal publicity appearances pushing her new "workout" video. It was also now rumored that Chyna’s Playboy had sold over 1,000,000 copies and that it had exceeded the Playboy that featured Sable by approximately 200,000 copies.
Once again Chyna's "injuries" allowed her time off until April 2001 so she could promote her biography entitled "If They Only Knew". During this time off it was also announced that Chyna would be featured in a second Playboy Photo Shoot. In March Ivory announced that Chyna wanted another Women's Title shot and since she had put her out of action once, she would do it again at the Wrestlemania X-Seven PPV in April. Unfortunately things did not turn out like Ivory had planned as Chyna "pressed" Ivory above her head and then let her drop like a box of rocks for the win.
In December 2001 it was announced that her 2nd Playboy magazine shoot was selling well, and it was rumored that Joanie had stated that she made more money from the two magazines than in her entire WWF career. Going from a physical female "brawler" to a full blown Diva, Chyna showed women that it was possible to make it in the testosterone male world of the WWF, and how to do it with class! Since that time though, Joanie "Chyna Doll" Laurer has had very limited success, and much to our dismay has had a number of catastrophes in her faltering post-WWE career.
In January 2005, Laurer was arrested for domestic assault after allegedly beating Waltman. One week later she appeared on the Howard Stern Show where she was described as a "pathetic" mess. In March, 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. Joanie popped in and out of the news for the next two years, starred in The Surreal Life TV show and acted in a film called "Illegal Aliens", which apparently just about everyone ignored. There were rumors and stories of problems with drugs and/or booze, with several photos taken of the one-time Playboy model showing that she had slipped a long way in her appearance and life. In August 2007 it was reported that Joanie "Chyna Doll" Laurer had checked herself into rehab, with VH1 picking up the tab and making a deal to turn her stay into a Reality TV program.
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