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and welcome to Monday Night Raw!
We're live from the beautiful Nashville Arena.
Mick: I vividly recall seeing Chyna for the first time in Tennessee.
At the time, I was the character Mankind
and not too many people knew what I looked like.
I'd sit out in the crowd with my family and not get bothered
a whole lot. Announcer: She slapped Helmsley
right in the nose! - At a certain point of the show,
here comes, out of the crowd,
this Amazon of a woman,
and begins shaking Terri Runnels like a rag doll.
There's that moment again!
That moment, huge moment!
Just bear-hugging Marlena
and shaking her... Man down!
I remember my wife said, "Oh, my God.
Who is this... Who is this woman?
Is... Is she from the crowd?
She's going to tear Terri Runnels apart."
Who is that person?
Through the arena, I saw her and I went, "Holy cow!
That's probably the most impressive girl I've ever seen."
Russo: I'll never forget the first time I saw Joanie.
She was stunning.
That was the only word I could think of.
Stunning.
Mick: No one had ever seen the likes of her before.
In my mind, we haven't seen the likes of her since.
I've wrestled men, I've wrestled women,
and I beat them all.
And anybody else that steps in that ring
is going to do the same thing
because I'm going to leave them behind me
like the trash, I left it out yesterday morning.
♪♪
Mr. Ass: Wrestling guys, and then, wrestling her
was really no difference.
She just hit a lot harder than guys.
Announcer: And look at Chyna, now, with a forearm to Mr. Ass.
She was the main thing.
She was the Stone Cold.
It was Chyna.
Like that was a thing.
The Ninth Wonder of the World!
Chyna!
Everyone knew who she was.
My athletic ability and love of entertainment,
I put the two together and Chyna became a household name.
Announcer: The Ninth Wonder of the World
making history.
I very much see myself as the Wonder Woman 2000.
- Oh! - Chyna!
As a woman who takes control,
is an equal athlete to the men that she fights.
Oh!
You kind of make it to the top of Everest,
air's too thin, you can't live there,
so you got to go down.
Karen: Joanie was all about trusting people,
being loyal.
[ Crying ] Shame on Triple H.
He broke her heart.
There's no other way to say that.
Mick: It's something that the company's
actually very good at doing,
and they did it with Joanie,
which is that, once she was let go,
it's like she was completely erased.
[ Crying ] This is just a... up business.
Diesel: Nobody wanted her.
Everybody had had enough of her.
She needed help.
I have no family.
I have no friends.
Rob: I could tell that
we were in for a wild ride that summer.
Why didn't somebody do something earlier?
Who the... are you talking to?
I'm Chyna, bitch!
♪♪
I know my friend Joanie as Joanie.
I don't want to know her as Chyna because, in my opinion,
[ Crying ] it was her being Chyna
that took my friend into a dark place
that she could not come out of.
♪♪
It's hard to go back to L.A.,
kind of feeling like you know,
not so glamorous, I guess.
For the last three years,
I have been in Tokyo, Japan.
I felt like I was really misconceived in the public eye.
Suddenly, I wasn't remembered
for all the great things I did in wrestling.
I'd become this monster, you know,
without, to me, doing anything wrong.
♪♪
Yeah, it's weird, the things that I'm thinking of.
I'm thinking about the way I look
because it's hitting me now, like how long I've been here
and how out of the, you know, that bubble I've been
and I know everybody's going to kind of be...
♪♪
you know,
looking at me, critiquing me.
♪♪
I spoke with my manager today.
Was really excited that we are on the right track
and that makes me feel really excited.
[ Sigh ]
It's all hitting me now.
♪♪
I'm feeling really nervous about
making it to the other side.
♪♪
We'll... We'll get into the specifics
of what we're doing for the next two weeks,
really kind of when you land,
because it gives us something to shoot to,
but you're going to be meeting the team,
two of which are with us now.
Hey, Chyna, my name's Erik. How are you doing?
Hi, Erik.
What we've got going,
what we're going to be shooting,
what we're going to be doing,
is going to be great.
I mean, you got to be you.
Only you know what you've been through,
- Yeah, yeah. - you know, but, at the end of the day,
it's about just being happy all. the. time, period.
♪♪
Hi, guys!
It's Chyna, here.
You know me
and I'm coming home to America.
Just my ticket home.
I'm about to embark on this documentary
and I promise I'm going to give you the whole story.
♪♪
[ Plane engines whine ]
Day 1 of the year-long documentary
of "The Reconstruction of Chyna."
By the end of all of this, she's going to face her demons
and I think we're going to get
Chyna naked, both figuratively and, trust me,
literally, at some point throughout this process.
Right, so let's just get a clean intro from you,
like, "Hi, I'm Rob I'm the producer."
Just strike [indistinct] - Yep.
Hey, what's up? I'm Rob Potylo.
I am one of the producers
of "The Reconstruction of Chyna."
I like that, but that with like, "And a fan,"
like "I'm one of the producers, and a huge fan."
Yes! Let me know.
Okay, let's start at the beginning.
The footage of you in the car.
You are so happy.
Yeah. I mean, because there was something
about everybody putting their best foot forward
at the beginning, and the momentum.
It just seems right because she's amazing.
This was going to be a 365-day documentary
that showed the total reconstruction
of her coming back from Japan, being reembraced
by the culture and the wrestling world,
and everything was going to be beautiful.
And that lasted for about, yeah,
four to five days, [ Laughing ] you know?
That's... That's going... We're going to talk about that.
I'm excited to be on a road trip with these guys.
This is an all-star team.
I'm not going to call you out, Erik,
because you're the documentarian,
but you are here.
I just really wanted to connect you
with Anthony, to bring Chyna here.
Anthony: [ Speaks indistinctly ] Chyna: Okay.
♪♪
Anthony: Do you feel like coming back is going to trigger
you wanting to maybe go back to that crazy life?
I hope not. I think it's a matter of
managing what I'm doing
and having the support...
And the right people around.
Of course.
I'm going to try to do everything I can.
I'm going to try to do it the right way.
- Are you doing Xanax? - No.
I have another anti-anxiety medication
that they put me on in Japan,
which I have, but I very rarely use, like.
What do you use when you sleep?
Halcion and Rohypnol.
Mm.
Also, that's where, you know,
a lot of the alcohol came into play, you know?
I would be like so anxious and hyped up,
you'd need a Mack truck to put me down,
until I'd just work all that out, you know?
All that energy and anxiety and everything was horrible.
♪♪
We basically walked around New York as a pack
and Anthony pretty much explained to Chyna
how the whole process was going to happen,
the reconstruction of Chyna.
Seemed like the clear directive
was getting her onto the Comic-Con circuit again.
And me and Erik, the director, are like,
"This is not the documentary."
It was weird.
My job, when Chyna came back, was to help her spiritually,
to... to introduce her to this way of thinking...
You don't have to live with the glass half empty.
Everything's how you look at it.
♪♪
She was, "Well, does anybody still know who I am?"
Girl, you're more popular today than you were ever.
So, we'll be doing appearances, crazy appearances...
Comic-Cons, backyard wrestling brawls, all of it.
We'll put you on celebrity reality television.
You're fresh meat again.
Sweetie, I got you.
I think I was the very happiest when I started wrestling
and, every day, I would just...
I loved... I loved life every day.
It was amazing.
And then, you know, I experienced hardships
that I never could have ever imagined in my life.
But I feel that
"there's something in the air" type of thing,
[ Chuckle ] that the timing is right
for whatever's going to happen now.
♪♪
My name's Joanie Lee.
I've been training really hard at the gym every day
and the reason for this is, is because I feel that it's time
for a new breed of female pro wrestlers.
♪♪
I was called everything from a man to a lesbian,
to just extremely rejected and extremely unaccepted.
