Joan "Chyna" Laurer (1970-2016)

[Cobra Commander]

If Chyna's blue checkmark Twitter account (ChynaJoanLaurer) is to be believed.. Chyna might be dead of unspecified causes,

[Casey]

Oh shit. That's sad if true

[Peck]

4 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

If Chyna's blue checkmark Twitter account (ChynaJoanLaurer) is to be believed.. Chyna might be dead of unspecified causes,

Yeah, this one is blowing up right now on Twitter. Not sure if she was hacked or not.

[Tromatagon]

She was supposed to be at Monsterpalooza this weekend.

[Craig H]

Holy shit. RIP Chyna

[Niners Fan in CT]

I hope this isn't happening, such a sad story

[Casey]

For what it's worth, TMZ confirmed it.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Instead of the standard "He was such an underrated worker, he had so many ***** matches and was a real favourite of mine when he was a kid" fare that comes up when someone dies, do we instead go with "Yeah, I totally jacked it to her Playboy pics, and her porno with X-Pac was superb. One of the best I've ever seen"?

[Web Conn]

Well that wasnt a good sex tape at all so no. But it is fucked up she died this is what she was up to before she passed

 

[Casey]

2 minutes ago, RolandTHTG said:

Instead of the standard "He was such an underrated worker, he had so many ***** matches and was a real favourite of mine when he was a kid" fare that comes up when someone dies, do we instead go with "Yeah, I totally jacked it to her Playboy pics, and her porno with X-Pac was superb. One of the best I've ever seen"?

the fuck is wrong with you?

[SirSmUgly]

I liked Chyna's valet work and she is a real highlight of my '97-'99 rewatch of RAW. She's pretty much all of HHH's charisma for a solid six months to a year. 

[Greggulator]

Wrestling always has and always will attract unbalanced people. Chyna obviously had a ton of issues. It's a really messed up industry.

I hope that the world's collective knowledge about concussions and narcotics/painkiller addiction and steroids really helps the current crop of guys avoid the fate of the people before them. It probably won't, which sucks.

[Hooks]

Just met her a month ago. I was working as a vendor at a horror convention and her table was set up a few feet from ours. All weekend she was so personable to everyone, and she always had a good steady line of people. People seemed to be really pleased when they came away from meeting her. On the last day when things were winding down at the end of the day, I went over and talked to her. We had a really nice conversation. She couldn't have been sweeter or more down to earth when I talked to her. It really bums me out to hear about this. 

[CanadianChris]

You need a damn timeout Roland. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

Okay, this is going to be a huge topic.  So it's going to be its own thread. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

Everyone, be fucking civil.  

It's the sad end to a tragic story to a revolutionary performer.  

RIP to the 9th Wonder of the World. 

[Jingus]

25 minutes ago, RolandTHTG said:

Instead of the standard "He was such an underrated worker, he had so many ***** matches and was a real favourite of mine when he was a kid" fare that comes up when someone dies, do we instead go with "Yeah, I totally jacked it to her Playboy pics, and her porno with X-Pac was superb. One of the best I've ever seen"?

How about splitting the difference with "while I did thoroughly enjoy that second Playboy feature where she had a buncha slavegirls, we should also mention that she was an underrated worker and a lot of her matches have aged shockingly well"?  Seriously, go back and rewatch the stuff she was doing with Jarrett and Jericho and Guerrero, she filled that role really well and for a time was probably the third-most over performer on the whole roster, only behind Rock and Austin.  

[Zac_Fu]

I'm not going to assume the obvious, because for her backslides she seemed really intent on keeping clean and repairing her ties with the WWE. Just about every woman on the roster owe something to her, and this is just a tragedy. Here's to her finally being recognized for the pioneer she was and getting inducted next year.

 

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

When you really sit down and think about it, Chyna was a huge part of the Attitude Era. She was in the Royal Rumble, I think she won a mini Rumble, first woman as intercontinental champion, she was always involved in big ongoing story lines and feuds. There's no reason at all why she shouldn't be a hall of famer and all that stuff. She really was revolutionary

[PetrolCB]

Tragic. After scrolling through her Twitter, she seemed to be quite happy and active. Unless something switched, her heart probably just gave out. 

It's also a shame that like Savage, they waited too long to acknowledge her contributions to their company. Hopefully they do something nice. 

[Eivion]

This is a damn shame to hear. I was always hoping she might fix whatever problems she had to at least go in the hall of Fame while she was still alive. I always liked her as kid during the attitude era. I hope she is is in a better place now. RIP

[zev]

3 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

When you really sit down and think about it, Chyna was a huge part of the Attitude Era. She was in the Royal Rumble, I think she won a mini Rumble, first woman as intercontinental champion, she was always involved in big ongoing story lines and feuds. There's no reason at all why she shouldn't be a hall of famer and all that stuff. She really was revolutionary

She won that DX vs. Corporation mini-rumble for the number 30 spot in the actual Rumble a week or two later.

I want to say that she was a surprise entrant, and that led to a well received finish. Yeah, good stuff for the time.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Chyna was fucking cool as hell to me when I was a kid, and the weirdness and the lows of what followed can't take that away.

I feel pretty safe in saying there's not gonna be anyone in wrestling quite like her.

RIP.

[The Iron Yuppie]

8 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

When you really sit down and think about it, Chyna was a huge part of the Attitude Era. She was in the Royal Rumble, I think she won a mini Rumble, first woman as intercontinental champion, she was always involved in big ongoing story lines and feuds. There's no reason at all why she shouldn't be a hall of famer and all that stuff. She really was revolutionary

Revolutionary is an appropriate word. Because of her personal demons and WWE treating her as persona non grata, it's easy to downplay her contributions to one of, if not the biggest boom period of wrestling. 

But she was treated as a legitimate threat when toe-to-toe with the men. Her IC title reign generated a lot of positive, mainstream buzz. Hell, even her Playboy cover set sales records. Consider that she was vital to HHH getting over enough to be positioned for a main event push, her impact on the Attitude Era only trails Austin, Rock, and maybe Foley/Taker. 

WWE didn't book another women as well as Chyna until Trish Stratus, and not until several years and some very embarrassing moments into her tenure. 

[The Green Meanie]

I'm interested to see the E's reaction to this. Specifically, Hunter's.