8. She Has Been Intercontinental Champion And #1 Contender For The WWF Title
Not content with competing in the Royal Rumble and the King of the Ring, Chyna actually went on to claim singles gold for herself. And no, not the Womens Championship (although that did follow later). Instead she went after the Intercontinental Title. After 1999s No Mercy PPV, Chyna would defeat Jeff Jarrett in a Good Housekeeping match to win the IC belt and also the services of Miss Kitty. This is a match that Jarrett ended up getting paid $300,000 for by Vince McMahon as his contract had technically expired the date before the show and he didnt want to lose cleanly to a woman. And that ladies and gentleman, is just part of the reason that the now-WWE is none too fond of Double J. Chyna would go on to become a two-time Intercontinental Champion after pinning Trish Stratus in an intergender tag match to take the belt from Val Venis. At one time Chyna was also classed as a three-time IC Champ after her and Chris Jericho had a run as co-holders of the title. This third reign has since been wiped off the records and instead that period now just counts as part of Y2Js second IC Title run. Even more impressive than winning the Intercontinental Title, there was actually a point in time where Chyna became the #1 contender for Stone Cold Steve Austins WWF Title. As in the biggest prize in the business. Could you imagine somebody like Natalya, Paige or AJ Lee butting heads with Brock Lesnar over the WWE Championship? Thats what were talking about here, as Chyna was getting a huge response from the crowd to the extent that the only choice was to have her flirt with the main event picture. The fact that the main event picture was dominated by arguably the greatest drawing performer in the history of professional wrestling, Steve Austin, is only testament to where Joanie Laurer had got to with her career at that point. This all happened before the IC belt came into the picture, as Chyna was originally due to face Austin at Summerslam 1999. As it would happen, she would end up losing her spot in the match to Mick Foley who would go on to leave the event as WWF Champion. If you believe certain stories, there was supposedly very real, very serious consideration of having Chyna win the WWF Championship at one point in 1999. Its moments like these that make you realise just how much an impact on the industry Joanie Laurer had at one stage of the game.