Even at a very young age,
there was something different about her,
but she hadn't identified that, yet.
You know, she... she hadn't found her... her people.
Especially through her teens, her physical body
was a struggle for her because I think she knew
that she had the capability of being strong,
but she didn't know how to embrace that.
I was always an athlete,
since the time I was 15 years old.
I started lifting weights,
watching my brother and his friends.
Mostly men who were very supportive,
egging me on to lift more weight every day
and who really made me feel proud and cool.
In a lot of ways, maybe, growing up,
there was a lack of control and she could start to learn
what it was like to manipulate her body,
to create what she wanted to create.
She could control that.
I think it made her feel confident.
Chyna: That's when I decided that I was going to become an actress.
I wanted to be on TV.
I wanted to be a movie star.
Being one to never take no for an answer,
I would drive five hours for a two-second audition
where I knew that I wasn't right for the part.
When people would see me, they'd go, "Wow.
She's different-looking."
- [ Laughs ] - Anthony: Right.
Was realizing that I was not going to fit
into the average role on TV.
But I still craved that entertainment
and all of the things that I had wanted
since I was a little girl, that made me happy.
Was a period of time where she was really sort of floundering.
I said, "Put everything you own in your car
and just come here," because she didn't have any...
She didn't have a relationship.
She didn't have a job.
She had no money.
And I think we were really, really, really close.
I had Joanie. Joanie had me.
And so we hit the gym.
That's also when Gerry entered the picture.
My role was specifically to help her prepare
for a fitness competition.
For days to follow that first, initial meeting,
I couldn't stop thinking about it.
♪♪
I was extremely impressed,
more than I ever had done for any other person.
We started seeing each other.
It evolved into a relationship.
Everything that she did was something to better herself,
to be that one thing she knew she was destined for,
but she didn't quite know what it was, yet.
You're spinning that wheel of occupations
and what made... "Wrestling. That's what I want to do"?
I watched it on TV one night and I was not a wrestling fan.
Each person was such a character and there was lights
and people clapping and screaming.
And I said to my sister, I said,
"I can do that. That's how I'm going to do it.
That's how I'm going to make my mark."
Kathy: That is what planted the seed.
She said, "I'm going to explore this.
Do you want to do it with me?" And I said, "Nope."
And that's how she eventually ended up
finding "Killer" Kowalski.
♪♪
I walked into an old, rickety gymnasium
and there's this guy sitting
like humped over.
I'd say, "Mr. Kowalski?"
And he said, "Yes,"
and I said, "I want to be a wrestler."
♪♪
Man: How long have you been a wrestler?
About six months
and it feels like a lot longer
because I have found my element,
so I feel like I've been doing it forever.
- Man: Oh! Ooh! - 1!
Kathy: She was there every single day.
She had black and blue marks everywhere.
She was exhausted.
[ Crowd screaming ]
Oh!
And she loved it.
Oh, God!
And, eventually, he said, "You're ready."
Yes, I came all the way from Boston,
under the tutelage of Killer Kowalski,
to kick some butt down here.
And let me tell you something.
Ladies, I'm going to get your belt
and, guys, I'm going for your belt!
You hear that?
I remember going to Marshalls
and buying a bathing suit, getting some big
volleyball pads. I didn't really know
what I was doing. I didn't know what it was like,
you know. Five people in the audience
and I was thrilled, of course.
Man: Get the hair.
Look at that, just throwing her like a rag doll.
There's just nothing there. You know what I'm saying?
Karen: I met Joanie in 1996 in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
Okay, ladies. If you're ready, let's do it.
♪♪
I'm a tall, big girl.
Here's another tall, big girl and I'm like,
"Yes! We're going to have fun."
Ahhh!
She would like throw a forearm in my back
and I would just stand up and look at her and smile at her
and I'm like, "Hit me."
Ahh!
She hit me and I hit the mat,
so I think she understood what I was saying.
She wanted every little girl that was not of a normal size
to understand it's okay to be athletic and be muscular.
She wanted to take the pain that she had felt for so long
and make something good about it.
She felt like she could fit in in pro wrestling...
Ooh.
When, honestly, it wasn't the place she should've been.
Joanie had no idea
what the professional wrestling underbelly was about.
♪♪
Rob: I-I thought this was the beginning of so much good...
[ Laughing ]
but she was showing signs that she wasn't ready.
And Anthony was more like,
"This is how she's going to be, alright?
I kind of knew it was going to be like this.
We got to get her to this Comic-Con
and we got to make sure that
[ Striking ] she does the job."
Erik: So, the past few days have been pretty crazy.
How are you feeling today?
I'm feel pretty tired.
Jet lag is starting to set in now,
but I'm hanging in there
and it's been going like great
and super excited about this.
And what are we at today?
So today we are at my first autograph signing.
Let's go. Get over here.
You're the first person to see Chyna
in America in four years. Hi!
Oh, my God. [ Laughs ]
And that sort of became a microcosm for the big picture
of how we were going to run things with Chyna.
Anthony: Come see Chyna!
Woman: Waited two hours...
Come see Chyna!
The fan support that I have been getting...
You guys, if you guys wouldn't mind
moving back a little bit for one second.
After everything that's happened,
I come out here and I get all the love,
you know, and I pick up some money.
And I can pay my rent and be back in the States
and say, "I'm going to be okay because you know what, Chyna?
You're Chyna."
♪♪
Are you going to hug me?
[ Laughter ]
Hi, Joanie.
How are you doing?
You okay?
Tearing up is a good thing, right?
- I'm really happy to see you. - [ Laughs ]
Thank you. I'm happy to see you, too.
Welcome home. - [ Laughs ]
Manchild: Being a wrestler is about trust.
You trust people with your body
and, when the trust isn't there, the matches just don't work.
I mean, I never would've known
that someone smelled so good.
This is really enjoyable.
That same trust
that allows you to flourish inside the ring
can hurt people outside of it
because you go from this wild world of pro wrestling,
where, at least, there's an understanding
that I can trust you with my life,
and then, you go to the outside world,
where everybody wants a piece of you.
And everybody wanted a piece of Joanie.
I've always had a lot of love for him
and he's always been a special person to me,
so, it's just really great to see him
and I know like, you know, just one look
would sum up like a whole past.
It's many years since I seen him.
♪♪
Manchild: I think she trusted a lot.
I think it came back to hurt her quite a bit.
Let's sign some autographs for the people!
After I saw her
and had such an emotional moment with her,
I remember thinking like
I wasn't sure if she was ready to go back
and be part of some provocative stuff.
I wasn't sure that was what was best for her.
♪♪
Here's this billion-dollar business, right?
Like this whole
trendset, like this whole...
Wrestling is part of culture, right? In a sense.
Don't you want a success story?
I want to be one of those people. [ Laughs wryly ]
I want to be a success out of the wrestling
and I would think that... - Wait a minute. First of all,
let me clarify something for you.
You are a su... What?
"I'm going to be a success story"?
You are a success story!
There was one Chyna, one!
I've seen the wrestling business
destroy the lives of dozens and dozens of people.
I could've been one of them.
It's cold. It's heartless.
And I remember having conversations
with her about this when she was over in Japan,
but, when she was back in the United States,
I really believed everything was going to be okay.
I really, honestly, believe that,
but, obviously, that wasn't the case.
Ah!
Man: Got her by the hair again.
Gerry: She had such a presence in the ring
and was so good at it.
It was like something [ Clap ] natural
just took [ Snaps fingers ] like that.
Announcer: Joanie Lee.
She used to constantly tell me,
"Gerry, there's something good coming my way.
I can feel it.
I know this is going to be something big."
There was nothing like it at the time.
They had women coming out as valets
and they were all coming out all pretty-looking.
