Original subtitles

[waves breaking]

-You got the slow motion yet?

-No. We're gonna do that in editing.

-Give me one second. -All right.

[indistinct conversations, waves splashing]

[down-tempo music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

-My experience is really difficult to put in words

Because it's so far from the norm

And it's so far from any other female that I've met.

It was just so totally unaccepted at that time,

And I got shot down every time I tried to do something.

It was always two steps forward, one step back.

I knew in my heart that I was gonna end up doing something

Because that, I felt, has always been my destiny.

I would have to do that or I'd be a very unhappy person.

But I knew that I was going up against a lot.

♪♪

[dramatic music plays]

-She was living, breathing wonder woman.

♪♪

-Just an unbelievable sight to see.

-Look at the size of this woman.

♪♪

-She was the ninth wonder of the world.

♪♪

-She was a true superstar.

-Where did she come from, anyway?!

-The glass you hear break when austin's music hit,

That was the ceiling that chyna busted through.

-Chyna perhaps the most physically talented woman ever.

-You know, I don't want to just rise to the top

Of what the women are doing.

That's not why I joined this business.

-Ninth wonder of the world on fire here!

-Come get some!

Here we go! [crowd cheering]

-She knew how to stand there and let you drink it in.

-When she came out and she was as big as the dude

And could beat the dude up -- like, holy mackerel.

This is a whole new thing. We haven't seen this before.

-Yes. [crowd cheering]

-What? Women can do what else?

-She did things in the ring that females had never done,

And it took her to another level.

-First female intercontinental champion.

First king of the ring female participant.

First female participant/entrant into the wwe royal rumble.

-I feel that it's time for a new breed of female pro wrestlers.

-You don't slow that train down.

You let that train pull into the station and blow people's minds.

-She was a sought-after sex symbol,

Someone you'd make a movie about.

-She is the ninth wonder of the world.

To readers of playboy, she is the November cover girl.

-From the time I was a little girl,

I wanted to be this famous, larger-than-life woman.

-She shot up to fame like a meteor

That just kind of disappears... And is gone.

-I want to be top of what I'm doing.

And even though I feel like I have the ability to do that,

I can't.

-The downward spiral was so dramatic

That that's what people remember.

-Towards the end, the drug use sort of escalated.

-She tried to drink away that hurt,

And she tried to snort away that hurt,

And she tried to smoke away that hurt.

-It's one thing to get to the top of the mountain.

It's another thing altogether to stay there.

And it is lonely at the top.

-I'm chyna. I'm a champion.

♪♪

[mid-tempo music plays]

♪♪

-It's one of the greatest days I ever had

Was when joanie was born.

I remember her being delivered very quickly.

I was kind of hoping maybe she would be a christmas baby,

But as usual, she had to do things the different way.

-Right out of the gate, she was a very happy baby.

Always had a smile on her face. She was giggly.

She's just so stinkin' cute. She really was.

[laughs] she was a cute baby.

-She and sonny and kathy, when they were all little,

They would play a lot together.

-At an early age, you could tell

That joanie was really enjoying being in the spotlight.

Always wanting to entertain people.

-Joanie was always a great self-motivator.

But if there was an outside factor that was motivating her,

It was to impress her big sister.

-We used to play charades an awful lot,

And my grandparents were a really good audience,

And she fed into that.

-She'd put on these puppet shows,

And she'd have the little puppets,

And she'd do this, and she'd do that,

And she'd be coming out the side and smiling

And blah, blah, blah, and she'd have everybody in stitches.

[down-tempo music plays]

-So, we moved an awful lot as children.

Um, I can't even tell you how many apartments

We moved around in the city to.

There was always -- usually a financial struggle going on

Of some sort.

-Most of her memories from childhood were negative.

Her family struggled financially.

They were on welfare.

They bounced around from one low-rent apartment to the next.

They depended on food stamps a lot of times.

♪♪

-It's one thing to be struggling

With not being able to buy the kids clothes.

But there's another thing about the tension and the fear

And the horrible feeling that you feel all the time

When you're put in those types of circumstances

That you can't hide.

-Whenever joanie would talk about her life

Before she found pro wrestling, it was always one person.

And that was kathy.

Not only did they have that sisterhood bond,

Kathy was very motherly

And in a lot of ways looking after her and being a protector.

-I remember that my father was a heavy drinker.

He was an alcoholic.

He would go in the hospital.

And going to visit him, and his eyeballs were yellow

From his liver failure.

I remember a time that he chased my mom around

With a butcher knife.

-He picked up this -- it was a butcher knife.

And he started chasing me with it.

And the cops came. It was terrible.

And you've got three little kids, you know?

And they're -- they're screaming and...

Oh.

Those were bad days. [chuckles]

-It was not good.

It was really scary for little kids.

There was a lot going on at home,

Which didn't allow us to really feel secure there,

Because my brother left home at 16.

Luckily, I was going into college, so I was out of there.

And I think joanie, unfortunately,

Was sort of abandoned by sonny and I,

And she was stuck there.

♪♪

-Eventually, chyna's birth parents divorced,

And by the time she was 16,

Her mom was on her third husband.

-If I did ever come home from college or we talked,

There was just a great sense of unhappiness.

There was a lot of arguing going on.

They were accusing her of doing drugs

Or hanging out with bad people.

-That's when I found what I thought was marijuana.

There was a drug rehab building just down the street from us.

And so I told her -- I said, "come on. We're gonna go."

♪♪

And we went in, and they wanted to take a sample of her urine.

So they sent me into the bathroom with her,

And she went in the cup and threw it at me.

Just threw it at me.

It was very, um...

What's the right word? Defiant.

Like, "all right. Take that."

-She had caught her with some marijuana

And just basically kicked her out.

-Give me a break.

I mean, what kid doesn't smoke pot, right?

I just don't like the way that whole thing was handled.

-"then I'll go live with my father."

Well, at that time, I couldn't stop her.

-When her mother kicked her out of the house at age 16,

She never saw chyna again.

[down-tempo music plays]

One thing that really saved chyna

Was when she was in high school,

She became interested in lifting weights.

And she kind of found a safe haven in the gym.

Every day after school, she would pretty much race

To the gym and stay there till it closed.

-I think she felt very comfortable in the gym.

It was a place where she could go.

She felt safe.

She felt that she wasn't being judged on her appearance,

Based on other places, where maybe people would say

She's too jacked or she looks weird,

She's trying to look like a guy or, you know, whatever.

I think being at the gym was really sort of her safe place.

When joanie left home, she moved in with my father, joe laurer,

And I think he encouraged her to go be her best self.

There was really not a lot of control going on in that house.

He just sort of said, "go do whatever you want to do."

-Two years later, she was in college.

She attended the university of tampa.

She graduated from there in 1991.

You know, she definitely was trying to make something

Of herself.

But at the same time, once he graduated,

She still didn't quite know what she wanted to do.

She was kind of drifting along in life,

Trying to find her place.

She was working all sorts of odd jobs.

She tried selling cars at one point.

She went and joined the peace corps.

She was doing singing telegrams.

She was a cocktail waitress at a strip club called melons.

-[laughs]

Mm!

♪♪

I don't know exactly what she did.

She told me, as her sister, that she was the hostess,

And I took her at face value on that.

♪♪

And then she got a job --

She was hired to work as an airline attendant.

She called me up one night

And said, "kathy, I got my first gig.

I'm flying out of miami tonight."

She drove to miami, didn't even get out of the keys,

And she was hit head on.

[mid-tempo music plays]

She landed in the hospital.

You know, her car was ruined.

She had -- basically her job was now down the toilet.

And I said to her, "joanie, that's enough.

Come to new hampshire. I'll get you a job.

We'll live together.

Let's just have you start over again here.

And let's do it together, as sisters."

♪♪

-The childhood chyna experienced

Really could have depleted a lot of people.

It could've really set a lot of people back.

But I think she was determined

Not to let that get the best of her.

I mean, she stared adversity in the face,

And she could have floundered, but instead she flourished.

♪♪

[down-tempo music plays]

-I met joanie 25 years ago.

It was a typical day at work.

A good, close friend of mine was the manager of a gym

In new hampshire.

He gave me a call and said,

"hey, I got one of my aerobics instructors that needs help.

She wants to do her first fitness show."

She comes around the corner,

And she had this big, huge smile,

This red hair, full of energy.

I walked away from that interview that day,

And I couldn't stop thinking about her.

