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Home / Sport

Chyna's manager planned on sending the former wrestling star to rehab

Other
26 Apr, 2016 07:28 PM3 mins to read

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Former professional wrestler Joanie 'Chyna' Laurer. Photo / Getty

Former professional wrestler Joanie 'Chyna' Laurer. Photo / Getty

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The tragic reality about the final stages of former wrestling star Chyna's life has been revealed by her manager.

Chyna - real name Joanie Laurer - died aged 45, with manager Anthony Anzaldo finding her at her Redondo Beach home in California last week.

Speaking to TMZ Sports, he said he was in talks with producers for the ex-WWE and WWF icon to appear on reality TV show Intervention, which films celebrities' journeys in rehab as they battle to overcome addiction.

Tragically, she died before she could get help for her problems.

"An interventionalist was already lined up as was a facility that was going to take her for 90 days," Anzaldo told TMZ.

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Friends from her wrestling days including Mick Foley and Steve Austin were reportedly set to be involved in Chyna's intervention.

Anzaldo said Chyna's close friends had been worried by her use of prescription drugs.

Police at the scene of her death investigated the possibility that she died by drug overdose, but the official cause of death has not been revealed, as authorities await the results of toxicology tests.

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Anzaldo told E! News Chyna was over-medicating herself.

"Once I noticed she was over-medicating I knew it was out of my hands," Anzaldo said.

"There was no other way than to do an intervention."

Chyna became a wrestling star and debuted in the WWE in 1997, and later wrestled in the WWF. She choked out Marlena in her first involvement when the iconic Triple H was doing battle with Goldust.

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She originally made a name for herself as Triple H's bodyguard, using her trademark move - a low blow to the groin - to help him win bouts.

Along with Triple H and others, including Shawn Michaels and Rick Rude, Chyna was one of the original members of D-Generation X - the famous tag team that became known for the "crotch chop" celebration performed by its quartet.

Chyna turned on D-Generation X when she attacked Triple H in early 1999 and joined The Corporation. He later joined her there before the duo became part of Shane McMahon's Corporate Ministry.

Such was her success and popularity, she was promoted as the "Ninth Wonder of the World".

Her fame on the wrestling stage helped her branch out into other areas once her career finished. She posed nude for Playboy in 2000 and appeared on reality TV program The Surreal Life more than a decade ago, then went into the porn industry, releasing six films between 2004-2013, per TMZ.

- news.com.au

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