And she says, "I have this idea that I would come out
as the bodyguard of the wrestler,
but, I would get in the ring and I would mix it up
and throw the other wrestlers on my own, like I'm a wrestler."
And she said, "I'm going to approach Paul Levesque
and see if he thinks the idea is good,
that I become his bodyguard."
Chyna: I knew Triple H because he was from my hometown.
I ended up running into Shawn Michaels and Triple H.
We clicked right away and started talking
about how they could integrate me
and something new that they thought,
something different they saw in me.
They saw that she was just this amazing physical presence
and they felt that she could be a contributor
to the success of their story.
Chyna: Hunter would tell me, "Well, we've got to get you hired.
I need this for my career and Vince just doesn't like it.
He doesn't like the idea
that this is now a woman's business."
I knew that Vince ran the company,
but I didn't really know that professional wrestling
was pretty much Vince McMahon.
Vince McMahon is part desperado, part tycoon,
and all showman.
He's the founder of the World Wrestling Federation
and the man responsible for some
of the most controversial television programing ever.
Announcer: The Godfather and his California Hos.
The more publicity, quite frankly,
be it good or bad, that we get, increases viewership.
♪♪
Vince McMahon is brilliant
and he's stubborn
and he's a man's man.
I would do anything for you, Mr. McMahon.
I've heard many times, and Joanie had even
told me this... that Vince didn't like the big girls.
He didn't like her look.
He didn't want that in WWE.
When her role as my bodyguard
was first being brought up to Vince,
it was heavily resisted.
"No one's going to believe in that
and no one's going to buy it," and Shawn and I had
to push really hard to get that done.
I want the guys, but I'm going to be the first,
the biggest, the baddest,
the new role model, for female wrestlers, got that?
[ Crying ] She called me and said,
"They've accepted me and I'm going to be Chyna."
♪♪
Chyna: Triple H and Shawn Michaels liked "Chyna."
They thought that it was kind of an oxymoron.
It represented this tiny, petite china item
and I was so opposite from that.
Announcer: And his opponent,
being accompanied to the ring by Chyna,
Hunter Hearst!
Kathy: She just kind of hit pay dirt.
I think she was in shock.
20,213 fans.
To be thrust into the limelight like that, overnight,
she went from being at home
to being on the road immediately.
Gerry: From the first time she started going on the road,
she was with Paul.
Ten days at a time, home for two days.
I know she was coming home
and staying with him for a couple of days.
Chyna: We really gravitated towards each other
and became very serious with each other
six months later.
Gerry: I knew I had to let her go,
to go off and do what she wanted to do.
I needed to not be selfish.
She needed to go be famous.
♪♪
Right in the kidneys!
I remember putting together the original DX.
Obviously, Hunter brought Chyna in
because he wanted to do something with him.
Hunter and Sean were friends,
and all of a sudden we had this threesome known as DX.
- Triple threat no way through. - The show stoppers!
Russo: As the head writer of the show, DX had a very big part.
They had to be cool, they had to be cutting edge.
Diesel: At that time, it was the attitude era.
So everything was, you know, about that to the man.
The stuff before the attitude era,
if you look very low key, very, I would say,
probably less than PG,
but then once the attitude era hit, it was all on.
Let's get rid of this sucker!
♪♪
Joanie finally had found a family.
Now she's got a couple of dozen brothers
that would take a bullet for her.
Diesel: What they were was the Generation X, you know,
So, I mean, that just fit.
Like we're such badasses, our cooler is a female.
On top of it, you're buying it.
This is a new beginning for D-Generation X.
And we're here to rip ass!
When I first met Chyna while she was with Hunter,
Chyna was somebody that doesn't drink
or do drugs or anything like that.
And the rest of us, after the show,
all we did was drink and do take pills.
And I would be traveling with them.
And, you know, Hunter and Chyna's relationships,
seemed good, like, on the surface.
Joanie and Triple H were together for quite a while.
Joanie was loyal to him, she loved him.
She was very much in love with him.
Hamilton: I remember the first time they walked into my house,
it was almost bigger than life.
But they were perfect together.
I think he loved her just the way she was.
Man: Honestly, was Hunter the love of your life?
Very much so. I was very, very much in love with him. Yes.
Russo: I don't think it was a secret that they were together.
I think people were just taken back that somebody like Paul,
for whatever reason, would choose
to have a relationship with somebody like Chyna.
She got a lot of flack for the way that she looked,
not just because she was huge,
but because she had a certain sense of masculinity
and the fans love to hate her.
Put it down on her knees where she belongs.
Man: Oh, come on.
Russo: I've definitely seen pressure of losing weight,
getting implants, taking steroids.
I've seen that way too many times.
Hamilton: She definitely wanted to have more of a feminine appeal.
And I think that she felt
that the only way she could do that was surgically.
Man: You had your jaw reconstructed to look more like a woman.
True or false? - Now, what is that all about?
I had reconstructive surgery on my jaw
for an underbite that I had.
Oh, I see. So it isn't about you looking more like a woman?
No.
Hamilton: I think she felt like that was the last piece
that she had to take care of
in order to get to a sense of self acceptance,
that not only was she big and strong and muscular,
but that she was very feminine and could be sexy.
Chyna: I think I display an enormous amount
of femininity, opportunity. And I happen to be...
Oh, yeah, I'm not saying that but the look is one of...
The look is strength.
And I think to me, what it demonstrates...
"Strength" is a male word. A male word.
Strength is a male word because I think that
women are afraid to show strength
because they get chastised for it.
And society likes beautiful women.
And so she did what she needed to do.
That's kind of when her career just sort of skyrocketed.
Well, well, well, what do you know?
The opportunity to talk?
Because that's what it's all about, guys, right, opportunity,
DX wanted to get ahead, you know how they did it? Me.
I was the force behind DX,
because I carried those four degenerates on my back
for almost two years.
Announcer: Chyna has grabbed Gillberg
and is now beating the daylights out of him all the way out.
Man: At what point did you realize how big you had gotten?
You know, there was no more DX
and they wanted me to wrestle by myself.
I didn't want to do it.
They were like, no, no, we want to go this direction with you.
Terry, I've never seen
the Ninth Wonder of the World so intense.
I was the one who thought, "That's not going to work."
She has earned the right to be the number one contender.
I was always under an enormous amount of pressure
to be perfect and not screw up.
Man #2: What'd she have to do to win a match?
You cannot have an inter gender match
if it's not believable.
The beauty with Chyna was it was believable.
Men are dominant and women are weak!
Joanie was the one who seemed most likely to win
an intercontinental championship from a man.
Like, that was completely believable.
Announcer: Chyna's got the guitar.
- Look out! - Oh, man!
Announcer: Chyna with a guitar!
- [Indistinct speech] - It certainly is.
I guess it is. I don't know.
Announcer #2: We have a K.O.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Announcer #3: The new World Welter Weight Title, Chyna!
Announcer #2: Chyna has made history!
Chyna, the first woman to become the Intercontinental Champion!
Chyna: After that, it was like just like this phenomena
of the magazine covers and all the interviews.
And then I became kind of like more of a spokesperson
for the WWE to being this female phenom.
I felt like it was expanding the business.
We could just feel it starting to grow.
Didn't know anything about wrestling
and I see this video and here was this gorgeous woman
coming out onstage in this silver costume
And I'm like, "Wow, is that Joanie?!"
I mean, I knew it was, but it was like, "Wow!"
That just was like [ Gasp ]
It's kind of really surprising.
I mean, you know, there's your kid onstage.
I hadn't heard from her for almost 27 years.
♪♪
Yeah, man, that that trip, like we within the first week,
like we all saw sort of our true colors.
Chyna, did you remember Eddie?