And I know it's very unprofessional of me,

But I ended up calling her a few days later,

And I said, "listen. I have your plan.

I'm very excited for you.

We're definitely gonna do really well in this competition.

But would you like to go to the movies with me?"

[mid-tempo music plays]

-And then it blossomed into a relationship.

And their relationship really was centered around fitness,

Physique, working out, diet, their food.

I mean, it was all-encompassing in their lives,

And they both loved it.

-As the relationship evolved on a romantic standpoint,

On a preparation level,

We just kept going at it harder and better

And harder and better.

And she was all in. [dramatic music plays]

-I'm 5'9", I'm 170 pounds,

And this is what I have to offer.

-We would go to the gym.

Whatever idea I had in my head that week,

I would try it on her.

And it just kept working and working and working.

[up-tempo music plays]

And she responded like that.

-The numbers that she was putting up in the weight room

Were just insane.

She can bench-press 315 pounds, four reps.

-She was instantly getting stronger, instantly growing.

-Squatting 450 pounds, 10 to 12 reps.

-Good!

-Hard to fathom for a female.

-People in the gym didn't know what they were looking at.

They were doing double takes,

Like, "where did this girl come from?"

-In retrospect, she really was ahead of her time.

Because when I remember the two of us going to the gym,

There were no jacked women in there.

It wasn't a thing.

-If we would go out to a public place, like the mall,

Or we'd go to eat, people's heads turned.

People noticed she was different.

She loved that.

♪♪

-Another time, joanie said, "let's go to boston.

We're gonna go to a wrestling match."

And she said, "you and I are gonna dress up,

And we're just gonna go,

And we're gonna see what people say about us."

We had our costumes on, and we went in.

Right away, we were the center of attention,

Because people were looking at us,

Thinking, "should I know who these girls are?"

-People were turning away from the ring

And pointing at these girls in the stands

'cause their biceps were showing, they looked jacked up.

-Anybody that was sitting near us was watching us

And going, "are they gonna do something?"

Joanie loved it.

She was just soaking it up.

And joanie would say, "isn't this awesome?

People are looking at us." [laughs]

Someone said to us,

"you guys really should think about being tag-team wrestlers."

You know, we probably laughed it off at the time.

And on the way home, we were talking about it,

And joanie said, "you know what?

There might be something to that, kathy."

And I said, "hell no. I'm not in."

And she said, "okay. Well, I'm gonna do it."

And at the time, I kind of laughed, and I'm like, "sure."

[laughs]

"okay. Go ahead."

And, boy, did she prove me wrong.

Chyna, within days, had looked up killer kowalski.

[mid-tempo music plays]

-Professional wrestling is the most brutal sport of all.

Or is it?

Believe it or not, there's a secret school for pro wrestlers.

And we got inside.

To learn the secrets of wrestling,

You need to go to a place like this --

Killer kowalski's school of professional wrestling.

-He had the reputation of being tough, hard-nosed,

Physical type guy.

-Killer kowalski learned his secrets the hard way --

In the ring.

He earned his name, "killer,"

By knocking an opponent's ear off, then laughing at him.

-There was no nonsense in any of his matches.

It was just go in there and grab ahold

And grind your opponent down to the ground.

-Now killer imparts his secrets to a willing audience

Of hulk hogan wannabes.

-He couldn't stop staring at joanie.

He got up, walked right up to us,

And he says, "can I help you?"

And joanie's like, "well, you know,

We heard about your school.

We want to come in and see what it's all about."

And he goes, "all right."

So then he jumps in the ring,

And he starts doing his claw thing.

He goes, "this is what you do,"

And he, like, puts the claw in some guy,

And then he body-slams him.

And joanie was just shaking her head.

She didn't know what to make of it.

She approached him and said, "well, what do I have to do?

I'd like to do this."

He goes, "all right. Two thousand dollars."

-When we graduate from this school, we are professionals.

We come in here as novices, absolute amateurs.

But when we get through, we're mean!

-You know, "sign the waiver, pay the money.

Sign the waiver, pay the money."

-And she was like, "I don't have that kind of money on me."

-I said, "joanie, please, please do this.

This will be the greatest thing you ever do."

[dramatic music plays]

-And he said, "okay. I think you're legit.

I think you really want to do this.

But I want you to know

I'm not gonna give you any preferential treatment."

♪♪

"you're gonna go into the ring. You're gonna wrestle the guys.

They're gonna throw you around. You're gonna throw them around.

And it's gonna hurt."

-When guys get in the ring with a female,

There's a little bit of hesitation

Of "what are you gonna do?

How hard are you gonna swing? What if you miss?"

And you catch one or two potatoes from joanie,

And you realize she's tough enough and she can handle it.

-Come here! You see dinner? -[grunts]

-Oh! -Stay at home...

-Oh! -...Do the laundry...

-[grunts] -...Make somethin' to eat, huh?

-She used to come home with all sorts of bruises,

Black and blue everywhere.

-Oh!

-I can manhandle any guy in here.

-In a sadistic sort of way, I think she thrived on that.

You know, "I'm not backing down."

-Right here. Get a close-up of that.

I want everybody to see that. -[grunts]

-I got taught by the best.

That's walter kowalski.

-[breathing heavily]

-I've wrestled men. I've wrestled women, okay?

And I've beat them all.

-Word started going around. Like, "this girl is crazy!"

-Anybody else that steps in that ring is gonna do the same thing,

Because I'm gonna leave them behind me

Like the trash I left out yesterday morning.

-Joanie quit her job, and she chased wrestling.

[crowd cheering]

-She started collecting all the video footage, pictures.

She made her own portfolio.

She spent hours upon hours on a vhs machine

With a camcorder, making her own promotional video.

-I spent a lot of hours in the gym, bodybuilding,

And now I'm putting that bodybuilding to use

In the wrestling ring.

-Joanie right away started making sure

She looked television-ready

And presented herself as a professional

Before she got to that level.

-Whoa!

-And if you're hungry enough

And you keep scratching for that food, you get it.

-[grunts]

-[grunts] -[grunts]

-Like pretty much everybody

Hanging around the wrestling business at that time,

You know, joanie's goal was very simple.

She wanted to be in wwe.

[mid-tempo music plays] -she ended up getting in her car

With the promotional tape, portfolio, everything,

And driving down to massachusetts.

-We were coming back from a show,

And we were staying in a hotel

At the springfield airport -- massachusetts.

One of the agents that I respected most

Was in there talking to her.

And shawn and I see the size of her,

And we're like, "holy s***."

-Two-hundred-pound, just jacked woman.

I mean, just had such a stunning presence.

I'll be honest. That was her sales pitch.

-So those guys had an eye for talent back then.

And when they looked at joanie, they saw talent.

-The more opponents that I can meet,

The better I'm gonna be.

And that's what my goal is -- to be the best.

♪♪

[up-tempo music plays]

-We had all seen beautiful women as valets, as seconds.

But no one had ever seen the likes of joanie.

-[laughing] I'm not sure who that was supposed to hurt.

-Oh, these girls can really take it.

Here she comes, running right over to the ropes.

-You know, before chyna came on the scene,

Female wrestling was, like, the popcorn match.

And they called that the match that they put on the card

When nothing was really going on,

When people would go to the bathroom or go buy popcorn.

[crowd cheering, announcer shouting indistinctly]

-That shampoo in the eyes.

-Those nails, they're digging in -- whoa!

What? -Well, wait a --

-Back that it was, you know, stupid, silly

Paddle-on-the-pole match, bra-and-panties match,

Tarred-and-feathered match.

I mean, like, just stupid s***.

-Backhand shot there. Another knockdown.

-[screaming] -oh, ivory down to her bra.

-Chyna came through and busted that glass ceiling

And kind of said, "you ain't putting me in a bad light.

I'll take your light and shove it."

-There's only one heartbreak kid --

Shawn michaels!

-Shawn michaels and triple h, they were at the top

Of the pecking order at that time in the wwe.

So for them to put themselves on the line for joanie,

She had to produce.

-No one's ever done that in the business before --

A big, jacked-up female heater.

-I know both of us at the same time were thinking,

Like, "ooh. Female bodyguard."

-We brought it to vince, and he hated it.

-Like, "oh, come on. No one's gonna buy that."

-"nobody's gonna want to sell for a girl.

J**** c*****, you guys are morons."

-Meanwhile, goldust has cost helmsley...

-This was something we both really believed in.

We just knew it would work.

