By Geno McGahee
VICE has a great handle on documentaries and the pro wrestling business. Their series “DARK SIDE OF THE RING” is an amazing watch. The latest in their wrestling coverage and the way that the business can be toxic is a documentary called “CHYNA”, which concerns professional wrestler, Joanie Laurer, the wrestler that would shatter the norm in the WWE during the Attitude Era.
The 2-hour documentary covers another documentary that was being made by Chyna’s manager, Anthony Anzaldo, and how it went off the rails and literally ended with the death of the former WWE intercontinental champion.
The documentary does a great job of showing the career from her early days where she found professional wrestling. Making her way on the indie scene would lead to an opportunity in the WWE alongside her boyfriend, Triple H. They would form DX with Shawn Michaels and be a big part of how the WWE would end WCW in the Monday Night Wars.
The time in the WWE would not end well with her boyfriend, Triple H, running off with the boss’s daughter and her career ending in the company shortly after. This would send her into a downward spiral of drugs, adult films and depression, and it seemed like the perfect thing to exploit by her manager for his documentary. The documentary really showed Anzaldo in a bad light and he appears to really deserve it.
Former WWE stars, X-Pac, Vince Russo, Kevin Nash and Mick Foley share their feelings about Chyna and her troubles and you see the sincerity from the entire group. You don’t see that with Triple H when he played defense to keep his ex from the Hall of Fame, which was something that Chyna had set as a goal. You can really see the building blocks to her demise in this production and it’s very sad.
As I watched this, I was rooting for a happy ending, even though I knew how it would end. It was very sad to see somebody that built their bodies into something so remarkable, lived clean, and was happy, turned into an addict in free fall. The end of the production is what you’d expect, but the behavior of her manager was disgusting as he paraded her ashes around for the mobs of idiots that wanted to take pictures with it.
CHYNA is a great retelling of her life and mixes in her final days and the leeches that wanted to make money from it. It was a hard watch but a good one. I recommend it.