- Hey, Eddie. - Oh, my God.
And I felt like Anthony was treating me like a cameraman.
It was my film and I was paying for it.
- I'll come in with... - And he was like,
"Go over here and shoot this and shoot that."
And there was a couple of times that he didn't get his way
and he yelled, we found out he was the kind of person
who was very calm and shill.
But then when he would get to a certain point, he would yell.
Angra: Sorry, man, we gotta do the asphalt,
otherwise we're gonna lose light.
Okay, well, we've I think al... Did we...?
Oh, we're starting that all over again.
Angra: And so he started yelling again after we spent the whole day
filming these things that I feel were important.
And then he starts yelling about how important this guy is
for Chyna's career.
And then I got really pissed and I just started
screaming at him and I said, like this was my show
and him and Chyna could
go... themselves and I didn't need them.
I start throwing his stuff out of the van, my van,
and and then he apologized and everything was cool.
And that was the beginning of like all of our relationships.
All of our characters are a little bit of ourselves.
Chyna is a powerful, strong woman.
She's attractive and she holds her own
in male-dominated environment.
She was a household name. She was just everywhere.
It was an inundation of Chyna.
She did the Playboy thing.
Chyna: When I did my Playboy, I made more money
doing one Playboy than I had in five years
cumulatively of working for the company.
Hamilton: She did feel a lot of insecurity because she'd say,
"Oh, my God, I just do not fit in with these beautiful women."
But they all thought she was awesome.
Chyna: If you do happen to pick up an issue of Playboy
after you see my ass, you can kiss it, too.
[ Laughter ] [ Cheers and applause ]
Eddie Guerrero and coming by Mamacita for the title...
Landsberg: You wanted storylines that involved you wrestling men,
right, and Vince, for the most part,
wanted you to wrestle against women,
was that at the heart of one of the problems?
Yeah, my character was going backwards.
For six years, I had wrestled men and then all of a sudden
I wasn't supposed to fight the guys anymore
and I was supposed to be this women's champion.
And who was I going to fight as and what was I going to do?
But is it possible that the public
does not want to see men losing to women?
Yeah, but there was nobody there at that point
that didn't want to wrestle me.
How was I going to step backwards and wrestle women
that didn't have the experience
from the guys that I was wrestling everyday?
Simpson: They're taking this woman, 5'9",
muscular and turning her into a Diva.
Although they couldn't chisel her down into a 5'5"
size 2 they did the best they could to make her a Diva.
Strauch: I mean, it seems like a big turning
point in her story. - I think that was it.
She's so full of everything that you want to be around
to somebody that just I would,
in a sense, completely goes dark.
Joanie was all about trusting people being loyal.
In pro wrestling you don't have that.
Shame on Triple H. He broke her heart.
There's no other way to say that he broke Joanie's heart.
We had a huge house in New Hampshire.
His career was moving up
and therefore he was having a lot of meetings
with Vince and Stephanie and like the crew there.
You know, I should not be like the jealous like wifey
and get on his case about being too friendly
with the boss's daughter or with the boss,
just let him do his thing. I was so proud of him.
Stephanie: By the time, you know, Triple H and I started our
on-screen storyline, we just sort of had
great chemistry and it just went from there.
Hunter I take thee as my husband.
Our storyline was, you know, that we were married
and we took over the business and drove my dad out.
One time when when I was standing around the ring,
he sort of curled around me.
He was on the floor and he felt my leg.
And I was like, that's definitely flirtation.
Woman: That's not part of the script.
Chyna: I would ask Hunter time and time again,
I figured it's better just to address the problem
and ask him honestly.
So we got into a heated argument.
I told him, I know something's going on.
Don't tell me something's not going on.
He swiped my hand. I swiped his hand.
I knew at that point I had to leave,
but I needed some sort of closure.
And I found a love letter from Stephanie
that had dated a year back.
So the whole time they were doing the storyline,
basically they were together.
When I found out I was devastated. It hurt me.
I'm a human being and nobody, whether you're a celebrity
or whether you're not, likes to be cheated on,
especially when it's with the boss's daughter.
- It's Vince's daughter. - Sure.
- As long as you keep her happy. - It's a hell of a cash upgrade.
- And also, she's very feminine. - Right.
I mean, you would call her a feminine woman.
Woman: Certainly not like Joan.
Hamilton: I think when she met him,
she found somebody that she really loved.
And I think she was devastated when that relationship ended.
Chyna: Love can't stop love.
But I was like, how then do I deal with
the emotional side of this happening
and keeping my job and, like, moving forward?
Tell me whether your relationship with Triple H
and now his relationship with Stephanie
sped up your departure from the WWF?
Well, officially, you know, I could say no,
but I don't think I'll ever know the answer to that.
In the back of my mind. I'd like to say, "Of course."
Ross: Well, we decided not to renew her contract.
Her deal to me was Chyna is as valuable to WWE
as Stone Cold Steve Austin is.
Chyna: Because I did feel that I was top talent there.
And I was included in every other aspect
as far as top talent was concerned,
except for financially.
Ross: She wanted to be cut loose or she would've demanded
a million dollars a year.
Announcer: Summer Slam this Sunday is history in the making!
Russo: When the WWE decides to part ways with somebody,
there's always the excuse.
Oh, they got too big for their ego.
They they got hard to deal with. They wanted more money.
Out of the thousands and thousands of people
I worked with, she'd be the last one to have an ego
when she had every right to have an ego.
Chyna: I was sitting in a Jerry's Deli eating lunch
and a fax mysteriously went to Jerry's Deli
and it was from the WWE
and they said they wouldn't be needing me anymore.
Shane: It's something that the company is actually very good at doing,
and they did it with Joanie, which is that
once she was let go,
it's like she was completely erased.
I know a lot of shit about the wrestling
Wanna, please, I could kill them.
But I loved it every day in my life, I had a great time.
I loved it. I love them for making me Chyna.
Man: Did they make you Chyna, or did you make you Chyna?
Both. Both.
They can't do without my talent, there is not another Chyna.
And there never will be.
Announcer: The Ninth Wonder of the World
Chyna!
Russo: You've got to think about having it all, losing it,
knowing you are never going to achieve that again,
then it's like you got to be at the point of asking yourself,
what's my purpose?
Hamilton: When she left the WWE,
she got an apartment out in Santa Monica.
She went from having that family at the WWE to really
being on her own.
Chyna: Nobody would take my call, nobody would answer my letters.
Literally pulled the rug out from underneath me
because I went from,
like this billion dollar commodity right on the street.
Hamilton: She could no longer use the Chyna name.
That name was owned by the WWE.
When she left, she had to give it up.
Stern: Course, we can't call her "Chyna" or else she'll be sued.
That's right. That's Vince McMahon's name.
But we could use officially Chyna Doll.
Right. You're Chyna Doll.
Right, Joanie Chyna Doll Laurer.
Russo: If I'm Vince McMahon, I own that brand,
but can we make an exception?
Let her use her name.
But that that that would ultimately come from Vince.
I assumed that I would just deal with the heartache
of the breakup and make a like a lateral move,
so I went knocking on doors in Hollywood and I thought,
oh, I'll get a sitcom or I'll get another show.
Chyna: I got three big movies coming out.
One is "Just Another Romantic Wrestling Comedy"
where I actually do some some of my last wrestling.
She had some other acting gigs, nothing substantial.
And I think at that point
she kind of started to panic a little bit.
- It's going to hurt. - Is there a point, Joanie,
when drugs come into play, you know,
maybe you're taking something to get your head off
of what you're going through to ease the pain.
Chyna: I found myself on the bottom of a vodka bottle
on many occasions. I was self medicating for sure.
Hamilton: She was, again, feeling lonesome and not sure what to do.