-"but if she's a screw-up, if she's a head case, it's on you.

It's your fault."

-You can have all the credentials in the world

If you're a football player.

They hand you the ball, you better not fumble.

Well, joanie didn't fumble.

-Who in the hell's that? Who is that?

-What in the world?! -Is that a -- is that a woman?

-She was an anonymous figure first,

Coming and grabbing marlena from the crowd.

And just this physical specimen of a woman,

Unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

-Security taking that lady away.

-Throw her in jail!

-I vividly remember the first time I saw joanie.

I was actually in the audience, kind of in disguise.

[crowd cheering]

-What an insult! -She slapped helmsley!

-And we saw joanie come out of the crowd

And shake terri runnels like a rag doll.

-There's that woman again! [dramatic music plays]

That amazon is squeezing the life out of little marlena!

-She shook the living dog caca out of me.

The smaller I was, the larger joanie was,

The more amazing it looked.

I remember telling her, "don't go easy.

I would much rather it hurt me tomorrow

Than it looked like s*** on live tv."

The next morning, we were in the hotel,

And I went to turn, and I was like...

It was like I had been in some god-awful car crash.

♪♪

She arrived.

Welcome to the party, girl.

You're now officially one of us.

[down-tempo music plays] [crowd cheering]

-Talk about your psalms. Talk about john 3:16.

Austin 3:16 says, "I just whipped your ass."

[crowd cheering] -if you smell...

What the rock...

Everywhere I go somewhere today,

Somebody will come up to me and talk about the attitude era.

There was never anything like it to that point,

And there will never be anything like it in the future.

[crowd cheering] -oh!

-Wwe had traditionally been a pretty conservative company.

But by the late '90s, the presentation had changed.

Limits were being pushed.

The attitude era pushed every envelope,

Crossed every line possible.

But that was by design.

-Wwe was going hard head-to-head against wcw.

And at that time, wcw was winning.

They were stealing left and right, taking our superstars.

And wwe had to come up with something special,

Something unique.

-As wwe was becoming edgier,

I think dx was at the forefront of that.

D-generation x -- triple h, hbk, chyna.

-Hunter and shawn are pretty much at the top of this thing,

And that's how she was coming in.

[crowd shouting]

[mid-tempo music plays]

-You make your rules, and we will break 'em!

-You'd see hunter and shawn out there

Acting like immature schoolboys

That should be sent to the principal.

And then in the back was chyna -- no nonsense,

Staring straight ahead at the camera with her arms folded.

She was the straight man that dx needed.

Like, in comic terms, there's the straight man, right?

We needed to have somebody that was like the rudder

For all of the other immaturity

To kind of bounce off of and bounce around.

-Show us what you're bringing to the barbecue, girl.

[crowd shouting]

That is the big stick.

-Before joanie even debuted in wwe,

You know, the company wanted to come up with a name for her.

And they pitched a bunch of names her way --

Venus, thallon, she-ra --

And she didn't like any of those names.

Then she remembered she had known a stripper

Who called herself chyna,

And she described that chyna as exotic and intoxicating.

And that was kind of what she was going for.

[down-tempo music plays]

-If joanie was at ringside,

You're watching her as much as you're watching the match.

-In the beginning, all she had to do was just stand there

And people were like, "well, what's going on

With that person right there? What is that?"

-When she would move, the crowd would react

'cause she never moved.

-When she stood there with her arms crossed

And those biceps and those delts...

-...197 pounds!

The woman has a 320-pound bench press!

-She's got muscles in places I don't even have places.

That's how she got the name the ninth wonder of the world.

-So, of course, andre the giant

Was the eighth wonder of the world.

[crowd cheering] -...Andre the giant!

[bell chimes]

-He turned heads.

He caused you to drop your jaw and say, "wow.

I heard he was big, but I didn't know he was that big."

And when you saw chyna, you did the same thing.

-Chyna was dangerous.

[dramatic music plays]

♪♪

It wasn't throwing miss elizabeth in front,

Who's, you know, delicate,

And a chivalrous man would never touch miss elizabeth.

But, like, you throw chyna in front,

There's a new dynamic there, a little confusion.

"my god. This woman's hit me,

And it feels like a man hitting me.

Am I my supposed to hit her back?"

[crowd cheering]

-In the formative years of chyna with dx,

Nobody laid a hand on her.

-Striking joanie was off the table, so we had to be creative.

-There's a concern always with your top male wrestlers.

Just from a presentation of a character,

You don't want to emasculate them.

There's a way to do it where the female star can be elevated,

But the male star doesn't have to be brought down a notch.

-A lot of the pitch was designed around

We would make sure that we would take care of those guys

So that when she did show offense

Or look to be, you know, beating up a man, so to speak,

We would put them in a vulnerable enough position

That it seemed plausible for her to be able to do that.

-Kick this amazonian out of here!

[announcer shouting indistinctly]

-Look out from behind! -Look at this!

-Oh! What kick to the ribs!

Chyna with -- oh, my goodness!

She knocks goldust right down to the canvas!

-I remember one major star just flat-out saying, "no.

I'm not going to let a woman do that to me."

He actually used some more colorful language.

-You're complaining about getting beat up by a woman?

-And I kind of stepped up as soon as I had the chance

And said, "let's do something.

-Hunter hearst helmsley, along with his female bodyguard,

The 200-pound chyna.

[mid-tempo music plays]

-Triple h reversed an irish whip outside on the floor,

And joanie power-slammed me into the stairs.

[crowd cheering]

And I believe that opened up a discussion

Among my colleagues, who thought,

"if mick will do it, then I guess we can."

-Now, wait a minute! Unbelievable!

-See, the thing is that I get paid not so much to talk,

But to kick guys in the 'nads, more or less.

-Oh!

♪♪

-At the end of the day, you want to make

The best impression you can with your time in the ring.

And I think all of us were well served

By having joanie get involved in our matches.

I loved it.

-Chyna's ring debut came as a bodyguard

For hunter hearst helmsley.

But now she's one of the stars of the show.

-Most girls shouldn't be wrestling guys.

And most girls aren't chyna.

And if you can find another woman like me,

Then we'll talk about it.

-I don't think anything could have prepared her

For the speed with which her career took off.

It was like the millennium falcon.

They're driving through space, and han solo hits the pedal,

And all of a sudden, they're at warp speed.

[mid-tempo music plays]

-Gosh. It was like -- my head's spinning.

Getting ready to go on the road again tomorrow, so...

But this has been a lot of work and a lot of fun.

-She was overwhelmed and excited and giddy.

She couldn't believe it. You want to just pinch yourself.

Like, "I can't believe I'm actually doing this."

♪♪

-One of the things that a lot of fans don't realize

Is the camaraderie that is inside a wrestling company

Like the wwe.

She found some relationships in dx

That she hadn't had as a kid growing up.

[indistinct conversations, laughter]

-You guys are the best!

-When joanie was traveling with the wwe

During the height of her fame,

Joanie would often tell me that these were the people

That she could bond with very easily.

-See? It's on our shirts. Look. Look.

-Say, "suck it." -say it.

-See? It's on our shirts. "suck it."

-Ooh. No. [laughter]

-I think the acceptance that joanie found

In the wwe dressing rooms meant a lot to her.

-It was very laid back.

It was really like you were at home with your family.

-It can sound like a cliché, but in this case, it was true.

Joanie was one of the boys. We really accepted her.

We loved her. We loved having her around.

-Like, you could be in awe

Or enamored by her physical appearance.

But when you fell in love with chyna

Was when you got to know her.

-She was very motherly with me.

You know -- "shawn."

-You see this, but you meet her, and you just see this.

You know what I mean? And it's just --

You just want to hug her.

-You were enamored by this body.

But then she would giggle and laugh,

And it was just like she was this little girl.

-For a period of time, my daughter, noelle,

Who was 4 at the time,

Considered joanie to be her very best friend.

-So, I would be backstage a lot,

And my dad would go off and do his thing.

So joanie was always the one that would take care of me,

Hang out with me.

She would do my hair and my nails

And just hang out like two best friends.

-And it was just adorable.

This magnificent woman,

Who was one of the most popular people in wwe

And one of the most recognizable faces

In popular culture at the time, is her best friend.

-I don't think people realize what it is that we actually do.

The part where we're in the ring is not really where the work is.

The work is traveling 250 days out of the year,

Trying to keep your body in shape,

You know, trying to deal with life outside the ring.

It's a lot of work.

