WWE: Chyna - Joanie Laurer

Joan Marie "Joanie" Laurer was born on December 27th, 1969 in Rochester, New York.
She is an American actress, former bodybuilder and retired professional wrestler, best known for her career with the WWF between 1997 and 2001, where she was known as Chyna and nicknamed The Ninth Wonder of the World.

In late 2005, Laurer signed to star in a new movie entitled Illegal Aliens. She did a lot of promotional work for the movie, including appearances on talk shows and radio shows. On August 31st of 2006, she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live as a singing barber singing with three other veterans. Joanie also appeared on The Howard Stern Show, Queer Edge, and Opie and Anthony. In November 2006, Joanie revealed on the Dr. Keith Ablow show that she did not leave the WWE because of money issues, but left because Stephanie McMahon wanted her out. Also in November 2006, Joanie announced a new musical project with the band "Plastic Jones".

In January 2007, Joanie did an interview with "Lifted Magazine" where she talked about finding religion, overcoming a past full of drugs and violence, and promoted her new movies and TV series. These included The Surreal Life: Fame Games, which began to air on VH1 in January 2007. The filming took place in April 2006, during which she formed a close friendship with Brigitte Nielsen.

On the day of Anna Nicole Smith's death, February 8th, 2007, a very visibly upset Joanie appeared on Larry King Live to speak about her late friend. On the program, Laurer claimed that she "knew it was coming" because of the way the media had ridiculed Smith, and she drew parallels between Anna and herself. Later however, a close friend of Smith, Monique Goen, claimed that Smith, in fact, did not consider Laurer a friend .
On February 14th, 2007, Joanie and the Barbi twins led an animal rights protest at UCLA. The trio led other protesters to the door of the Neuropsychiatric Institute, a scientific lab where they perform tests on monkeys. The group had to be split up by the police, but not before a protester shouted obscenities and attempted to harm the workers.
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WWE: Chyna - Joanie Laurer, posted to http://beautiful-wrestling.blogspot.com/ on 2-24-2007