That's when she became involved with Sean,
when he sort of came into the picture.
He showed up on my doorstep one day and I was like,
"Oh, my God, you know, we've been friends for so long."
He said, "I got a divorce from my wife"
and he was happy to see me. And it was instant love.
She was a very comforting
and felt like a safe place for me.
Diesel: And she seemed really comfortable.
And I just got... The two just kind of meshed.
But I think at the same time,
those two weren't good for each other.
X-Pac: I just was happy to have somebody that wanted me.
There's a bad person in there somewhere
and there's a... wonderful person in there somewhere, too.
Chyna: It happened so quick. That's when I started noticing
like a lot of the drugs
and like a lot of the crazy stuff thinking like,
oh, my gosh, here we go again.
I'm getting into another situation.
How do I deal with this?
I just started dabbling in using crystal meth at the time.
I was hiding my drug use from her.
And I didn't realize at the time
that she was hiding hers from me as well.
Hamilton: It's almost like they were on a boat that was sinking
and there was not a lot anybody could do to stop that.
Joanie found it incredibly fascinating to go to Japan.
They had a different sort of respect about wrestling there.
When I was there in 2002, wrestling was huge,
within Ojisan.
That was with New Japan Professional Wrestling.
Yasuda: New Japan is the biggest pro wrestling organization in Japan.
It was originally founded by Mister Inoki.
And he's more like mix of a Muhammad Ali and Vince McMahon.
[ Speaking Japanese ]
Yasuda: The style was called Hardstyle.
Like you really hit the guys, slam the guy as hard as you can.
So Chyna had to learn.
Chyna: If you were going as a foreigner,
you're getting beat up, right? It's a scary world.
Chyna: We trained every day for like 10 hours a day,
which ultimately led to the big fight
with Masahiro Chono in the Tokyo den with 80,000 plus people.
Announcer: Joanie Laurer!
[ Speaking Japanese ]
[ Crowd roars ]
[ Speaking Japanese ]
[ Laughs ]
[ Speaking Japanese ]
Chyna: It was the most physically demanding achievement
I've ever done in my life.
Let me wait till everybody's in here to tell you
that I didn't lose that match
because I beat his ass in front of all of his fans.
Chono: [ Speaking Japanese ]
Didn't expect that did you, Chono?
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
Chono: [ Speaking Japanese ]
Yasuda: She was already into a relationship with X-Pac
and then drug things started to happen.
X-Pac: I ended up going with her.
I brought coke and meth into Japan with us.
I carried on me.
Little by little, it started to affect her.
Like, okay, she's late. So she became flaky.
So they had to fire her.
Chono: [ Speaking Japanese ]
Stern: Are you now into alcohol big time?
Are you having a problem with it?
- No. - You're not having a problem?
I want to party and I don't want to be the designated driver.
Angra: That's great, and if you turn a little bit
like you're facing towards the mountains a bit?
There we go. That's great. Beautiful.
Alright, just stay right there, I'm going to get a wide shot.
You're up.
[ Wind blowing ]
Ow!
Anzaldo: I was not living in a world of denial.
I knew her.
She was taking prescription medication,
so I knew that that wasn't good.
Things were going well for the most part,
it was just, more frequently, She was bingeing,
but it wasn't affecting the work.
And we knew we were going to have to get to the rehab.
We knew that that was coming.
We knew she was going to have to get off.
But she she wasn't she wasn't ready.
She didn't want to do it.
She felt like she had it under control.
Potylo: That's when I really started noticing Chyna
was starting to hit the sauce and hit the pills.
And it was it was a real battle for her.
Hamilton: I, too, am the queen of denial.
And so to talk about this means that I have to admit
the fact that she had a lot of problems
that I just could not... Nobody could control, right?
Sean called me and he said, you need to get here now.
I went into her apartment and she was combative.
She was under the influence. And I said, "I love you.
And I think you got to go get help or you're gonna die."
And she said, "I don't have a problem."
And she was very angry with me.
This went on for hours and she finally agreed.
We got to the rehab and we walked in the door
and Joanie said, "I don't know what the... we're doing here,
but I'm out of here," after like 10 or 15 minutes.
She basically was telling me she hated me.
She never wanted to see me again.
I knew it was, you know, the end of our relationship, basically.
Joanie went her own way,
and that was the last time I saw her.
I was heartbroken. She was my best friend.
And I was really the only one that she had for family.
Right? [ Chuckles ]
So I think she really felt alone.
I just spent six days in Twin Towers of LAX.
Stern: Right.
And that's not a very fun prison to be in.
Alright.
You went to prison because you beat up your boyfriend.
I didn't beat him up. I slapped him in self defense.
- You bitch slap. - I bitch slapped him.
Her relationship with Sean was extremely toxic
because both individuals had their own demons to deal with.
And I think it's because she was so desperate to be loved
that she would take these relationships
and just hang in there.
Chyna: The weird thing with this relationship was I was dealing
with a very unstable person, which made me unstable.
I was just a pathetic... wretch when it came to her.
Stern: I saw your porno.
- Now is he the guy in the porno? - Yeah.
Okay. That was your boyfriend.
Chyna: And then we talked about the tape
and I thought it was funny.
And it's not like I had a gun to my head or anything.
X-Pac: It was such a... up, co-dependent, volatile,
almost unhealthy relationship in the world.
No matter how many times shit would happen,
we would always come back together.
She she was the one who had to make a decision to move on.
Potylo: Vegas definitely was the big telltale sign
that none of her demons had left.
As a matter of fact, if anything,
Vegas encouraged those demons.
She was in a celebrity poker tournament.
She didn't know how to play poker.
I mean, this was all of these ideas.
Reporter: Are you feel more acclimated to the U.S.?
Chyna: No, I'm not feeling acclimated at all.
Coming back to all this,
it's kind of making me feel pretty detached, actually.
Potylo: And at this point, Erik was starting to hang with her more
and they would party.
And Erik would come back to the hotel room, be like,
"This is great. We talked about what pills we like.
What we have in common and stuff." I'm like, "Really?"
Angra: A couple of times I'd done Ativans
and Klonopins and things with her.
I wanted to do drugs with her so badly.
I wanted to bond with her, you know, like, I wanted to, like...
I knew she was doing the same things I was doing.
And I felt like I understood her.
I knew she knew, I knew. And I knew that she knew.
Potylo: Erik just seemed like at worse at that time,
which I later found out was probably attributed to him
snorting heroin a lot and also blowing meth.
And it's like, Jesus, what is this?
What are we doing here?
♪♪
Anzaldo: When I met her, she was flying.
She ran away from X-Pac
and showed up on the "Surreal Life"
set with the clothes on her back.
It's going to be great. I'm going to own that house.
If they don't like it,
I'm going to boot their ass right back out.
Anzaldo: I could definitely see that she was using
and I took a liking to her.
And I said I would, I would take her on.
Announcer: Under way.
The first round of Joanie Laurer
against Joey Buttafuoco.
Anzaldo: We started working together
and she was a she was a train wreck.
But I loved her and we had a great time.
- She's not even here right now. - Yeah.
He's checking you out there, Joanie.
Russo: When you watch the reality TV shows,
you saw somebody that was out of control.
And just out there on her own.
Simpson: Seeing her on "The Surreal Life."
I knew that was the start of something bad
because it just escalated downhill
even further from that point on.
And I guess she just said, "Oh, well, screw it,
let's go ahead and do porn and make money."
♪♪
I don't care if you're a porn fan
you're a wrestling fan, you're a reality fan,
you're going to love this movie.
Russo: She's trying to get work.
A company comes along, an adult film company
treats her with respect,
puts her high up on a pedestal, gives her money.
I understand that.
What's wrong with it, if I do it in
a sexy safe environment where I have control
and they're going to make me feel beautiful?