-Joanie and paul were together all the time

Because they were traveling on the road.

I think they had a lot in common as friends

And it blossomed into a relationship.

-Eighty percent of our relationship

Encompasses wrestling.

-When it all happened, it happened fast.

Me and her were in a serious relationship.

She started going on the road with paul.

She would go away for four or five days.

She would come home for a day or two.

She'd go away for ten days. She'd be home for a day or two.

And it started ripping me apart.

So at some point, we had to have the sit-down,

And we just decided, "okay. That's it.

We'll go our separate ways,

And if at some point 20 years down the road,

We can be friends again, we'll do it.

-Their relationship just kind of formed,

And I don't think any of us knew when that happened.

-I noticed they checked into one hotel room.

And I was like, "oh, okay. Well, maybe they --"

Because I didn't think they were anything

But workout partners and friends.

-It was just after a while, you sort of, you know, see them

Quietly chatting with each other, and it's like,

"doesn't look like that's a business conversation."

-I asked hunter, and hunter finally said, like, "yeah.

We get the same room every night, dude.

We've been going out for..." [laughs] you know?

And I was like, "oh, my god. I didn't even see that."

-I remember the first time they came to my house as a couple.

They stepped into the back door,

And they were like these two giants side by side.

They were larger than life, but they were so happy together.

-I think that hunter was the best friend

That she probably never had as a child growing up.

[indistinct conversations]

-Hmm. What are you gonna get?

-You could tell. They worked out together.

They did everything together.

They, like, held each other accountable.

-How about some turkey and cheese?

-Just a regular toasted bagel.

-Butter on it? -A little tiny, tiny bit.

-Can I put it on the side? -Yes. That's better.

-We would go to denny's, and I would get moons over my hammy,

And they would get 12 egg whites and steamed so-and-so.

You know what I mean? And dry wheat toast.

They just did everything together, exactly alike.

It was almost like, how could they ever have an argument?

They both agree that we should do chest and triceps on Tuesday.

♪♪

-They're both muscleheads, for sure.

Very much into body building.

-I'd be on the recumbent cycle, and I would just watch them

Do each other's elbows and chalk up and "ra-a-h!"

-[grunts]

-[grunts] [plates clank]

-[grunts] -they worked out every day.

They wrapped their knees and squatted until they threw up

And said, "if you don't throw up when you're doing squats,

You ain't doing it right."

-I've never met somebody

That can train as focused or hard as chyna does.

-He was very respectful of joanie, very encouraging of her.

And again, this is another man in her life

That accepted her just the way that she was.

-If it were not for paul,

She would not have made it as easily in our industry,

Because paul smartened her up

And really taught her what to do, what not to do.

That is a gift that he gave her.

-Atten-tion!

-Ooh! -Ugh!

[laughter] [laughing] geez!

-We are d-generation x, and we will take no prisoners!

Who rules the world of professional wrestling?!

-D-generation x! -D-generation x!

-Yeah!

[crowd cheering] -holy moly!

-Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

-I remember joanie saying she was tired of the guys

Always, uh, showing off their -- their butts.

-Shawn and billy and hunter all had nice asses,

So they would moon the people.

I go, "I'm not mooning the people.

I got a big zit on my right cheek and, like, hair."

Anyway... -Did it ever occur to you guys

That people are sick and tired

Of looking at your asses every week?

-Everybody wants to see our ass. What's your point?

[crowd cheering]

-Whoo! -Oh, my!

They got us. They...

-Fshh! She's starting to moon people now.

And of, course, clearly she was in phenomenal shape.

-My daughter turned to me, and she said,

"why chyna showing her peaches?"

That was a father-daughter talk

That I rather would not have had.

-It allowed the audience to see

A whole different side of her personality.

And I think that's when she really started

To get over individually, because there was so much there,

And they were finally getting to see that.

That was all by design -- to go very slow

So that in the long run, she was her own brand,

Her own commodity.

-It's been real hard

Because I always wanted to break away a little bit.

-Now, there seems to be this discrepancy

About whether we should stay together

Or whether we should...Split.

-It broke my heart a little, personally, when we split up.

But in professional wrestling, you don't stay a team forever.

When dx splits and goes its own separate way,

Chyna sort of does her own thing.

-It's extremely frustrating sometimes.

I would have to stand outside the ring

While hunter did this great stuff.

Every step I take, I'll say, "okay. Let's try it.

But it probably won't be that good."

And then I achieve it,

And they allow me to move to the next level,

The next step, to do something else.

♪♪

[birds crying]

-It's a marathon, not a sprint

To keep your head above water in wwe

And to really stand the test of time, which joanie did.

So I think it was really beneficial to her

That she was outside the ring, causing destruction

Before we saw her actually set foot in the ring

As a competitor.

And when she did, she knocked everyone's socks off.

[dramatic music plays]

♪♪

-Val venis running right into the clothesline.

-From the very beginning, there were no opponents,

From a female perspective, on her side.

But once she started putting together a string of matches,

That's when her special athletic ability shined.

[crowd cheering] -here we go!

-Bang! Oh, my god! -Handspring elbow, one side!

Handspring elbow, other side!

Chyna upside down. Up over, jericho.

-Power was at the forefront of joanie's offense.

-Chyna now... -Oh!

[crowd cheering, announcers shouting indistinctly]

♪♪

-To see a woman press-slamming men...

-Oh! Chyna showing unbelievable strength.

-She was the total package.

Sorry, lex luger.

-...Two... -Look! She got it!

[bell chimes, crowd cheering] -she did it!

-Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time

For the 1999 royal rumble match! [crowd cheering]

-You know, one of the most groundbreaking things

That I can remember about chyna

Was she was the first woman to enter the wwe royal rumble.

-The first woman ever to enter the royal rumble match!

-The roof went off of the place. It was crazy.

-And the walk down to that ring, just all purposeful,

Not cracking a smile.

-Her statement was, "I'm going to go for

The biggest, strongest man in this ring,

And that is mark henry."

-Chyna kind of gets in the ring, and she throws mark henry,

The world's strongest man, out of the ring.

-And so it kind of kept being these series of tests.

Can chyna hang with all these guys?

-Two hundred and fifty-five pounds!

It's over! Chyna did it! [bell chimes]

Chyna has advanced to the king of the ring tournament!

She'll meet road dogg!

-It's almost like everybody would set me up to fail,

But then, when I didn't, they'd be surprised

And then want more of it.

[mid-tempo music plays]

Well, you know, when I was a little girl,

I only wanted to be a princess.

But now I'm all grown up,

And tonight, I'm gonna be a queen.

-King of the ring -- it's the first woman

Ever to be in the king of the ring tournament,

And I wrestled her.

-Road dogg, you got big, brass balls

To step in the ring with me.

-Three of the final four slots have been determined.

-It was about the spectacle of it.

It's a big, muscular woman versus this white-trash dude.

[crowd cheering]

-Road dogg looking again. -Man, oh, man!

-She had hit me, a low blow, several times

In the build-up to this. -Look out!

Chyna! Low blow from behind!

-So that was the infamous "I came prepared."

-Give it to him!

-Oh, that shot -- and she hurt her arm.

-And as I had my back turned,

She slipped in and hit me in the groin again.

And I pulled out the metal cup.

-And the -- oh, the road dogg, he's got a protective metal cup!

Pump-handle slam! [crowd cheering]

-We had a competitive match.

And honestly, if a creative decision was made

For her to beat me, she could've beat me all day long

And people wouldn't have batted an eye,

Because that's how believable she was.

-I mean, she got to the point

Where she was a believable contender for a title.

-And there came a time

When the evolution of chyna had to happen.

Who's the heel?

-Jeff jarrett isn't scheduled to come out here.

-Well, jeff jarrett is scheduled to meet chyna.

-Double j stepped up to the plate.

My name is jeff jarrett, and I'm a man's man.

My side of the fence,

The way I was handling the females and the women

Was they have their place --

Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

-Oh, jeff jarrett took that ball and ran with it.

He's like, "oh, you want me to be a jerk?

Watch this."

-Women are only good for three things --

Cookin', cleanin', and makin' babies.

-Oh, it was excellent.

All these antiquated stereotypes.

Like, "this is trash."

-This is absolutely degrading to these ladies.

-Come on, now. Somebody get -- oh, come on, now!

-It's supposed to make you mad.

You need a good villain to push all those buttons.

And it made chyna the hero.

-Oh, boy! -It's chyna! It's chyna!

