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<\/p>\nThe rise and fall of a WWE star whose life ended in tragedy has been laid bare in a new documentary. <\/p>\n
Chyna had gone down a storm when she burst onto the wrestling scene in the late 1990s. And when she hooked up with fellow WWE superstar Triple H (aka Hunter Hearst Helmsley) there seemed to be no stopping her. <\/p>\n
But after her relationship with Triple H fell apart and he left her for promoter Vince McMahon\u2019s daughter – her career quickly fell apart. <\/p>\n
READ MORE: Ex-WWE legend and adult star Tammy Sytch jailed after being branded a 'danger to society' <\/b><\/p>\n
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Chyna \u2013 who was born Joan Marie Laurer in 1969 \u2013 made her debut for what was then called the WWF in February 1997 when she emerged from a ringside seat and went for Terri Runnels.<\/p>\n
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It was an iconic moment that went down in wrestling history. <\/p>\n
Billed at 5ft 10 in and 200lbs, she quickly began to dominate the other women in the WWF, and some of the men too. <\/p>\n
She was billed as \u201cThe Ninth Wonder of the World\u201d and began a run thaat would see her smash records. <\/p>\n
She was the first woman to win the company's Intercontinental Championship and was also the first woman to compete in the annual Royal Rumble event.<\/p>\n
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But despite her initial success – and the start of her relationship with now WWE boss Triple H – her sister Kathy Hamilton said Chyna was insecure about her masculine looks.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe got a lot of flak for the way that she looked,\u201d Kathy told a new Vice documentary on YouTube.<\/p>\n
Kathy added: \u201cShe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as having implants, Chyna had her jaw reconstructed, claiming that it was to rectify an \u2018underbite\u2019 and not because she wanted to appear more feminine.<\/p>\n
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But Kathy said: \u201cSociety likes beautiful women and so she did what she needed to do. That\u2019s kind of when her career just sort of skyrocketed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chyna\u2019s star continued to soar and she even ended up making an appearance in Playboy while still with the WWE. But inside the ring, she felt her career was going backwards when promoter Vince McMahon told her she could fight only women \u2013 despite the fact that she\u2019d made a name for herself fighting the blokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor six years I had wrestled men, and then all of a sudden I wasn\u2019t supposed to fight the guys anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow was I going to step backwards and wrestle women that didn\u2019t have the experience from the guys that I was wrestling every day?\u201d<\/p>\n
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And things were also unravelling at home. While Triple H wanted children, Chyna didn't, friends said, and she soon noticed him becoming close with Vince's daughter, Stephanie McMahon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis career was moving up and therefore he was having a lot of meetings with Vince and Stephanie,\u201d Chyna said.<\/p>\n
Stephanie later recalled: \u201cBy the time Triple H and I started our onscreen storyline, we just sort of had great chemistry, and it just went from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne time when I was standing around the ring, he sort of crawled around me. He was on the floor and he felt my leg, and I was like, \u2018That\u2019s definitely flirtation there\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Chyna confronted Triple H about her suspicions, and it ended with them \u2018swiping\u2019 each other before she claimed she found a love letter that Stephanie had sent him a year earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I found out, I was devastated,\u201d she said. \u201cIt hurt me. I\u2019m a human being, and nobody \u2013 whether you\u2019re a celebrity or whether you\u2019re not \u2013 likes to be cheated on, especially when it\u2019s with the boss\u2019s daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Chyna's claims, Triple H doesn't believe he cheated on Chyna and in 2002, said: "There\u2019s a misconception of the way that things ended with us, but it was our relationship had gone downhill. <\/p>\n
"There\u2019s a period of time where we were separated and things happened in between and then you kind of partway get back together and it really wasn\u2019t a full-blown relationship at that time."<\/p>\n
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When Chyna eventually left the WWE in 2001, she claimed to have received the news in a particularly bizarre way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sitting in a Jerry\u2019s Deli eating lunch and a fax mysteriously went to Jerry\u2019s Deli,\u201d Chyna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was from the WWE and they said they wouldn\u2019t be needing me anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
And with that, it was as though she was erased from the world of WWE.<\/p>\n
That however wasn't to be the end of Chyna's story. While she loosely continued her in-ring career with a brief stint in Japan, it was her life outside the squared circle that was attracting more attention. <\/p>\n
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After leaving the WWE, she did a second Playboy shoot and also became involved in a messy, on-again, off-again relationship with fellow wrestler Sean Waltman, better known as X-Pac.<\/p>\n
And it was that relationship that would spark one of the most controversial moments of her life. In 2004, the pair released a sex tape dubbed '1 Night in China', a play on the Paris Hilton sex tape of a similar name. It sold over 100,000 copies and saw Chyna start a new sideline to her career.<\/p>\n
She starred in a second adult film in 2009, 'Another Night in China', along with a professional porn movie in 2011. She later said she never really wanted that as a career but was "making lemonade out of lemons" after the release of the first racy movie.<\/p>\n
Alongside the sex tapes came her drug issues. She admitted her life had been "spinning out of control" when she made the tape with Waltman and despite stints in rehab, it became a recurring issue that saw her lose many of the relationships she'd built, including with her own family.<\/p>\n
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Tragically, in 2016, she was found dead by her manager. A post-mortem examination revealed she\u2019d overdosed on alcohol, combined anxiety drugs, painkillers and sleeping tablets.<\/p>\n
It was an early end for a superstar who\u2019d reached the pinnacle of her profession but had been no match for the forces behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
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