And, you know, maybe mentally I couldn't go any worse.
I just feel like I lived in a hell forever,
I just want to... - You did.
It was just a spiral down that, like, nobody could stop but her.
Potylo: We made it across the whole damn country.
Chyna: It's home.
And the smell, I can feel the ocean.
All my life, I always wanted to be in L.A.
and I made that happen and now I'm returning to L.A.
And it's just, I am so excited right now.
♪♪
Every morning. Wait till you get it in the morning.
If you cannot be happy here, you're dead.
[ Laughs ]
Chyna: ♪ Welcome to California ♪
Potylo: By the time we got to California,
we knew that there was a lot of problems, man.
♪ I tried to warn ya ♪
♪♪
♪ Welcome to California ♪
She had a wonderful, I feel like, child-like spirit
that always was with her.
But she obviously needs help.
- Very good. - Oh, thanks.
Dr. Pinsky: Trauma is the rocket fuel for drug addiction.
I always said, "If you have bad enough
addiction that you need to see me."
I treated only the most serious cases.
You had a hundred percent probability of childhood trauma.
Woman: Can you tell me about her as a little girl?
Laque: From the time I can remember, she'd like to entertain.
And she would put on puppet shows.
Hamilton: Lots of dancing.
She was really happy, fun little girl.
Joanie, they had a lot of her dad's traits.
Oh, Joe was so charming.
He was charming and good looking,
and Joanie was, too... Charming and good looking.
Hamilton: My mom and dad were going through
a lot of marital problems while we were young.
Laque: The major difficulty was living with my husband,
who was an alcoholic and a drug addict.
She saw some pretty raucous fights between us.
There was an incident where Joe stabbed me with a butcher knife.
I don't really know how much effect it had on her.
Hamilton: Eventually, that relationship ended permanently.
But I think there was probably a lot of lasting impact
emotionally on Joanie,
especially since she was younger.
Chyna: There was lots of stepmothers, stepfathers coming in and out,
and my mother was very, very dysfunctional.
I would go get away from all the yelling and screaming,
really kind of separating myself.
I believe she would just say, "I just wanted to be loved."
That's what she was always searching for,
was the love and the approval and the acceptance.
Maybe a couple of months before her 16th birthday,
her personality really changed. She was out of control.
I always thought it was like the aliens came down
and snatched her.
And put a different personality in her body
because she wasn't the same Joan anymore.
Her grades are plummeting.
I was told that she was hanging around
with a bad crowd of kids that were using drugs.
I think we could have handled that
if it hadn't been for her father,
who was now on the scene telling her,
"You can come and live with me,
you won't have to follow any of the rules."
When she turned 16,
she made the choice to go live with her father.
That's the last time I saw her.
♪♪
Anzaldo: I'm happy, happier than I was yesterday,
not quite as happy as I'm going to be tomorrow.
That's how I live my life.
There are moments, but you catch yourself because you're trained.
It's a lifestyle.
And that's the spiritual aspect of where I was going with Chyna.
So make amends with your family, that'll make you stronger,
will make you feel better. It'll make you happier.
Yasuda: The one thing I remember about the documentary, she said,
is Anthony was making her do things she doesn't want to do.
She said that to me, that she didn't want to go.
She didn't want to do it and that he was making her to do it.
Chyna: So now we're in Miami.
And I didn't want to go first and then...
I think there's just some closure that I need.
Dad was like a chameleon, you know, like,
he's sort of a stockbroker, and he'd wear the coat every day
and then two months later he was a Hell's Angel.
So it was like that movie "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."
And I know it sounds mean I'm almost relieved
that he died because.
I feel like I would have been over in Tokyo
waiting for dad to come through, still.
So we're going to go to the grave
and I'm just going to say my goodbyes.
It was very difficult day for her,
very, very difficult day.
But let's keep this process going.
[ Sniffles ]
♪♪
Blais: The documentary she was doing was getting her
to finally open up,
and I think that put her in a state of depression
and it ended up pushing her further into darkness.
[ Sniffles ]
Hey, man. See you around.
[ Sobs ]
I was doing my third movie for Vivid
and I was getting painted in this green paint like every day.
Green on my hair and green up my nose
and green on my crotch and like green everywhere.
Then I was like picking up the bottle.
And I was like, "I'm going to, I'm going to die.
I want to die."
I didn't have any work in Hollywood or wrestling.
And so I was like, that's it. I've had enough.
You know what? Everybody's cut off.
You don't get me anymore. I'm leavin'.
♪♪
Russo: She picks up, she goes to Japan, she becomes a schoolteacher.
Yasuda: She was looking for who she was again
as a person who just wants to have peaceful, normal life.
Chyna: The last three years, I've been highly inebriated
and bad [Laughs] and miserable.
So here's different.
[ Sighs ]
Living my own life, doing my own thing,
I have to travel across the world to do it.
I'm going to be one of those success stories.
Brian: I'm standing outside the bishop's office,
and this woman was there who I hadn't seen before,
so I introduced myself and, and she said, "Hi, I'm Chyna."
And she said that she had kind of a sketchy background
and she'd done a lot of things in her life that she regretted
and she wanted to have a new life.
In the back of my head, I recognized the name Chyna
as a wrestler, I thought, "It can't be."
This is the most famous female wrestler in the world,
was just in my bishop's office.
She wanted to get baptized because she wanted to put
some of those bad decisions that were in her past behind her.
Blais: For like three or four years, she was living in Japan
and I was in communication with her through e-mail.
She went from dysfunctional growing up
and not having support in a family setting
to many, many years later,
now she has the family of the WWF
and now she leaves that and now she's alone again.
Now here she is many, many years later
with this Mormon family that's taking care of her.
Even though she was over there,
not really in the business anymore,
the gossip and the rumors still circulated about her.
Following this Monday's RHOA,
there was an interview on the WWE Network
where Stone Cold Steve Austin interviewed Triple H.
I brought up Chyna. Man, she had a hell of a run here.
- Absolutely. - Will she ever go into
the Hall of Fame? - From a career standpoint,
shouldn't she be in the Hall of Fame?
Absolutely. Bit difficult, though.
And this is the flip side of the coin that nobody looks at,
I got an eight year old kid and my eight year old kid sees
Hall of Fame and my eight year old kid goes on the Internet
to look at, oh, there's Chyna. I never heard of her.
I'm eight years old. I've never heard of that.
So I go take that in, I punch it up and what comes up.
And I'm not criticizing anybody.
I'm not criticizing lifestyle choices, everybody has...
He's referring to Chyna's adult career.
Do we really want to go down the list of felons
who are in the WWE Hall of Fame,
people that have been accused of murder?
Does he have any idea where she was at that point in her life
when she had to make that decision?
Somebody who has yet to hire me,
and they hear Hunter saying, "Google her,
she can't because of this." That affects my career today.
So it still goes on. And I have a problem with that.
That's why I'm in Japan working as an English teacher.
Blais: She wanted to make it known
that she earned to be in that Hall the Fame.
You're still, you're still putting the sword in my back.
There you are sitting married to Stephanie McMahon
and in the McMahon empire set for life, how dare you?
There was a lot of things that she was carrying
on her shoulder from the past.
And then she didn't know how to get back to the U.S.,
her visa ran out.
She didn't know how to make a living
because she was not working.
Laque: I was searching for her for years.
I just kept searching for her, you know,
and I couldn't find her.
I don't believe she wanted to be found.
The first time we had contact
was when she called me from Japan,
but it had been 30 years.
I couldn't believe it was her and I'm like.
"Joanie, is that really you?" She did most of the talking,
telling me about her life in Japan
and what had happened to her, the work visa situation
was such that she was breaking immigration laws.