-Oh! -Chyna --

That was a frying pan!

-Jarrett is out cold!

And chyna's wearing his shorts! [crowd cheering]

-What took it to another level

Was I was the reigning intercontinental champion.

-You're gonna see who's wearing the pants!

And then you're gonna see who's gonna be wearing

Your intercontinental title.

-There was nothing like the buildup

To that intercontinental title match.

-You're gonna get your rematch, all right.

But it's gonna be the good housekeeping way.

-And we just knew that he was going to get what he deserved.

And he did. [dramatic music plays]

-First ever good housekeeping matchup, king.

-This was gonna be history-making.

-...The ninth wonder of the world...

-There was that excitement, but I could see there was nerves.

I think she was having some doubts.

"am I gonna be able to live up to these expectations?"

♪♪

-What is that?! Oh, my goodness!

He's been crowned with a seat from the throne!

Joanie kind of took up the torch for all of womanhood

In that moment.

-They literally hit each other with everything,

Including the kitchen sink.

-The kitchen sink! Aah! -It's the kitchen sink!

-I just remember the plethora of weapons being used

In very unique ways.

-She's got the tongs! Aah! -She's got the tongs!

Chyna's got the tongs! Oh, my!

-[laughing] oh, no!

-You know, somehow the word had gotten out to the fans

That it was his last match in the wwe.

So naturally, everybody is expecting,

Well, jeff's gonna lose, chyna is gonna become

The first female intercontinental champion.

But then comes the swerve.

Boom! He hits chyna with the belt.

And to everybody's shock and amazement --

One, two, three.

Jeff wins. -I knew it!

-...And still intercontinental champion...

-The place -- you could have heard a pin drop.

The -- the crowd was shocked.

How dare that dastardly double j do that to us?

-Wait a minute.

You can't take the intercontinental championship

And win the match. -The referees determined that --

"wait a minute.

That championship belt is not a household item.

The match should continue."

And in the meantime, chyna grabs jeff's guitar.

-Look out, jeff! -Oh, man!

Chyna with the guitar! -Not a household item, is it?!

-It certainly is! I guess it is! I don't know!

Referee down for the count! -Oh!

[bell chimes] -chyna has made history!

Chyna, the first woman to become the intercontinental champion!

-I mean, chyna's standing there

With that intercontinental championship.

She's holding it high above her head.

And I could tell that she knew that she was part of history.

-I remember standing straight up,

And truly the first thought that came to my mind

Was, "times, they are a-changin'."

I can only think that, you know, from her story

And how many mountains she had to climb to get to that point

And how many times she was told no

Or, "you're not the right fit."

Of course you're not the right fit.

You weren't meant to be the right fit.

You were meant to be bigger than that.

You're a star.

-As the years have gone on

And you hear little girls who are now adults say, "yeah.

I watched chyna on tv.

She gave me hope because there she was,

A woman succeeding in a 'man's world.'"

-Right now, I'm the reigning intercontinental champion.

[cheers and applause]

♪♪

-That belt means

That she's the number-two athlete in our industry.

-"we don't have

An intercontinental championship for women."

She said, "yeah? Yeah? Well, you do now, 'cause I'm taking it."

-But I really think people want to see a woman like me

Kicking some guys' asses!

[cheers and applause] yeah.

♪♪

[waves breaking, birds crying]

-Hi. I'm chyna.

Welcome to my workout.

-♪ don't treat me like a woman ♪

♪ don't treat me like a man ♪

-Wrestling is not just a man's game anymore.

-...The ninth wonder of the world...

-I'm probably one of the most recognizable female athletes

In the world right now.

♪♪

-If I go to india, people know who I am.

If I go to germany,

People are there with posters to sign.

-Joanie was really beloved.

But in the first couple years, at least,

That love did not extend to the wwe audience.

So I remember on several occasions,

She would come back, and she'd have spit

That had landed on her.

And she took it in stride as being part of the job.

But deep down,

She was a woman who always wanted to feel beautiful.

-You know, she also had a ton of insecurities

And shyness inside

And probably a negative self-image at times

Because of some of the criticism that she would take.

She'd walk down the entrance ramp,

And people would say, "do you have a penis?"

-Her fans say she's a great performer.

Her critics say she looks like a pumped-up t**********.

-I'm sure you've heard the rumors.

Some people even say, "did chyna use to be a man?"

Because you're so muscular.

Have you heard this before?

-Oh, please. -You've heard all of this?

-Been there, done that before a thousand times.

-So she's working incredibly hard to achieve this look,

And then she's being knocked and teased.

-She was seeing all these wonderful changes in her body,

But she may not have been seeing the feminine things.

And some of those things could not have been changed

Without a little help from a surgeon.

-So she took some time off

To have a little bit of work done

That made her feel better about herself.

-I sometimes wonder if she knew

How the inner beauty that she had at that time

Far exceeded what you might have seen on the outside.

It's funny -- the irony is hunter fell head over heels

In love with the first one.

-[grunts] -oh!

-What the hell was that for?! -I'll tell you what this is!

Why didn't you tell me about chyna on Monday?!

-I do not remember the city we were in,

But we were in the dressing room.

Her demeanor was just like... Like she wasn't there.

-Chyna had her suspicions that triple h and stephanie mcmahon

Were in more than just an on-camera relationship.

-You mean the world to me.

I love you more than anything in the world.

-So she had found a letter at their house in hunter's stuff

Where it just came out

And stephanie admitted that she had feelings for hunter.

And it devastated chyna.

-I got out of control, too.

-Okay.

-I remember being on either the bike or stairmaster,

And she -- she got on the apparatus next to me,

And we started talking, and she broke down in tears.

-I mean, I can't fathom that.

Where I used to be, like, at the pinnacle

And now everyone's whispering and talking.

-It clearly was going to make her future in wwe

A lot more cloudy.

-Once chyna and triple h broke up, you know, in a way,

She kind of got pushed down to the women's division.

She started having more matches with females,

Whether it was ivory or lita or trish stratus --

All very accomplished wrestlers,

Some of the best in wwe history --

But also much smaller and not as physically strong as chyna.

-Lita's in deep, deep trouble.

Look at the strength of chyna, the ninth wonder of the world!

-With the women, I think she was a little bit like,

"ah, this is a night off."

-Been up there a long time. -Boom!

-She could've did whatever she wanted with him.

-It wasn't personal,

But she did see that as, like, "I've earned this spot,

And I'm not looking to give up my spot lightly."

-As much as I respect all of the women

In the world wrestling federation -- and I do --

I've felt as of late

That I really don't have a whole lot of competition.

So instead of pinning my fellow divas,

From now on...

I'm just gonna have to spank them.

[crowd cheering]

-How far can she go working with the men?

Were we gonna eventually put her against the rock

Or stone cold and have them beat her?

Like, that's not good for her either, I don't think.

Or are we gonna invest in, like we see today,

This women's wrestling being a thing in the future?

-...Who will challenge for the wwf women's title...

-Wrestlemania xvii, I think it's probably bittersweet for chyna

Because, you know, she had been used to wrestling men

And being in some real high-profile matches.

And now she was wrestling ivory for the women's title.

-Ivory was like the most annoying thing

On your television at the time.

-Dumb as a board, too. [laughs]

-Oh! Slobberknocker slam, and down she goes!

-Ivory didn't stand much of a chance.

But it was the way to get the title onto chyna.

-[grunts] -[crowd cheering]

-Good grief. Look at this strength.

Ivory upstairs with nowhere to go but...

-[grunts] -...Down.

-She did kind of have a lackadaisical pinfall on ivory.

You almost wonder if she did that on purpose

To kind of say to the wwe, like, "hey. I'm better than this."

-Chyna is the wwe women's champion!

She did it at wrestlemania!

[crowd cheering]

-But I just think that was a time in chyna's life

Where, for the first time, she could sense

That men were looking at her in a sexual way.

They were looking at her, thinking, "wow.

That lady is hot," you know? And I think she loved it.

She was the double-headed sex symbol.

One minute, she's picking up and scowling

As she body-slams someone,

And the next day, she's in playboy.

[mid-tempo music plays]

♪♪

-Joanie was approached by hugh hefner.

There was some talk about her doing playboy.

And she was all in right from the get-go.

-By doing this, and especially by getting the cover

And such a big layout,

It's really such a unique opportunity

Because it shows a very strong, sexy, powerful millennium woman.

And I believe that that's me.

