CHYNA

Joanie's entrance into the WWF came because of her friendship with both Helmsley and Shawn Michaels. Laurer has said in the past that it was Helmsley and Michaels who pushed for her to appear in the WWF. The story goes that Helmsley and Michaels were constantly trying to talk Vince McMahon into taking a chance on Laurer, but it was Shane McMahon who finally sold his father on the idea of putting Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna together as a unique package deal.

In late 1997 Chyna joined Triple H and Shawn Michaels as a charter member of DeGeneration X, arguably the best faction ever in sports entertainment. DX was an instant smash, but it was also pretty much a Shawn Michaels thing with Helmsley and Chyna in the background.

In 1998 Chyna became a lot more physical and fans were forced to realise that Laurer could actually wrestle. The use of Chyna's "low blow" to set up Hunter's pedigree was a common site and was enough to make a lot of male fans groan for their counterparts in sympathy. After Michaels bowed out of DX and the WWF due to a long standing back injury, Helmsley moved to the forefront and took on the New Age Outlaws and X-Pac as new members. Chyna was still pretty much in the background, though. She had opinions about the new DX members calling X-Pac "talented...like a rubber ball athletically" and saying that "to be quite honest [Road Dogg and Billy Gunn] aren't up to the calibre of the rest of the group". She called herself "Mama Chyna" and said she was the "backbone" of DX.

At some stage it was decided that Chyna was going to become more vocal, and have actually storylines that revolved around her. One such storyline was the Mark Henry fiasco which saw Henry sue Chyna for sexual harassment. Chyna took a leave of absence from the WWF due to "legal problems", but in reality she was off getting plastic surgery. I think it was around this time she had breast implants done. At some stage she also had an overbite correction, a very painful process whereby they actually scrape the jawbone down to the preferred size. If you look at early footage of Chyna and recent footage you can barely tell it's the same woman. Her facial shape is completely different and her breast enhancement is out of this world. Her voice has also changed slightly in the past six months or so. I'm not criticizing Chyna for these surgical changes. Whatever makes you feel good about yourself I say.

When Chyna came back Henry said he would drop the law suit if Chyna would go on a date with him. They went on a date complete with Raw cameraman and boy did Chyna look so NOT happy to be there. It was funny. Mark Henry was trying to be all "I'm sexual chocolate baby" and Laurer was just looking at him with an expression that says "You have GOT to be kidding". For some reason the WWF extended this storyline and actually presented it that Chyna and Henry were a couple. Chyna told Jacqui and Terri of PMS to "stay away from my man" in reference to Mark Henry. Chyna even accompanied him ringside for a while. I suspect this was the WWF's way of finding a use for Chyna while Helmsley was out with a knee injury. The whole angle came to a head when Chyna offered Mark Henry the chance to have both her and her friend "Sammy". Henry jumped at the chance, only to be horribly embarrassed when it turned out "Sammy" was a transvestite. .

Triple H came back in December of 1998 and the two were back together. At this time the powers that be at the WWF decided to give Chyna her own separate push. I thought it was great. Finally, we would get to see Chyna pull a few moves in the main event arena. To this end Chyna won the "Corporate Rumble" by eliminating Vince McMahon. This meant that she could enter the 1999 "Royal Rumble" as the last entrant. She did so and managed to eliminate Mark Henry before Stone Cold eliminated her. Around this time Chyna's outfits began to change. Gone were the ripped pants and athletic tops, in their place came very small leather bikini's and tiny outfits that left very little to the imagination. Well, it certainly gained Chyna a lot more male attention.

After the Rumble Chyna went Corporate to a chorus of fan outrage. After tricking Helmsley into saying "I Quit" in a World Title match up with the Rock on Raw, Chyna proudly low blowed a stunned Helmsley and went Corporate. Chyna's reasons for going Corporate were said to be "a whole pile of dead presidents" i.e. money. She also ranted on about how Triple H and the rest of DX had never done anything for her and she was used and abused etc etc. This erupted into a short but intense feud with Triple H and the rest of DX and didn't she and Triple H have some interesting things to say to one another...it was all a work, but bothChyna and HHH carried it off very well.