And so she had to come back and I said,
"Well, if you do, don't go back to California."
She said, "Well, mom, what else am I going to do?
It's not like I can get a job at McDonald's."
I said, "Sure you can.
You can get a job at McDonald's, you know, flipping burgers
until you can find something else."
Just get me out of here, man.
All she wanted was to be re-embraced by the only family
that made sense to her, which was the WWE
that's all she wanted. - Look at that.
You're talking about, the greatest woman wrestler
of all time, this woman who stretched the language
of what you can do in sports entertainment.
Announcer: takes on Jeff Jarrett...
Mankind: I talked to her about the WWE Hall of Fame.
You know, not to put so much weight on it.
♪♪
We knew there was a bad relationship,
but nobody said we can't go there.
We're going to ask for Hunter, we're going to ask for Vince,
we're going to ask for business and legal and economy.
And hope that we don't get escorted out.
You know, we're going to get her into the Hall of Fame.
Anzaldo: We're on a campaign to get her into the Hall of Fame this year.
Well, we were not greeted favorably.
So I guess nobody's available at the WWE
to speak with us at the moment, but we're going to keep trying.
You know, we'll make it happen. We'll figure it out.
Chyna: When Anthony was at the desk
and I was standing there next to him,
I could see people getting on the elevator
and everybody was staring right at me.
I got a couple smiles, but that type of thing.
♪♪
Potylo: By the time we got to California,
she was really happy
and I lived with Chyna for three months there.
Oh!
Well, hello.
To wake up in the morning with Chyna to be like,
"Wake up Rob, we're going to have apple smoothies."
I mean, she was so fun. She had a fabulous sense of humor.
[ Laughs ]
And like, we had so much freakin' fun.
And that way we leave on a high note.
We shot funny videos together.
We did yoga on the beach.
Turn to the camera and just say
random things slowly and dramatically now.
I mean, we were two outsiders.
And breathe.
And we found much peace and happiness
just being around each other for those three months.
My name is Robbie.
This is Chyna.
Another episode of WWY, WW Yoga.
We just had our own world,
and I never wanted to let that summer go.
It was amazing.
One day we will be walking in fields of gold.
There will be no more rude awakening, no more illusion.
Tap out. Tap if you hear me.
Mankind: I'm so happy to hear that she felt healthy
and she was beautiful place, you know, overlook the ocean.
It was like, "Wow, she's in a place where she can,
you know, feel good."
And I have the best unit because it's a corner
And all the windows are, like, out.
Plug my lights in.
Potylo: I tried to be the voice on the other end that would be like,
"Hey, you okay, what's going on?"
And and then I moved to Hollywood and then that's
when things really started coming off the rails.
Angra: So I'm just going to knock on the door in a second.
[ Knocks ]
Alright, go for it and then, you know. Yeah.
Hey, what's up, come on into my crib.
Anzaldo: At night, she was out of control...
cheap wine and her Valium and whatever other
funky pill she had from the day back in Japan
or whatever that I was unaware of.
So beautiful.
I'm the luckiest woman in the world just for today.
She sent me an e-mail when she was in Cincinnati at a Comic-Con
and she was sick and Anthony was pushing her.
I sort of started to get the feeling
that he was kind of controlling things at that point.
I know this is, you know, I signed up for this for the doc.
And the only reason I'm sharing these small bits here
and there is because,
you know, it all looks like unicorns and rainbows.
And for the most part, every day...
I gonna get [Indistinct speech] for really, really.
But I did want to show you that, you know,
that I am putting in the work and and what is happening here.
Well, it seems that I think it's going to be
an amazing story and...
♪♪
Potylo: He cared about the movie, he cared about how he was going
to look like the provider in the movie,
just didn't quite plan on how he was actually going to fix her.
And I don't think he really cared too much.
Dr. Pinsky: People have this grave lack of understanding
about trying to heal the past. It's a low priority.
The here and now is what counts.
And we have a deadly illness we got to treat that
and then we have to build the capacity to regulate emotions.
And then maybe there's some opportunity to, you know,
continue inside to continue looking at what the things were
that set you up if they want.
It doesn't really do anything to magically confront your abusers
nothing except maybe stir you up more and make you want to use.
We are going black market on some Ambien, right?
Some Ambien 10? - Ambien and the Diazepam.
We're probably... Oh, and we did the Diazepam, too?
- No, we have to do the Diazepam. - I was going to say so.
Should we do that today? Let's do that now. Okay.
And I think we'll keep that from Dr. Drew for the moment.
There's a part of me that doesn't want to
give him information he would rather not know
because it incriminates him.
But we're not doing anything illegal.
This is a legal practice
to order medicine from another country.
How are you, Dr. Drew?
Dr. Pinsky: I'm good. I'm mortified that you're having such trouble.
I have, like, 10 Halcion left.
This is a totally crazy combination of medicine.
- Yeah. - That dangerous and crazy.
- Okay. - That's why I need you to go
see somebody as soon as possible.
Yes.
And then isn't there some OxyContin in there, too?
- Say it again? - Yes.
But I haven't been taking that.
- Okay. - What's that?
OxyContin.
I don't know that that would be definitely a death tonic.
That would be potentially a death mixture.
If you added opiates to what you're doing,
you would not breathe.
So that's really bad news.
Opiate addiction is fatal. It's deadly, deadly, deadly.
And my recollection is she was on the benzo opiate combo
that was killing so many people.
And you've got to get you've got to get seen.
You've got to get taken care of when you're on that.
Well, in the meantime, though, while this stuff is dangerous,
obviously, and we certainly understand that,
it is keeping her, you know, I mean it's...
- Well, it's... - No, no, no I'm not...
It's an evil necessity it seems like.
Dr. Pinsky: We've got to get some of this straightened out.
- Yeah. Okay. - Dangerous.
Dr. Pinsky: And if you have something else, getting slipped in there,
it could be a catastrophe.
Even alcohol could be enough to put you over the edge.
She was going to be coming... This is what Anthony told me.
She was going to be coming to Charlotte,
to do one of those autograph signing things.
And he said, I think it would be great if you would reunite
with her and we could film it on camera for the documentary.
You'll always get the straight shooter from me.
If she falls off, you're going to know about it.
And that way you can stay clear,
and you're not going to be part of the game anymore.
You're only going to get the good.
My initial reaction was it would be great to reunite with her,
but I am not going on camera with my daughter
seeing her for the first time in 30 years.
I'm just not going to do it.
He didn't like that very much.
And, you know, "Well, you need to some."
"She needs to see you," etc., etc.
So I said, "Okay."
Anzaldo: Finally, we've gotten to a place where they think
that they can meet up first time in 30 years.
Laque: The day before we were scheduled to go.
I get this horrific e-mail from her.
You know, I can't even...
I don't even want to use some of the words.
And I thought, "Oh, dear, something's wrong."
I wanted to see her. I mean, you know, I haven't seen her in
30 years, but I didn't want to see her like that.
Anzaldo: I call her mother. It's not good.
She says, "I can't come." So I had to go sit with Chyna
and I had to tell her, "Your mom's not coming."
And she lost it. She was upset.
Next morning, 9:00 a.m.,
I walk in, knock on her door, she answers.
She's been up all night and an absolute train wreck.
And I said, "Sweetie, when we get home,
we have to make some serious changes, you're going to die."
She stood up, she picked me up, and she held me like this,
"How dare you say that to me? You're fired!"
And I started laughing at her.
"What are you talking about fired?
I'm not your manager, I'm your soul mate."
And she says, "I want you out of my life
and I want you out of my life now."
And that was the last time her and I communicated.
Once she got home,
I'm monitoring the situation from behind the scenes.