When people told me that I was ugly

And could never grace the cover or be playboy material,

Well, I guess that I had to prove them wrong.

[crowd cheering] -oh, yeah!

And you did it, young lady, and we're damn proud of you.

-Show us! -You ready?

-Yes! I'm ready!

-I was so proud of her

Because I thought she was just stunningly beautiful.

She was feminine,

She was athletic-looking, confident.

Isn't that what all women want? Right?

-The playboy cover that turned out to be

The best-selling issue in 10 years.

-Now she's being embraced

As one of the sexiest women in the world.

♪♪

-It's just one other example

Of so many of the things that I've been able to do.

-I don't know if you could go any higher --

You know, on the late-night talk shows,

"jay leno," cover of playboy, cover of tv guide.

-Chyna, the perfect combination of brawn and beauty.

-I am chyna, a superstar. I wrestle in the ring.

I am able to do other tv shows.

I've done movies,

And I have an autobiography coming out in January.

-So she was at the pinnacle of her career.

And, unfortunately, when you're at the pinnacle,

There's really no place to go but down.

♪♪

-I mean, the last three years for me

Feel like the blink of an eye.

And I just worry sometimes

That I dedicate everything to this job

And that maybe, you know, 10 years from now,

I'm not doing this anymore. And I will have not,

You know, gotten married or had kids

Or done things that normal people do.

This is a very short-lived business,

And I just sometimes think, you know,

That that day is gonna come for me

When I'm gonna plan on being here

But, you know, suddenly I'll be gone

And I'll think, "now look what I did."

[down-tempo music plays] -chyna's contract was up.

So she had to go in and renegotiate.

-She wanted equal pay to the guys.

She was one of the main faces of the company

That she busted her ass to become.

And she wanted the same contract

That the other faces of the company had at that time.

The rock, stone cold, the undertaker.

-Joanie may have just drawn a line in the sand,

Saying, "I want a million guaranteed."

-She thought she deserved it, and the office didn't agree.

-This is an historic day,

Because the world wrestling entertainment today

Is invading wall street.

-Years later, she would tell people

That they didn't renew her contract or that they cut her

Because stephanie mcmahon was mad at her

Because of the triple h deal.

But that's not the case.

Chyna was offered a chance to stay in wwe

For a good salary, and she decided not to do it.

And I think that was probably the decision

That started her downfall.

-I wasn't too particularly happy at how it all ended,

How it went down.

I mean, you -- you don't want to see your friends hurt.

-I do feel like there was a sense of abandonment

That joanie felt because we did not keep in touch --

We, the wwe community,

Did not keep in touch with her like we used to.

-Once you're accepted in the club,

In our wrestling club, we do look at each other like family.

And there's an intimacy you can't avoid

When you're riding together and, you know,

You're wrestling together, you're getting hurt together.

Then, being suddenly torn out of that world,

I could see that being difficult,

To kind of readjust and get your feet back on the ground.

[mid-tempo music plays]

♪♪

-When joanie left the wwe,

She decided that she was gonna try to do some acting

And see if she could make a go of the whole hollywood thing.

-[groaning]

Ow!

-What?

-She was stereotyped as a wrestler.

So pretty much any of the roles that she got

Were as a big, brawny, wrestling type of character.

-[laughter] -oh!

[purrs] [laughter]

-It was starting to get increasingly harder and harder

To keep things going.

-"alien tracker." look for it on dvd and video.

-It didn't materialize into anything that stuck.

-What? You don't recognize me?

-She couldn't legally use the name chyna

Because the wwe owned that contract.

-Wb lawyers have asked us not to refer to this former wrestler

By her stage name. [gong clangs]

-So she couldn't sell herself out in the entertainment world

As chyna.

She had to go by joanie laurer.

Now, nobody knows joanie laurer.

-During this period, joanie's spending a lot of time

At the playboy mansion.

-She moved to hollywood, and all of a sudden, you know,

Someone that had been clean her whole life

Started dabbling in drugs and alcohol.

She would no-show casting calls

Because she was hung over or on drugs somewhere.

-I started hearing stories about her partying

And being seen in public places, like, not in control of herself.

And it was just really, really jarring.

And I didn't know that person.

Yeah, I think she just kind of lost her way

After parting ways with the wwe.

-I think chyna was longing for genuine friendships,

And she had trouble finding them.

I think most of the people that she was hanging around

Associated themselves with her because she was famous.

[down-tempo music plays]

-She'd have a couple of gigs, and then they would go away.

And then now what?

♪♪

-Things started going downhill with my wife.

I'd just finally had enough, and I left.

I had moved out to l.A. I was really brokenhearted.

My grandmother says, "oh, joanie -- chyna's out there.

You guys always got along great. You should look her up."

My grandma had a really s***** track record as a matchmaker.

That was a really bad idea.

[down-tempo music plays]

I never looked at joanie like that.

I swear to god.

Like, before, like, our relationship blossomed,

I never thought twice

About, like, anything romantically with her.

I was in heaven, man.

Like, that was -- I was --

I just thought, "okay. Finally. Happiness."

And I think she felt that, too, man.

Like, there was a couple of months there

That everything was just, like, heaven.

-Joanie became involved with sean, another wonderful guy.

Three for three with men that loved her --

Really, truly loved her

And accepted her the way that she was.

But he was in a bad place, too.

So I think two wrongs made a really bad wrong.

-They really met each other

When both of them were at rock bottom.

Together, you know, they just kind of started

This downward spiral that lasted for quite a while.

-There's that hurt, right?

I'm just -- I'm hurting.

I'm hurting, and she makes me feel better.

And she's the only thing that made --

Besides, like, the drugs.

I had just started getting into the speed and all that.

And it hadn't --

It didn't seem like a big deal at the time.

It took a little bit for that to really, like,

Grab ahold of me and kick my ass.

-I don't want to cast aspersions on how their relationship was.

From the outside, it looked very toxic

And not good for either one of them.

Look. I'm itching and scratching.

I'm uncomfortable talking about it

'cause it was just weird to me

And I know it wasn't a good part of their lives.

-I was hiding my drug use from her,

And I didn't realize at the time

That she was hiding hers from me as well.

I was doing drugs in the bathroom, in the shower.

I would spend a lot of time in the shower.

A lot of time in the shower.

And, you know, finally she found the paraphernalia.

[down-tempo music plays]

Like, I just thought it was over.

Like, "okay.

Bummer, man. I'm so happy, and this, you know...

And now it's all f***** up."

And she was just like, "huh. Yeah. Well, I do this."

♪♪

No. No.

And that wasn't a very good thing.

♪♪

[waves breaking, birds crying]

-So, around 2002, a new opportunity presented itself.

[mid-tempo music plays]

After she was invited to leave by wwe,

The company new japan saw her worth

And invited her to come and play with them.

[dramatic music plays] -tokyo dome -- sold out,

60,000-plus people.

-[speaking japanese]

-Masahiro chono against a female wrestler.

This was a huge deal.

[crowd cheering] her walking down that ramp,

You know, in that beautiful outfit --

It was like nothing that I've seen before,

Especially in new japan pro wrestling.

-He was their number one person in japan,

And she was going toe to toe with him.

-[speaking japanese]

-She had, like, blood coming out of her ear

And, like, her face was red.

♪♪

-Chono won the match.

Even with him winning,

She really was the star of that match completely.

Obviously the star of the show.

-Let me wait till everybody's in here

To tell you that I didn't lose that match

Because I beat his ass in front of all of his fans.

-I can remember sitting in the corner watching her interview

And how proud she was.

-Realistically, I was quite honored to fight chono,

'cause he's the best.

Thank you.

Arigato.

-Thank you. See you next time.

-When she came home, I really noticed that she was different.

I couldn't have a regular conversation with her.

She would be calling me at all hours of the day and the night.

The drug use sort of escalated.

I knew there was a problem. [mid-tempo music plays]

-She kind of stopped training with us.

We just kind of saw less and less of her

Till eventually it was just like,

"oh, we're not doing business with chyna anymore.

-I think the change really began after her run in japan was over.

I wish she had gone about establishing herself

On the independent circuit,

'cause she would have been a huge draw everywhere she went.

But she kind of gave up on wrestling after that.

And in a sense, it felt like wrestling gave up on her.

♪♪

-For two or three years, between about 2003 and 2005,

Chyna and x-pac were doing a lot of drugs together.

They were doing crystal meth.

-I think they called it ice.

