12 WWE Superstars Who Made It Big And Then Just Disappeared
5. Chyna
When youre the Ninth Wonder of the World, you dont just disappear off the face of the Earth, do you? Apparently, you absolutely can. Despite being the first woman to compete in the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring tournament, winning three Intercontinental Championships and becoming a major draw for WWE as the only woman who could hang with the men, Chyna found herself on the outs with the company in 2001. Even though she was the current Womens Champion (having beaten Ivory at WrestleMania X-Seven), Chyna vanished from WWE sometime mid-2001, being officially stripped of her title in November. It was a remarkable tumble for Chyna, who gained such notoriety and fame during her time in WWE, first as Triple Hs bodyguard, then a full-fledged member of Degeneration X, then as a singles competitor fighting the men. She was reduced to fighting Ivory for the womens strap, which had to be considered a huge demotion, but she still was a major champion and very visible performer in the company. Joanie Laurer claims Stephanie McMahons relationship with Laurers former boyfriend Triple H contributed to her dismissal, but its all irrelevant 13 years later. The end result is that WWE lost a truly unique performer (whether she overvalued her importance to the company is immaterial) and fans lost their Mamacita.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
