As some of you may know, I wrote a biography of Joanie Laurer a.k.a. Chyna that was published in 2000. Because it was unauthorized, I never interviewed her, and so assembled the book based on the facts I already knew from editing a pro wrestling magazine plus what I could pick up through research, which I combined to tell the arc of her life up until then.

On hearing of her death, I went back and skimmed what I’d written, which led me to the following paragraphs near the end of the book—

When Joanie Laurer transformed herself from an uncertain teenager into Chyna, the Ninth Wonder of the World, she became many things, not all of them expected. If life went as she had planned and hoped from the beginning, she knew that she would have money and fame without limit. But it is doubtful she could have foreseen that she would not only become a celebrity, but she would also be taken up as a role model and a feminist icon. We expect wrestling to be entertaining, not inspirational. How refreshing that Joanie Laurer was able to surprise us all by doing both.

The corporate world has its infamous glass ceiling, and though this woman warrior went in for the Federation instead of the corporation, Joanie Laurer has burst all expectations in her own way, by ripping through wrestling’s canvas ceiling.

Hyperbolic much? Yes. But hey, why shouldn’t writing about pro wrestling be hyperbolic?

In any case, however purple the prose, I stand by those feelings, which remain sincere.

I liked her before I was contracted to write Warrior Queen, and in the writing of it, came to like her even more. I’d hoped she’d live into her 90s, like Mae Young, but alas, she only made it half as far.

R.I.P. to the Ninth Wonder of the World.