She said it keeps her up for days on end.

She can get so much done.

And then when she did fall asleep, she would crash.

That's kind of how the two of them were living.

-We were doing the same exact drugs,

But I had graduated to the needle,

And that really f****** bothered her.

-Oh, it is -- it is a great recipe for disaster.

Now you got two people,

And so you got to buy twice the dope,

And so you got to get twice the money.

And so now we're willing to do anything.

[down-tempo music plays] -you're in trouble now.

-Oh, I know that.

♪♪

[up-tempo rock music plays]

[strap snaps]

♪♪

♪♪

[indistinct talking on television]

-Eventually chyna and x-pac

You know, had sexual intercourse, they filmed it.

Ended up selling that film.

-The worst idea ever.

I mean, we're both just f***** up.

People that have been there as far as drugwise know.

Like, your inhibitions and all that s*** goes out the window.

-Baby, you're quiet all of a sudden.

-I am just... [music continues]

-I don't think there's anybody that is...

Really proud of that.

I think you do that out of necessity.

You look around and say,

"well, where else am I gonna make this kind of money?"

-It ended up a deal being done with the same people

That did the tommy lee- pamela anderson tape.

-My initial reaction was horror.

-Black? -Yeah.

-All right.

-Secondly, I thought, "that's not the real joanie.

That's just -- that's drugs."

She was grasping for straws to get money, to get publicity.

I don't know if joanie ever outran the shame of it.

[down-tempo music plays]

-Things had progressively gotten worse, and I knew --

Like, I was in rough shape, too, and at least, like, realized,

Like, "I need help myself. I can't help anyone."

-She got to the point

Where I was so worried about her drug use

And sean was worried about her drug use

That he actually called me and said,

"you need to come out here and try to get joanie into a rehab."

So I actually got on a plane. I showed up at her door.

She had no idea I was coming.

-And as I opened the door,

There's kathy, right in front of me.

-Classic intervention.

"joanie, I think you got a problem.

I really, really love you.

Please do this for me.

Will you consider going to rehab?"

I somehow managed to drag her butt on a plane

To this place in arizona.

-She got there, and they gave her the, you know,

The papers to sign in.

And she said, "nope," and walked out the door and left.

-And that was the end of our relationship.

From then on, joanie wasn't really speaking to me anymore

'cause she was so angry at me for trying to do this.

-Of all the people, like, damaged in all that,

Like, kathy was hurt the worst of anyone

Besides joanie herself.

♪♪

-I think all of that, like, spun her into a downward spiral.

And I don't know if she ever kicked out of it.

-It wasn't so much like coke or anything at this point.

It was prescription pills.

It was alcohol and, like, xanax.

-They would go on these massive drug binges

Where they would get in fights.

At one point, she punched him and broke his nose.

Another time, she allegedly attacked him

In front of his kids.

It got to the point where he drove her

To cedars-sinai medical center in 2005

And dropped her off and said, "this girl needs help."

-I never saw her again. I never saw her in person again.

-It was hard, like, for a long time after that, you know?

Just...

-Within months, chyna went from being in people magazine

And in tv guide to getting lampooned on tmz.

[mid-tempo music plays]

-Why you going to sleep? Come on, now.

Cruel. It's cruel.

I know. I'm sorry. I'm a man-eater.

Cruel.

-I had found a niche at that time and phase of my life

Where I was placing celebrities

On the celebrity-based reality shows.

And I had a slew of them.

-I knew if I saw her on tv at that period of time,

It was gonna be a train wreck.

-[laughs] whoo!

-No one wants to be the boring person on a reality show.

But I think she overplayed it

To the point where it was hard to tell

Where the old joanie ended and this new joanie began.

-Ooh.

You're a slick one. [laughs]

-When you're tuning in to "celebrity rehab"

Specifically because you know someone who's on there,

That's -- that's a bad sign.

-What scares you most about being here?

-The confusion of why I'm here.

-It's sad.

When your heroes let you down, it's -- it's a bummer.

-For about 10 years, trying to just continue to go

Through ups and downs and peaks and valleys.

But things actually got so bad around 2012

That her friend got worried about her,

Went over to check on her.

Chyna was in an apartment with no furniture.

There was an air mattress on the floor

That she was sleeping on with no sheets.

The apartment reeked of whiskey.

There was cigarette butts everywhere.

She answered the door with heavy eyelids, reeking of alcohol.

At that point, her friend said, "joanie, you're coming with me.

I'm taking you back to hawaii,

And we're gonna get your life in order.

And I'm not taking no for an answer."

Chyna packed up her stuff, went to hawaii,

And tried to make some changes.

♪♪

[birds crying]

-Joanie spent a very brief period in hawaii,

And then she packed up her things and moved to japan.

-And there we are! Learn english with me.

-She got her head straight.

She was teaching these japanese kids english.

-I'm getting used to living in japan.

-I almost felt, for the first time, a sense of relief.

This is what she needs.

She needs, like, a boring schedule

That just gives her somewhere to be,

Something that's helping others and giving her a purpose.

♪♪

-Joanie loved japan.

She loved it. She loved going there.

She loved the culture. She loved the people.

-This is kind of like a little scrapbook

From people that were in japan with her.

This means a lot to me because it tells me

How these people knew her not as a wrestler.

She looks happy.

She looks very happy. [down-tempo music plays]

-I'm in...Shinjuku station right now.

-I don't think chyna got any better in japan.

I think she got worse.

-Oh. Okay. Where do I go?

-Within a couple of weeks,

She was found on her kitchen floor

With deep cuts in her forearms,

And she had to be rushed to the hospital.

-It's only recently I found out

That they prescribed her some medication

Because she was in a severe depression...

-I'm just sitting here in an empty room in the boiling heat.

-...To the point where she tried to take her life

By attacking a policeman.

And police in japan don't carry firearms,

Or else it may have been a different story.

-A group of police officers tackled her,

Put her in handcuffs, and took her to a mental asylum.

The incidents cost chyna her job.

-I just want to leave now. I just want to get out of here.

-I figured the one way that I can get chyna back to the states

And do something with her

Is bring back the idea of reconstruction of chyna,

Which, back in the mid-2000s,

Was a reality show that we were pitching.

We want to make sure that you are provided with the lifestyle

And the people that you're surrounded with

That is only gonna bring you joy and happiness

From now until the day you die.

"let's just make it a documentary.

We'll film a year of her life."

-Eventually, she did get out of there,

And that's when she flew back to the united states

To try to make her documentary.

-She's gonna face her demons.

She's gonna be put in some very uncomfortable situations.

-Basically, what anthony was trying to design

Was like a b-level version

Of "the resurrection of jake the snake roberts."

-So, when was the last time...

When was the last time you put some scissors

Or some knives to your arm?

-It smelled fishy right from the get-go.

She thought she was gonna make a fresh start.

All it really did was bring everything right --

Bubble right back up to the surface again.

[indistinct conversations]

-Send them around to me.

-I feel pretty tired.

-That's what we charge. -Okay.

-It's $100 for the two.

-Jet lag is starting to set in now.

I'm still like, assimilating, just being in the united states.

-She did her first comic-con in long island.

Mick came up to her, and they hugged

For like five minutes in tears and whatnot.

-Hi, joanie.

When she wrapped her arms around me,

It was like I had rediscovered a great friend.

I'm about 35 minutes away from here

If you want to come over and have dinner with the foleys.

[down-tempo music plays] -I'm so sorry, chyna!

-My dad called, and he said, "yeah! Joanie's coming over!"

And I'm like, "what?" like, "she is?"

-Look at you! Oh, my gosh!

-I've grown up since the last time you've seen me.

-[exhales deeply]

I got the sense... Oh, man.

I wish she had not agreed to have her journey documented.

We are here to tell you about a very special project.

It's called "the reconstruction of chyna."

Joanie showed me her upcoming schedule...

-You went away for what, four years?

-...And I just felt like she was diving

Into the deep end of the pool

When she should have been dipping her toes

Into the shallow end.

-Suddenly, I wasn't remembered for, like,

All the great things I did in wrestling,

But, like, I'd become this monster.

-I voiced my concern.

Like, that's all you can do

Is give a friend the best advice you can

And let them know you were there for them.

-The documentary ended up being just a series

Of manufactured events that would look good on tv.

-We're about to go into the headquarter office of wwe.

-We're gonna ask for hunter. We're gonna ask for vince.

"we're driving cross country.

Let's stop by and see if they owe you any money."

