The heartbreaking story of Joanie Laurer, aka Chyna.

[Headlesspete]

Apologies in advance, I know there’s a thread already, but I felt that should be left for more condolences etc, whereas this is a much different tone.

I'm absolutely devastated. A friend text me the news this morning as we were talking about Chyna last night at work. Funnily enough, we mentioned how Chyna was such a ground-breaking woman and how she stood out from any other woman WWE has had. As soon as I read the text I started to tear up. And as soon as I saw Twitter and the like, the tears kept on coming. I’m not ashamed to say this is the first death of a celebrity that’s really hit me hard. Not because she was one of my all-time favourites (although she certainly was up there), I just can't get over the fact she was so desperate for help, and tried so many times to mend fences, and yet WWE did nothing to help her. This isn’t a rant about the tragic figure of Joanie Laurer and how her life ended up, this is a reality check about a company that savagely destroyed a womans life that did so much for their company, before ignoring her pleas for help and allowing her to succumb to her problems that they, the WWE, are largely responsible for.

The fact is WWE ruined Chyna's life, and the poor woman never physiologically got over I, leading to her downfall. Stephanie and Hunter had an affair for over a year behind Chyna’s back, and when Chyna finally found out about it, not only did the company she helped so much turn against her, they seemed to go out of their way to rid themselves of this “burden”. From demoting her to the womans division to lowballing her on pay, WWE seemed intent on making sure Chyna left WWE. To add insult to injury, they refused to allow her to use her in ring name, and blacklisted her from company's she could work for or TV shows she could be on.

At this point I ask, how would you feel about this if it were applied to your real life? You work in company that you love, a dream job. You get paid a massive salary and even get promoted to a top spot, and even better, you fall in love with a fellow college! Great! Except your boyfriend then cheats on you with the boss daughter, you get demoted for no apparent reason and your salary drops significantly You then get released from your dream job, having done ABSOULY NOTHING WRONG. So you now have to find a new job, only your former boss and company then stop you from getting a job elsewhere by telling other company’s not to hire you, and refusing to allow you to use the name you worked so hard to get famous in the first place! And the job skills you worked so hard to attain? They become useless as you find yourself with very few possibilities. Can anyone say if this happened to them, they’d be Ok with it? That they wouldn’t have struggled to get over this? I’ve lost a menial job before and it sucked! She lost her dream job, boyfriend and fanbase over something she had no part in.

Having had all that shit go down, she went down a dark road, and we all know what happened there. I won’t go into detail as it’s tasteless to rake up her more shameful moments so soon after her passing. Yeah she made a lot of mistakes after WWE, but let’s not forget the starting incident that led her down this path was something she had nothing to do with.

So then after years of being in that dark place, she tries to turn her life around. She's trying to stop the drinking and the drugs, and it seems she may actually be on the road to recovery. I'm sure she saw Jake the Snake and Scott Halls resurrection story’s and Hall of Fame induction, and thought maybe she could too finally put hr demon’s aside and too take one finale bow in the spotlight. She was clearly a woman who needed, craved even, some kind of acknowledgment, that "Yes, you meant a lot to our industry", " yes your a pioneer for woman", and "Yes, you deserve to have the fans remember you and applaud you one final time". Hell, WWE owned her a massive appogy fullstop for how they treated her back in 2001, but no, all Chyna wanted was something or someway to say goodbye to the fans who she loved. And so the WWE, a company well known for helping those former wrestlers when they need help....did fuck all! I've seen the videos and tweets, Chyna was desperate to make amends, desperate to sort things out, and desperate for help. And WWE as per usual when it comes to Chyna, ignored her. And why? Because the couple that fucked up Chyna's life in the first place, don't want to acknowledge her or give the company bad PR.

Here's a video of Chyna asking in a very reasonable and respectful manor asking to sort things out, so bullshit on those saying she was a mess who was just wanting to cause trouble. ( - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNdSw7DTpHI). It wouldn’t have taken much for Triple H, Stephanie and Vince to have met with her just once, and to see if they could come to a peaceful resolution. Just some decency and respect was all Chyna wanted, and considering how they treated her, it was the least she deserved. Instead, she was shunned and ignored, and as much as I hate to speculate, she obviously felt worthless to the point she no longer felt wanted.