♪ Me, myself, and I ♪
[ Vocalizing ]
♪ Whoo-ooh I got me, myself, and I ♪
♪ And I don't want to deny ♪
[ Vocalizing ]
Potylo: I knew we were in so much trouble that day.
I didn't know, obviously, it was going to be the last time
I's see her, but it was off the rails.
But that's what Erik advertised when we were going in there.
"Uh, she's pretty nuts today.
So let's just try to grab her in this
and we'll use this for the doc."
[ Vocalizing ]
Potylo: It's WrestleMania weekend.
Her ex-boyfriend, Triple H, is headlining.
She's broken off with her manager.
She doesn't have a support system.
Any questions?
Angra: Yeah, I just I was just thinking
we should because all the shit that's been happening this week
with Anthony and you... - First of all,
can you give me a hug?
Potylo: And this is where Erik Angra decides,
"Oh, let's get our interview now with her
that we haven't gotten before." - Darling, this way.
Potylo: And it's not just Erik and it's not just Anthony.
It's not just the WWE and it's not just her,
but it's everything. - What's his deal like?
Erik: How would you describe him to somebody who never met him?
You know, because he seems nice. - I love Anthony.
He's he would I know in a minute he would die for me.
Every time I watch the interview,
the final one where I ask her these questions,
I can hear my voice is. I can tell that I'm high
because I know how my voice is. And it's very monotone.
And I'm asking her, you know, all these questions
when she's like clearly like asking for help.
I have a horrible anxiety issues. I can't sleep.
I'm having a hard time eating. I need some help.
What do you want me? Can you help me?
And I'm saying things like,
"Well, I just how does that make you feel?
I spent a long... 10 years, 15 years,
I don't know how long now. But I-I'm tired.
I'm Chyna. I'm a champion.
[ Scoffs ]
My brother and my mom, and then Anthony started
getting involved and everything, and I'm like...
Is there one person that could... support me, here?
Did I do something that bad with my life?
♪♪
If you could go back and change something, what would you do?
I would never do it again.
- Never do what though, anything? - Never wrestling.
I would have been a concert musician or a ballerina.
Professional alcoholic, and I'm just kidding, man, I'm just
pushing buttons right now.
Have you been drinking today?
No, not yet.
Angra: Would I have been more proactive to help her?
Would I've been better ethically to, like, figure out
what the right decision was?
Or was it because I was on heroin?
I could very coldly interview her
and ask her these questions when I knew
she was endangering herself.
I don't know is this shit interesting to anybody?
- It is. - Why?
-This is something really important and big...
They don't even know me.
I mean, I'll never forget, you know, afterwards,
like I said, just being in that car
and Erik, "Oh, she seems fine, right?"
Like just trying to continue to make this the reality.
And I remember just screaming at him, "Get her help!"
And Erik's, like, "Well, you don't have to be like that,
but we'll see what we can do."
Chyna: Morning, everyone.
[ Clears throat ]
I saw a post where she had this big black eye.
And that's when I went, "Oh, boy, I got to do something now."
It's a beautiful Sunday, guess what?
Let's go make a little smoothie.
Anzaldo: Anthony calls up the TV show intervention,
made the calls, reached out to professionals
in the business of interventions,
and it was planned for Thursday, a week away.
And I'm like, "Dude, what are we doing? Get her help.
Let's get the rehab now. Let's do the intervention."
Haven't done this for anybody since I was 7.
And it's this big.
Angra: I did heroin the night that I was supposed
to go over there and I canceled
because I lied to her and said I was sick.
♪♪
Chyna: Hey, man, It's me.
I'm sorry that you're feeling sick.
I was just wondering if you're okay.
I'm just glad you're out here.
I know what we're going to do. It's going to be so spectacular.
[ Sighs ]
And I am doing much better and when I'm here.
Love you, bye.
♪♪
Perlmutter: I didn't hear from her.
Was calling her the Saturday the Sunday,
so I called Anthony to see what's going on,
I couldn't get hold of her.
Anzaldo: She's not responding to anybody.
My hope was that she had just lost her cell phone.
Potylo: And so he went over there and coincidentally,
he had another person with him to film
and apparently he was going up there
to talk to her about intervention
or talk some sense into her.
Chyna?
♪♪
I kind of knew.
Turned the corner, looked in her bedroom,
and there she was. Lying in her bed.
As peaceful. As she could be.
And around six o'clock, Erik calls and he's just like,
"Yeah, Chyna's gone, dude."
I'm like, "What do you mean she's gone?"
And he's like, Anthony found her this morning.
He didn't want me to even call you.
And I've seen the footage and he brags about it
a lot afterwards, how he had that footage.
Anybody in their right mind to think that was worth anything
but destroying immediately afterwards,
you know, they got problems.
It's a shocker for millions of wrestling fans.
WWE legend Chyna has died.
It's the same feeling and thought I have every time
doctor prescribed medication was killing my patients.
Like just a sinking horrible. Like, "Another one."
♪♪
Hamilton: I don't want to say that she intentionally took her own life,
I think it was accidental.
But I think she was just tired of putting up a good fight
and trying to find her way.
Just wanted some peace.
It crushed me, when I, when I heard she passed.
I was so mad, so mad, but I don't know why.
Like I do know why,
because she's a very good friend of mine.
And I would guess it was because she couldn't confide in me
or tell me what was going why she's hurting so much.
You know, I'm pissed.
No, why didn't somebody do something earlier?
Anzaldo: My my job when Chyna came back was to help her spiritually
mind, body, and soul.
I was her business manager, her manager, her friend,
I did it all.
Her very last text,
was about me and her mother and how much she hated us.
I gave him permission to have her cremated
and I said take three quarters of them,
scatter them in the Pacific Ocean
and send a quarter to me.
But he didn't scatter them all, he only scared half of them.
He kept a quarter of the ashes, which has just infuriated me.
Anthony put on this memorial service.
And so I said, "I'm not going."
Potylo: He had this worst... memorial on Earth.
He put her ashes into this bedazzled urn,
The bitch is in the house.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Potylo: In my heart of hearts,
I thought that not only would Chyna find a light
at the end of the tunnel, but Erik would.
Angra: It's really hard to watch,
but only because I was like there.
I think I didn't really want this to be my film, right?
You're the guy who all let Chyna die, right?
That's what I would say, I'd be like,
"Remember the person is dead."
And now it's gonna to be like,
"Oh, you're the guy who was the addict who let Chyna die,
who's also an addict." Yep, that's what happened.
But I didn't let her die.
I mean, I let her die. I did.
♪♪
I think when she died...
and this is the saddest part, to me...
I don't think she had any idea of the impact
she had on millions of women across the globe.
♪♪
A lot of it had to do with
the company where you achieved all that,
literally convincing you over the years that you are nothing.
Announcer: More than ever, join her, the Royal Rumble match.
Russo: You know that there were people who were eight,
10 years old who have done things in their lives
that may not have been possible
without somebody like Joanie breaking down barriers,
showing what was out there, what could be,
Potylo: I think she was a warrior.
I think she just had some titanic demons she was battling,
but I don't think she was a victim.
Mankind: I don't think you can ever dismiss
the importance of family.
I have a support system that Joanie didn't have.
Physical strength is often accompanied by a vulnerability.
I think, Joanie, more than anybody that I knew,
was not prepared for the emotional pain
that can be caused, you know,
when you are an open dreamer living in the land of Oz,
searching for acceptance from total strangers.
You put your hands on me for the last time.
Now, I know, you know, my time is valuable.
You ain't adding up to the price anymore.
So I'm going to finish this tonight.
You and me, one on one,
I started this story,
I'm gonna end it.
♪ I'm a tough one ♪
♪ Kept me out of Tokyo ♪
♪ I'm a bad one ♪
♪♪
Yeah. [ Laughs ]