Harmless -- to me.

-And he goes in with a cameraperson

And forces a meeting at the wwe headquarters

With no appointment!

-And we were asked to simply leave.

We were not greeted favorably.

-And everybody was staring right at me.

I got a couple smiles, but...

-She was in no mental shape to take on that kind of schedule

Or that kind of spotlight.

-Now, this morning,

We are on our way to miami, where my father is buried.

-There were a lot of people that wanted to help her.

And she...She was very good at keeping a distance

And not letting people back in.

And she certainly did that with me.

-You told me all those things, but then you were never there.

-I don't know why.

I mean, I think, unfortunately,

Joanie probably suffered from some mental illnesses

At a very young age that went undiagnosed, undetected.

They certainly exacerbated all the problems

That she had later in her life.

-Hey! What's up?

-Ninety percent of the time, chyna was incredible --

Down to earth, hilarious.

Unfortunately, there was still that 10% to 20% side

That wanted to be a diva, that wanted to get s***house.

-Anthony showed up, and he went like this.

Tossed some pictures and some markers at me

And, like, f*****', like, expected me to --

What the f*** are you -- who the f*** are you talking to?

-She never really felt like she had a problem,

An addiction problem.

But she obviously did.

-Well, my problem is that I have been going to doctors

And saying, "what do we need to do here?"

-She would binge sometimes 17 straight days.

She'd probably sleep two of those.

-I have horrible anxiety issues.

I can't sleep.

I'm having a hard time eating.

I need some help.

What do you want me -- can -- can you help me?

-You have to remember, joanie was fragile.

-I'm chyna, bitch!

-As powerful as she was, she was dealt a bad hand.

And the right people were not there for her

In the right place at the right time.

It's been a long f****** 10 years, 15 years.

I don't know how long now.

But I don't -- I'm -- I'm tired.

[down-tempo music plays]

-I'm chyna. I'm a champion.

Don't treat me that way.

♪♪

-She leaves a voicemail.

"hey, guys. I'm gonna seek rehab.

I'm gonna try to clean myself up.

And don't tell anthony."

-A day or so went by. She wasn't responding to texts.

She no-showed an appointment.

-She probably had a big bender right before she went to rehab.

A lot of people do do that.

-He went over, snuck in past the security gate

At the apartment, went up to her floor,

And the door was unlocked.

-Chyna?

-He walks in, conveniently,

With another guy filming on a camera phone behind him.

-I think he knew once the door was unlocked

And he could walk in easily

That something might not be good.

-Chyna?

[down-tempo music plays]

♪♪

-Chyna was found dead here at her apartment

In redondo beach, california.

A friend told cops

That chyna hadn't answered her phone in days

And came to check on her.

That's when the friend found her lying in bed.

-I was in the atlanta airport, and it was on the news.

-The news came in, and I-I burst into tears.

Burst into tears.

It was a combination of alcohol and sedatives.

You do anything in excess, you're...

You're likely to pay.

And in this case, it cost her her life.

[down-tempo music plays]

-She was so much more than just another celebrity gone

From an overdose.

She was way more than that.

-I think I mourned her death years before she actually died.

You know, when she died, it was horrible.

But I remember also thinking,

"thank god this woman finally has some peace."

♪♪

-You guys are awesome.

Ladies and gentlemen, anthony anzaldo.

-The memorial service for chyna was like nothing I've ever seen.

It seemed like more of a production

Than a memorial service.

The goal was "let's get a bunch of celebrities here.

Let's sell some tickets.

Let's sell some shirts

And do something that people are gonna talk about."

-They sold tickets for that?

Oh, f****** hell. Really?

-♪ tell me, did venus blow your mind? ♪

♪ was it everything you wanted to find? ♪

-That memorial show was a low-rent hot mess.

-Yes, I was invited. No, I did not attend.

In my opinion, it was a joke.

When he held up the urn and he said...

-The bitch is in the house! [cheers and applause]

-...I was mortified.

-This urn was custom-made.

It's got her classic colors, and the font is similar

To what she sort of was using towards the end.

And I think that she would really, really love this.

This was so -- this is chyna. [down-tempo music plays]

-The morning after the memorial service,

A small group of people went out on a boat

And spread chyna's ashes into the pacific ocean.

-The horizon, where the sky meets the ocean, is three miles,

No matter where you are in the ocean.

We did it exactly three miles out of her apartment

So that if you go to her apartment

And you stand out and look over the ocean, you're with her.

♪♪

-Here's this famous woman who just not long ago

Was on "the tonight show,"

A woman who was on billboards and in playboy.

And now I'm on this boat,

And no one that's here toward the end of her life,

Other than anthony, really knew her.

And it was just a sad thing,

But it also just kind of illustrated

All the problems that were in her life.

That was the issue.

She didn't have any close friends.

♪♪

-To s-- if I had the chance to talk to her again,

I would have reiterated that I loved her

And I was there for her, but more importantly,

I would have backed it up with my actions.

There always seemed to be a tomorrow.

Until there wasn't.

-I got some people in my life

I'd love to have one more opportunity with.

And I would love one more opportunity with her.

I'd love to have dinner.

I'd love to have lunch, have a conversation,

Have a coffee -- anything with her --

And just spend some time and -- and laugh.

I'm sorry. She was so funny, man.

She was so fun to be around.

I just miss her.

♪♪

-[voice breaking] I didn't do that.

I didn't call her to say, "hey, guess what I'm doing now.

Thank you."

Maybe that phone call would have...

Let her have one less drink, let her have one less bump.

That's a lot to put on myself,

But, you know, you always wonder.

Because she meant -- she did. She meant a lot to me.

She meant a lot.

Can we take a break? -Let's take a break.

[cheers and applause]

-We'd like to welcome you to the 2019 wwe hall of fame ceremony.

-I was asked to go to the hall of fame induction for dx,

Of which joanie was a part.

-I had never, ever attended anything like that

In my entire life.

First of all, the wwe, if they do it, they do it big.

-Joanie was on everybody's mind that night.

Her legacy goes way beyond our industry.

In some manner, I look at her during that time frame

As, like, this paradigm shift of the thinking

Of how people saw women and women of power

And what women can do with that power.

It's fitting in this moment

That at wrestlemania tomorrow night,

The women will headline wrestlemania

For the first time in history. [cheers and applause]

And the night before that,

Probably the most impactful woman

To ever step foot in this ring

Gets inducted into the hall of fame.

-She set the table for every woman that came after her.

For me personally, she encouraged me.

She believed in me.

And she told me any dream I had,

Anything I wanted to do in the company,

That I could do that.

-I feel sad that joanie didn't really get to see

How much she meant to these next generations,

Myself being one of them.

-Some of those good things she did often get forgotten about,

And that's what shouldn't happen.

-I just wish history had not taken so long

To recognize her contributions.

-I wouldn't be where I am without her in my career.

Dx wouldn't be where it is.

-I see her so differently than her chyna persona.

-To me, she's not chyna. To me, she's joanie.

I really miss her every single day.

[chuckles] I miss her. -Kathy, she's here.

[applause] she's here.

The real her.

[music builds, continues]

♪♪

[applause]

-Thank you, chyna! [clapping rhythmically]

Thank you, chyna! [clapping rhythmically]

Thank you, chyna!

[cheers and applause]

[down-tempo music plays]

♪♪

-You know, mick foley had always told his daughter, noelle,

Back when she was about 4, that chyna was strong.

"oh, there's no one stronger than chyna."

-I remember saying to my dad, "joanie -- strong like dolphin.

Or she's maybe even stronger than dolphins."

-That was my daughter's gauge on strength.

So if you were up there with dolphins,

You were doing really well, in my daughter's mind.

-We all kind of found a place on the boat.

We were getting ready to drive back.

And all of a sudden, someone goes, "oh, my gosh.

Look at these dolphins."

And everyone hopped out from their seat

And went over to the side of the boat.

And there was literally like four or five dolphins

On the side of the boat,

Kind of escorting the boat back to the dock.

And then someone said, "they're over here, too."

I ran over to the other side, and there was four or five more

Just flanking the boat, guiding us back to shore.

-Jason was there to document it, but dolphins emerged.

-Whoa.

Dolphins emerged during the sprinkling of the ashes.

That's really fitting, I think.

-I felt like those dolphins... Were kind of chyna's way

Of saying, "hey, I'm good.

I'll be okay."

[down-tempo music plays]

♪♪

♪♪