And what makes me even more sick now, is the fakeness of WWE and how it’s handling the situation. Admittedly, WWE can't win now, s they’ll be criticized no matter what they do. But just a few things that stick out as absolute bullshit. The fact on WWE.Com they have a piece on Chyna's passing, and who's tweet do they use to show WWE's sadness? Stephanie McMahons! Really?. I see Shane McMahon posting on Twitter how sad it is that Chyna passed and how she was a friend. Funny....because I remember not too long ago Chyna tweeting at Shane saying she missed him and hoped he was OK...and got no response. I see all these wrestlers posting about how great she was and how much they respected her….well that really helps after the poor woman’s gone. Ya know, if just 20% of the WWE staff had shown Chynba this "sadness" and respect before she passed, the woman would have actually felt wanted and cared for and wouldn’t have had all the shit that she got herself into, and I would assume never would have passed away so young. The only legitimate person I’ve seen post about Chyna is Mick Foley. You know what he put? “Joanie, I'm so sorry. I will always treasure our friendship and will never forget your kindness to my children. RIP”. I’m no expert, but based on that tweet and a heart-breaking story he posted on Facebook, it’s clear to me Mick knows he should have done more for his friend. Everyone who is now calling themselves her friend should have done more. It took an entire company to ignore her for 15 years and make her feel worthless; it would have taken one person out that company to make her feel wanted and worthwhile.
The WWE need to be held accountable for what’s happened. I know Chyna was a grown woman who could make her own choices, but the WWE were all too well aware of her struggles, physiologically and mentally. They watched numerous wrestlers before her go down the same dark path, and yet unlike those who WWE wanted to help, they offered Chyna none. They can throw all the video packages, memorial tweets and Hall of Fame inductions all they want, it won’t change the fact they let this happen .

I don’t know if I even want to support a company anymore that can act the way they have. I get angry at WWE for such silly petty things, and then this happens. It’s no longer fake, it’s no longer funny. It’s about the life and death of a tragic woman, and about a company that ruined her life and made things so much worse. The Ultimate Warrior and Macho Man Randy Savage died with the fans respect, but more importantly, they died with their own self-respect and self-worth intact. Chyna passed away feeling worthless and alone, and for that, I can’t forgive the WWE.

[Hanley!]

I'm putting myself in the unfavourable position of siding against a recently deceased woman, and the unfamiliar position of siding with the WWE ... but I don't think you're being entirely fair here.

Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree with everything you're saying. I think Stephanie and Triple H should feel guilty about what they put her through. That wasn't right. Infidelity isn't something to be proud of in any situation, but it must have been particularly embarrassing for Chyna the way this played out in both her workplace and in public. And it's possible that she never really recovered from what happened.

That being said, I wouldn't agree that she did nothing wrong to lead to her release from the company. By all accounts, she played backstage politics too. She was elevated above her talent level, and then refused to put people over and made unreasonable demands. She could afford to do this because she was protected politically because of who her boyfriend was. Once that changed, she didn't have that protection anymore, and these things started to get her into trouble. So I think it was more of a "live by the sword, die by the sword" situation.

WWE had conditioned her to believe that she could carry on this way, so perhaps they deserve some of the blame for her being difficult to work with too. But I certainly wouldn't say she was an innocent party.

And her working with the men was always a controversial situation and not necessarily the best one. I don't think there was anything wrong with putting her against women again. She had more to offer that division in many ways.

As for them not working with her or putting her back on television, that's a tough call to make. They're very concerned with their image. Maybe too concerned sometimes. And Chyna carried a lot of baggage with her. She had a lot of issues, that she didn't face up to the way she maybe should have. Some of the responsibility for that has to be on her. Putting her on television or doing something with her would have been a risk. You made the comparison with Jake the Snake and Scott Hall, and they too were kept off television until they managed to turn things around.

