When a lot of people discuss Dark Side of the Ring topics a lot of people bring up professional wrestler Chyna. This is a good topic as Chyna had a dark life and career, however, that show didn’t do an episode on her. That is because Vice already made a documentary on Chyna in their Vice Versa series. It’s a really depressing watch and I learned a bit watching it.
When Chyna was not in the public eye, she lived in a different country. She lived in Japan for three years to become a school teacher. It looked like she was getting sober and living her life outside the bubble of public life. Then came 2015, when Chyna decided to return to the USA to make a documentary called “The Reconstruction of Chyna.”
A cool part of the documentary is that they showed footage of Chyna at the beginning of her career. She was trained by Killer Kowalski and the training was rough, but she loved the black and blues she got in the ring. There’s even footage of her wrestling 6 months in the independent scene and she looked pretty good.
Chyna was in the independent scene, but she approached Triple H about wanting to get into WWE. Something I did not realize is both Chyna and Triple H were from the same hometown. When they connected, along with Shawn Michaels they got along. Triple H was the one that pushed to get her hired to WWE and while Vince was hesitant, he took a chance on her. Without Triple H, Chyna would have never gotten into WWE. He and Shawn also came up with the name Chyna as it sounded like an oxymoron of a fragile doll.
Chyna was over in WWE and helped DX be as big as it was. Chyna realized how big of a star she was the moment WWE separated her from DX to wrestle on her own. Which she surprisingly didn’t want to do as it added more pressure on her to be perfect. Chyna did become a spokesperson for WWE and was on magazine covers, so it was a positive for her. Being on that magazine made her mother Jan amazed by what Chyna had been doing.
With Triple H falling in love with Stephanie McMahon, I often thought that was the main reason Chyna left the WWE. Well, it turns out that wasn’t the case; she left due to money. Chyna, being on Playboy, got paid more doing that than she made in her entire career with WWE.
Jim Ross in an old interview played in the documentary admitted that they decided to not renew Chyna’s offer because she wanted Steve Austin-level money. Chyna wanted a million-dollar contract with WWE and the company did not even want to pay that. Which yes Chyna was underpaid in WWE, but getting Steve Austin money was ridiculous. I don’t blame WWE for not wanting to pay her that. WWE declined and they decided to send a fax to Chyna regarding her being let go from WWE.
The documentary then talks about her relationship with Sean Waltman aka X Pac. When Chyna was growing in popularity in NJPW, she always had Waltman with her and he would always carry meth with him and Chyna fell into an addiction to the drug. This is a big no-no in Japan as they take drug possession very seriously up there. Go look up what happened with professional wrestler Matt Sydel in 2016 when he got caught with drugs in an airport.
When NJPW found out Chyna was under the influence, they just parted ways. Chyna was getting worse and there were multiple domestic violence issues between them. Waltman admits he was bad to her and they were super volatile.
The discussion then switches to the tape “1 Night in China” that both of us decided to make. That was when both recorded themselves doing the “horizontal mambo” on a vacation in China. Both come off like absolutely trainwrecks and honestly anyone involved in those type of tapes are a trainwreck. Chyna even admitted when they made the tape they thought it was funny. Oh yeah, so funny recording yourself doing that on camera.
Eric Angra was the director of the Abandon Chyna Documentary and was a talking head on this vice-versa piece. This guy doesn’t come off well at all in this documentary. He had admitted at the time that he was a drug addict and he was more focused on doing drugs with Chyna than getting her help.
Erik admitted that he was a mess and should have done something. However, he kept getting high on heroin. He even asked Chyna the worst type of questions while under the influence. Erik in 2019 was even subsequently charged with possession and distribution of drugs. He was one of many bad people surrounded themselves are
When looking into Chyna’s childhood it gets rough and according to Dr. Drew, he believes it’s a strong reason why she has her addictions. Chyna’s father was an alcoholic and a drug addict as well. He would often get in fights with her mother and even got stabbed with a butcher’s knife.
Chyna’s mother claims that she isn’t sure how much of an effect the domestic violence has had on her. She also admitted that she noticed a change in her in high school. His grades dropped, hanging out with the wrong crowd, and was a different person. When she was 16 years old, Chyna decided to live with her father and that was the last time they saw each other. Her mother admitted she hadn’t seen her for 27 years until she got on magazines.
With how much of a full-blown addict Chyna was many wondered how she got the pills. Well, the person who helped her is Anthony the manager. He went to the black market to help get Chyna Ambien, Diazepam, and Oxycodone. Then he told Chyna to let’s keep this a secret for now from the doctor.
In the documentary, they show footage of him, Chyna in a phone call with Dr Drew. Dr Drew is wearing them and mixing all of these medications is a bad idea and can be the deadline. But Anthony is pushing for her to get the pills and the dude even claimed it was an evil necessity. What an absolute enabler and it gets worse with Anthony…
I had heard a ton of rumors before watching this on how shady her manager Anthony is. After watching this documentary not only is he shady, but the dude is an absolute dirtbag who used Chyna.
In 2015 it was Anthony who brought Chyna back to the United States to do the documentary. Behind the scenes, Anthony was poorly treating the staff and getting into arguments with everyone. Anthony was so hands-on that the trainwreck director almost quit.
Anthony even admits I wanted to help her spiritually and show her to the public inside and out. Which is a pretty weird thing for a manager to say. Then came the claim that Anthony states that “I was her Soulmate”. Give me a freaking break dude, are you that delusional?
When Chyna dies, it is Anthony who discovers her. After not hearing her for a while, he decided to go to her apartment. Not only that but he takes a film crew and they film him walking in and discovering her dead body. Anthony has the footage of discovering her death and was bragging about it. What type of person brags about having a recorded discovery of the dead body of a person?
When Chyna got cremated her mother wanted 3/4 of the ashes spread across the ocean and the other 1/4 sent to her. What does Anthony do? Well, he only dumped 1/4 of the ashes in the ocean and used 1/2 of the ashes put in a bedazzled urn for fans to stand by and take pictures on a memorial show. What an absolute piece of work.
Gosh, this was a sad watch. Honestly, the person who comes across as the greatest in this documentary is Vince Russo. He did everything he could to help Chyna, but the problem is she surrounded herself with the worst type of people.
Anthony if you’re reading this, I hope that guilt lives with you as you did the bare minimum to help Chyna out. You used her more than helped her and should have done more for her, instead of enabling her.
The director Erik doesn’t come off well either as he was high all the time and didn’t do anything to help her. While he admits his faults, he’s also no innocent party in this.
Rob the producer is the saner individual that worked on that abandoned documentary. I wouldn’t say he comes across well either but compared to Anthony and Eric dude at least tried.
I always wonder, what if Chyna got the closure with WWE and they welcomed her back, along with helping her? However, were never going to fully know. I really don’t blame WWE at all for not wanting to be involved with her with how much of a mess she is.
It’s just depressing with what happened to Chyna and this whole documentary is a tremendous cautionary tale. Rest in peace Joanie, you will never be forgotten in the pro wrestling business.
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