15 Things You Need To Know About Chyna

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 single€™s gold for herself. And no, not the Women€™s Championship (although that did follow later). Instead she went after the Intercontinental Title. After 1999€™s 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 didn€™t 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 Y2J€™s 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 €œStone Cold€ Steve Austin€™s 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? That€™s what we€™re 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. It€™s moments like these that make you realise just how much an impact on the industry Joanie Laurer had at one stage of the game.
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.