They had a little help though, and I guess that's what's saddest about Chyna's story. While guys like Scott and Jake remained legends in the eyes of the fans, Chyna's star faded after her release. She was very much of her era, and outside of that era people forgot about her to a large degree. Maybe if more people had tried to reach out to her for support the way DDP did with those guys, she'd still be alive today. Who knows? But I don't think you can exactly blame individual wrestlers for not doing so. People should be applauded for going the extra mile in being kind to others, but ultimately adults must be responsible for themselves.

It makes me sad too, that she seems to have been so isolated at the end of her life and that this might have led to her untimely death. It's a tragic story, and one that's going to resonate with a lot of fans. But I don't think appointing blame is the healthiest approach right now.

[Str8Shooter]

You're throwing around a lot of accusations towards WWE in there. Even the fact that Trips and Steph carried on an affair for over a year? What proof do you have that that even happened? Have they admitted to this or is it wrestling legend? And even if they did, it's a scummy move but you can't be blaming something from 15 years ago continually for ruining your life, she has had lots of chances since then to turn it around.

You seem to be absolving her of any blame for her own untimely death. I really don't want to have to get into the gory details but given your diatribe I may have no choice. Chyna fell into a big time drug addiction, which is terrible and I've had family affected by it that lead to their deaths, and it sucks. But at some point you have to take responsibility for your own actions, isn't that even one of the things they tell you in rehab? Not to make excuses for your addiction? She was gone from WWE, they didn't force her to take any drug, they didn't force her to enter the porn industry.

There have been lots of former wrestlers to got a raw deal and had to fight to make a living after leaving WWE, some of them have been able to and some have fallen victims to their demons. WWE actually pays for rehab for former employees, and some have had them pay for their rehab upwards of 4 or 5 times. WWE has done scummy things to be sure in their day, but to blame them for Chyn'a death when she passed away 15 years after last working there is just out of anger and grief in my opinion.

It's not like she was calm and measured asking to come back for years, she has publicly claimed that Triple H was abusive to her, and participated willingly in porn parodies of WWE involving fake versions of Hunter and Stephanie. We can't act surprised and appalled that WWE has wanted to keep their distance from her.

[Daz]

To think a relationship that broke down had anything to do with her death 15 years after the fact is ridiculous. A lot of time passed and a lot of bad decisions were made by the individual after that, and bringing it back to that isn't fair to the people left behind. It was a shitty thing they did, and it my have played a role in costing her her job, although by all accounts there were other things at work there too.

At the end of the day, Chyna was a grown woman who should have been accountable for her own life.Drug issues are nothing to fuck with, but you can only help people if they want to be helped. And I doubt anyone here, if they had drug problems, would expect their employer of a decade previous to help them with that problems.She made bad life decisions, she made bad career decisions, and WWE distanced themselves from her, as was their right to do. As heartless as WWE can be sometimes, I can't help but think they didn't owe her anything.

You have to wonder why she didn't last in New Japan when she went over there following her WWE run. Why she didn't work with TNA more and why she pretty much never held down a stable job for the past 15 years. She may have posted videos about wanting to "sort things out" but like a year ago, she was accusing Triple H of beating and raping her, talking shit about WWE and lying through her teeth about X-Pac and getting into shouting matches with him on live radio where she was barely coherent. As a global company, why on earth would WWE take that on? She was far from their responsibility.

If Chyna needed help, the onus wasn't on WWE to give it to her. That should have been down to her family, her friends, and the woman herself. Unfortunately it seems she didn't get it.

[Twister]

Her death is very tragic and sad, but there are two sides to every story. Whilst they are not completely innocent in their treatment of Chyna, I don't think it's fair to point the finger solely at WWE. Her relationship breakdown with HHH was likely to have been the catalyst for her downfall but in regards to her WWE career she was not innocent either - better choices could have been made all round I'd imagine.

In 15 years of turmoil it is likely that she has had ample opportunity to address her issues and turn her life around. It's sad that she has never found the strength within herself to achieve this and it is sad that she was unable to seek support from those close to her and ultimately experienced what appears to be a very dark and lonely demise. I'm sure no one, not even HHH and Stephanie, wanted her life to turn out this way.

May she RIP, I do hope she's in a happier more peaceful place now.