Vice’s Chyna Documentary: A Sad Tale of a Wrestling Legend
On June 17th, 2021, Vice TV aired a 2-hour documentary on former WWE superstar Chyna, Vice Versa: Chyna. The documentary picks up and adds to an abandoned documentary created at the time of her death in 2016. The film promised to be different than most wrestling documentaries as it was created independent of the WWE’s spin doctors, which tries to make the company look as good as possible and would be her story in her own words.
Chyna had been one of the stars of the WWE during the Attitude Era. Her unique look and ability to believably hold her own with the male wrestlers were groundbreaking for the time. However, issues behind the scenes, including the end of her relationship with Paul “Triple H” Levesque and disagreements over her pay, would lead to her leaving the company.
Some viewers may not have been expecting how truly sad the story for the woman born Joanie Laurer turned out to be. Viewers that grew up watching the WWE in the late-1990s/early-2000s are familiar with her work. Some viewers may also be familiar with her reality TV appearances and her publicized addiction and mental health issues.
Chyna struggled with self-image issues starting from her teen years. Her home life was dysfunctional, with her father being an abusive alcoholic. When she began showing signs of substance abuse, she left her mother’s home instead of going to a rehab facility and moved in with her father. She and her mother would not see each other again, and her mother mentions in the documentary that she did not even know her daughter had become a wrestler until she saw her on television. Though the pair would never meet again, they did speak on the phone before Chyna’s death.
Chyna underwent several plastic surgery procedures to appear more feminine, including breast implants and restructuring of her jaw. Chyna claimed that the jaw surgery was due to a legitimate injury, but the documentary shows a progressive transformation of her looks from 1996 to 1999. As a result, she may have felt validated when Playboy magazine came calling twice.
After her wrestling career ended, Chyna went through a downward spiral. She appeared in an interview with Howard Stern intoxicated and not in the right state of mind. She appeared on several reality television shows such as Surreal Life and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, where her addiction and mental health issues were addressed. Drew Pinski appeared in the documentary and mentioned his continued care with Chyna.
Chyna had aspirations of breaking into the film industry. In 2005 a homemade adult film she did with then-boyfriend Sean “X-Pac” Waltman was released, segue into her appearing in several adult films. Sadly most of her acting work was a bit-part on TV shows and low-budget movies that few people watched.
Her friends and family mentioned how much of a loving, caring person Chyna was throughout the documentary. But, sadly, she seemed never to find her self-worth. Her inability to feel loved in return or to find success outside of wrestling caused her to escape using drugs and alcohol. It is a sad cycle that many people in the world experience.
In 2012, Chyna found some form of escape when she moved to Japan to teach English. There she found herself in a country that did not know who she was and could escape all the baggage that was being Chyna. However, seeing footage from her social media at the time, she seemed to have found some form of peace. She had even found religion and had found some sense of family.
In 2015 she returned to the United States by urging her manager, Anthony Anzaldo, to make the documentary Reconstructing Chyna. The plan was to reintroduce Chyna to the American people and get the recognition she rightfully deserved.
Many will be shocked to see how the people she trusted in her final years took advantage of her. During several scenes in the documentary where she seems truly uncomfortable around people and unsure of things, they ask her to do. One of the earlier moments shows her making an appearance at a comic convention and expresses her doubts on if anyone will even know who she is. She is talked into going into the building and is greeted warmly by fans. At one point, fellow former WWE star Mick Foley comes to greet her, and when they hug, there are tears in her eyes. It is hard to say if those are tears of joy or her questioning herself again.
Another issue that is brought up in the WWE Hall of Fame. The annual event honors the greats of the wrestling industry, and Chyna deserves to be inducted. During an interview with Vince Russo, the topic is brought up, and she questions whether she has earned her spot, at which point Russo has to remind her of all the accomplishments she has made. A bone of contention of her induction is her adult film career, where Russo mentions men accused of murder in the Hall of Fame. She would eventually be posthumously inducted with the group Degeneration-X in 2019.
A later scene in the film shows Anzaldo and Chyna going to WWE headquarters to talk to the corporate team members. Chyna is visibly uncomfortable as they enter the building. They are turned away, and Chyna mentioned getting some looks from people in the building and seemed shaken by the event.
Of the three men working on the abandoned Reconstructing Chyna project interviewed by Vice, only the producer, Rob Potylo, genuinely cared for her well-being. He mentioned living with her for several months, and she seemed very happy during that period. However, the good times would not last. The end began when she fired Anzaldo when she decided she could not trust him anymore.
During her final filmed interview, she is intoxicated and not in a good state of mind. Potylo recounted that he told director Eric Angra that they needed to get her help after the interview. Angra mentioned trying to get her on an episode of the series Intervention, and that was the extent of his action. Angra also admits to abusing heroin at the time and possibly enabling Chyna’s continued drug use.
Sadly, Joanie Laurer died a few days later, on April 17, 2016. Her official cause of death was an accidental overdose from combining her prescribed medications with alcohol. Angra goes back and forth at the end of the documentary about taking responsibility in her death. In the end, the inaction to get her help was a leading factor in her death. Anzaldo also has to blame some of the blame. He enabled her addiction and is even shown withholding information about her drug use to Pinski and ignoring the doctor’s warnings about mixing medications.
One of the final insults came with how Anthony Anzaldo handled her ashes. Chyna’s mother expressed that a portion of her ashes was to be spread in the ocean, another part sent to her, and he was to dispose of the rest how he saw fit. Instead, he held a public memorial service with a bedazzled urn and had fans posing for pictures with the urn. The man who claimed to be Chyna’s “soulmate” made one last cash grab on her legacy.
In the end, Chyna was a damaged person who, unfortunately, did not get the help she deserved or needed. From having a broken home, feeling like she was thrown away by the industry she loved, and damaged relationships, she was a broken person looking to feel loved. Sadly, she trusted to wrong people who took advantage of her.
