Former WWE wrestler Chyna dead at age 45

On Wednesday night, the official Twitter account of Joanie Laurer, AKA Chyna, posted news of the former WWE star’s death. She was 45 years old.

The statement, posted on Twitter by her manager, read as follows:

It is with deep sadness to inform you today that we lost a true icon, a real life superhero. Joanie Laurer aka Chyna, the 9th wonder of the world has passed away. She will live forever in the memories of the millions of fans and all of us that loved her.

Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet reported soon after that Laurer was found dead at her home, according to her manager. She had reportedly been on medication for anxiety and sleep deprivation.

“The Redondo Beach Police received a 911 call from a friend of the apartment unit resident that the female inside was not breathing,” wrote Ruben Vives of the Los Angeles Times. “The friend told Redondo Beach Police that the female had not answered her phone in a few days, and went to the location to check on her welfare. Officers arrived on scene and discovered a deceased female inside the location.”

Chyna, a former Women’s Champion and two-time Intercontinental Champion, became world-famous during the height of the WWE’s Attitude Era, working with the company from 1997 until 2001. Since leaving the company, she has had very public battles with addiction and appeared on the television show The Surreal Life. In recent years, she starred in several adult films.

*** SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEELCAGE SIGNINGS ***
Dear Chyna Advance Ticket Holders:
I wanted to take this opportunity to first apologize for Chyna’s behavior and obvious not showing this past weekend at Wrestlecon.
Just to give all of you an idea on how hard we worked to get her to Dallas, we received a call at 6am Friday saying she had missed her flight and no one could find her. When she was finally located at about 11am Dallas time, she was incoherent and not of proper mind. Through her slurring she asked that I please purchase a NEW airline ticket for her costing another $352 on top of the already $800+ that was spent on her and her manager to miss the first flight. Knowing how much Chyna meant to all of you we purchased the ticket again only to find out that night she checked into the airport but just never got on the plane.
Since Saturday, we have been in contact with Eventbrite and finally figured out the issue and have corrected it. We needed to wire back to Eventbrite all of the ticket sales so Eventbrite can personally refund the tickets since its not a one or two person thing. This has happened today and we should exprect the refunds to be completed by Friday from what I am told by Eventbrite.
Once again I am sorry for Chyna’s actions and hope that all of you will return next year to Orlando for WrestleMania 33 and WRESTLECON!
Once we know who we will be working with, we would like to send each of you an offer code for 20% off any ticket orders for our guests as our way of saying we are sorry.
Thank you once again and we look forward to seeing all of you in 2017!
Sincerely,
John Smithers
Steelcage Signings
steelcagesignings@aim.com

In the past year, Chyna had been working on a documentary about her life, in conjunction with openly petitioning to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Please visit Cageside Seats for further details and updates as this story develops.