10 Things We Learned From VICE's Chyna Documentary
5. She Didn’t Want To Split From DX
Years later, she was cursing the same creative process.
Old interview footage with Chyna tells its own story. VICE included that in their doc, and it's quite eye-opening. Apparently, Joanie never wanted to split from DX and strike out on her own. Her anxiety came to the fore, and the "pressure to be perfect" (her words) was too much of a burden.
This totally clashes with other talking head comments from guys like Jim Ross. He's always said that Chyna had a bit of an ego and wanted similar money to the likes of Steve Austin when her contract came up for renewal in 2001. Maybe, by then, Joanie was in a stronger place and believed she'd done everything asked of her.
Still, between 1999-2001, Chyna struggled to find her own way without Triple H or the D-Generation X gimmick there to back her up. She didn't want to become a solo act, at least not in '99 when the WWF made that call.