This is the story of a girl: the story of the former WWF intercontinental champion who called herself “Chyna, the ninth wonder of the world,” but after learning so much about her and her life, I prefer to think of her with respect. her as “Joannie”. When we first met, that’s the name I referred to her by, and she shed a tear when she heard what she had to say.
A bit of history: I, like many other young 90s wrestling fans, loved DX, the stable / wrestling group I was involved with. But there was always a face and a body that always made you wonder: Chyna, more defined and muscular than even the strongest men in WWF.
The first and only woman to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship
His main theme was appropriately: “Don’t treat me like a woman, don’t treat me like a man; don’t treat me like you know me, just treat me for who I am.” And when it came to choosing who to support when Chyna took on the likes of Trish Stratus, Tory, and Lita, many of us men, concerned only with stereotypical views of female beauty, almost maliciously rooted against Chyna. It makes me very sad to look back knowing what I now know about Joannie.
Chyna pressuring the boss’s daughter (and my crush boy), Stephanie McMahon. McMahon is now married to Joannie’s ex-boyfriend, Paul Levesque (“HHH”), and the ensuing fallout from the story led to Chyna’s departure from the company. She was heartbroken …
Yes, “Joan” is her birth name. Not only was she born female, but the place from where she truly started makes her the epitome of female strength. Even my mother was admirable to Chyna during her aerobics phase, as were many other women, many of whom were looking for a different role model from all the “sexy but useless” female celebrities they knew.
“For who I am”
The daughter of divorced parents, she had constantly moved. She was forced to give up her past and start over many times. He had a total of three stepfathers, one of whom was suicidal and a stepmother. Joannie was dragged, dragged and thrown by fate, having to complete her secondary education in Spain.
Overcoming an ovarian tumor, frequent sexual harassment, and anorexic episodes, he still successfully learned to play the violin, cello, and majored in Spanish literature, eventually earning his degree from the University of Tampa. He continued to study in Spanish, German, and French, eventually using this knowledge of languages to enter the Peace Corps later in life. But it was there in college that she suffered her most severe episodes of sexual assault.
He came to stay with his biological father, with whom he began lifting weights.
“Coming last but winning”
Joannie always weighed more than the other girls at school, even before she started lifting, and therefore always came last during races and other sporting events. When she was financially unlucky, Joannie had to relearn how to recreate herself in countless jobs: as a cocktail waitress, selling pagers, belly dancing with one of her sisters, and even becoming a singer in a band. For everyone who has ever chased odd jobs in the classifieds or Craigslist for a living, so did Chyna, until fortune finally turned its way. Realizing that he could use the physical strength that he had harnessed over the years in a wrestling ring, he began taking wrestling classes. Eventually, it was noticed by Paul Levesque (“HHH”) and Shawn Michaels and brought to the attention of WWF owner Vince McMahon. The rest is history.
Wrestling may be written, but for Chyna, for Joan Laurer, the real victory was having survived to live in the moment.
Life goes on and happiness is still achievable no matter the ups and downs, at least that’s what Chyna can teach us. On screen, she was the intercontinental champion and the women’s champion, but the losses and adversity in her life continued. In particular, her on-screen and real-life lover, Paul Levesque, met the boss’s daughter during the course of her story. Despite her protests, the story moved on and her worst fears came true: Levesque and Stephanie McMahon are now married with children. Chyna left the company, but still found prominence in the public eye.
Another acquaintance, teammate, and personal friend, Eddie Guerrero, also sadly passed away in 2005. The wrestling was also brutal on Chyna’s body, physically, and she underwent nine surgeries for various wrestling-related injuries. Still, despite it all, despite all the adversity, Joannie Laurer has made a name for herself again with a return to professional wrestling with TNA.
Joannie “Chyna” Laurer returned to professional wrestling last month, taking wrestling legend Jeff Jarret out of the ring! It is a true testament to how external strength must be accompanied by internal strength and a never-say-die attitude. Such is that it lifts one off the floor or lifts one out of bed over and over again to face the day.
She concludes her VHS fitness tape “More than meets the eye” by saying, “All my life I have wanted to be a smart, powerful and strong woman, and I wanted to be an inspiration to others. I had a vision. What was your vision? – See it. , believe it, and you can make it happen. “
-Steve, http://SteveCraigFitness.com
