Farewell to the Ninth Wonder
You see, there was this one time that I yelled at Stone Cold Steve Austin. Not from the privacy of my living room and in the direction of my television set, as any sane person would. No, I yelled at that extremely big man in person.
Ah, but I had good reason. Sitting third row at the Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida, I had seen my idol, the female wrestling powerhouse known as Chyna, thrive and glow in the ring — as she always did — at the side of her partner and then fiance, Paul “HHH” Levesque.
Then Austin came out and, after a hard fought tussle with Chyna, laid the ‘stone cold stunner’ on his first female opponent. I vaguely remember standing up and shouting, “How DARRRRE you?!!!!”
Austin ignored me. I’m almost sure, though, that his classically stone faced opponent cracked a rare smile.
Chyna, also known as Joanie Laurer, ranks as the only undefeated Women’s Champion in the history of the World Wrestling Federation (now known as World Wrestling Entertainment), and the only female Intercontinental Champion of that same federation. Nicknamed the Ninth Wonder of the World, she was described in her autobiography “If They Only Knew,” as “part feminist, part superhero.”
I first discovered Chyna when she served as a bodyguard for D-Generation X, a WWF team that also consisted of Shawn “Sexy Boy” Michaels (a multi-time world champion and the only mainstream wrestler to pose in the pages of Playgirl magazine) and the aforementioned HHH.
OK, so now you’re probably going to accuse me of watching DX so I could ogle the Sexy Boy.
Can ya blame me, exactly? Yet you see, this is exactly what I loved about DX. The men, while certainly strong in their own right, were the ones who danced, preened and showed off their physiques. Chyna, while always beautiful in her own right, was all business. She brought the muscle to DX, and later as a solo champion.
At that point the waters got rough for Laurer. As has been widely documented Levesque left her to be with Stephanie McMahon (a WWE official and daughter of federation leaders Vince and Linda McMahon), and in 2001 she was out of the federation.
At that point, or so it seems, Laurer did whatever she could to make a living: making a few adult films before journeying to Japan to become an English teacher. You can better believe that she has been slut shamed excessively for her film work. But let me tell you something — even in her porn movies (two of which cast her as the She-Hulk), she was still tough, funny and absolutely bad ass.
Recently she returned from Japan and announced her intentions to return to mainstream wrestling and entertainment ventures. I was thrilled to hear this, especially as Laurer had served as the primary role model for my private detective Jacquie Dumont, star of my books Real Women Don’t Wear Grey and Of Power and Passion. I daydreamed about Laurer starring as Jacquie in a movie version of the Jacquie Dumont mysteries.
That dream was taken away from me this week, just as Joanie “Chyna” Laurer was taken from all of us.
Have you ever felt like looking up at the sky and yelling, “How dare you?!”
Yeah, me too.
In the wake of Laurer’s death, it has become evident that other female wrestling luminaries and trailblazers feel Chyna’s absence as they acknowledge her legend. Pro wrestler Angelina Love Tweeted, “ A true pioneer for women’s wrestling, we will never forget @ChynaJoanLaurer. Thank u for paving the way for us. God bless you.”
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