Chyna even matched up against Helmsley on occasion and took some wicked bumps courtesy of Triple H. It seemed that Helmsley and maybe X-Pac, were the only two really comfortable with matching up with Laurer. It is no coincidence that these three are very good friends. In particular Laurer and Helmsley, courtesy of the aforementioned "relationship" and it was Triple H who did the best job of wrestling Chyna.

Chyna hooked up with Kane and it was at this time she was hit in the eye by a "firework" or whatever the hell it was, thrown by Kane and meant for Triple H. It was all a work and allowed Chyna some well deserved time off for more surgery.

Chyna reappeared at Wrestlemania 15, coming to Triple H's aid with a chair to the face of Kane. The two embraced and everyone thought Chyna had turned back to DX. Instead in a stroke of genius, the creative team at the WWF had Triple H turn Corporate. It was very cool. I'd lost touch with the internet wrestling world around then and I totally marked out on the whole thing.
Triple H and Chyna were back as a team for a while. Chyna took Helmsley's place in the King of the Ring tournament which a lot of people thought she might take out. It was actually very unlikely that she was going to win because a push that big for her would result in a lot of hard feelings backstage. But it was very good publicity for the WWF who teased fans mercilessly with the possibility of a "Queen of the Ring".

Chyna worked a program with the suddenly woman-hating Jeff Jarrett which was mildly interesting. She was booked for an Intercontinental title match against Jarrett at No Mercy when it was leaked that Jarrett was taking his free agent self off to the WCW due to problems with WWF management. At this time it became fairly obvious that Chyna was about to acquire the title. The only way she could not get the title was if the title was held over due to some imaginative "technicality". However, the WWF chose to roll with the whole "First Female Intercontinental Champion" stuff. Chyna winning the title was a great thing for wrestling.

So Chyna was IC champ for a while until Jericho entered the picture. We all knew that it was only a matter of time before Jericho would be wearing gold around his waist and the most obvious choice was the Intercontinental title. Laurer's days as IC champ were numbered at this point, but professionally she had accomplished more than any female wrestler before her. Except maybe the Fabulous Moolah, but her accomplishments were on a completely different level 150 years ago.

Anyway, Chyna and Jericho feuded for the title and Chyna defeated Jericho at Survivor Series to retain the IC title before Jericho beat Chyna at Armageddon. At the 28/12 Smackdown taping Jericho and Chyna were involved in a title match whereby two separate referees counted them both out. Stephanie McMahon decided that they would become the first ever WWF Co-Intercontinental champions which was an interesting turn of events. Never before had we seen the WWF do such a thing, even when the title was in dispute and being held over. I can speculate on why the strange little men at titan chose to do this, but I really have no idea. Perhaps it was to try and get Jericho over, but in hindsight that seemed unnecessary. Maybe it was to give Chyna a storyline, which makes more sense. The main problem with Chyna seems to be her lack of consistent storyline. She's been in a couple of really good ones, but she's never quite hit the mark square on.

Jericho beat Chyna and Hardcore Holly in a Triple Threat match to become the "undisputed" Intercontinental champion at this year's Royal Rumble.

So where does Chyna go from here? For a while she was paired up with "Kat", but that association seems to be over. It has been hinted recently that Chyna and Jericho are headed towards a partnership of some sort that may or may not involve "romance". Some people seem to think that this will lead to a little mixed tag-team feuding with people likeX Pac /Tori and Lita/Essa Rios .

Currently she is linked up with none other than "Latino Heat" {Eddy Guerrero }.There seems to be more of a comedic role for Chyna in this current part of her WWF career which you might find ironic because it took her a year to talk for the first time, and nearly two for her to smile. I can see this latino heat gimmick end soon for chyna as she will go after more WWF gold, the European title which will set up a nice feud between Chyna and Guerrero a feud which she has been crying out for and deserves.

But for now she continues to be a woman playing in a man's world. Her matches are always entertaining and there is certainly no denying that Chyna knows what she is doing in the ring. It's hard to predict where the WWF will take Chyna next possibly euro/light championships. The best we can hope for is that they do not over-expose her and try and give her character somewhere interesting to go.