Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
It has been called both an historic time in New Japan Pro Wrestling history and one of the darkest times in New Japan history. In the fall of 2002, former WWE superstar Chyna traveled overseas to the Land of the Rising Sun to compete for the promotion. Today on the blog, we look at the time that Joanie ‘Chyna’ Laurer wrestled for New Japan and the fall out from it.
Over the course of her career, Chyna had emerged as one of the biggest stars in one of the biggest wrestling companies in the World Wrestling Federation. She went from an imposing bodyguard for Hunter Hearst Helmsley to ‘The Ninth Wonder of the World’ where she wrestled against the male superstars. In that time, Chyna was the very first female to win a major male WWF title in the Intercontinental championship. Her stock quickly rose in the WWF, to where she was seeking a sizeable contract to resign with the company. Reportedly, Laurer was looking for Stone Cold Steve Austin type money to continue working for the WWF.
Add to that, her then boyfriend Triple H had an affair with Vince McMahon’s only daughter Stephanie and before long…Joanie Laurer was gone. While her WWF career had come to an abrupt end in 2001…her wrestling career was far from over. Enter New Japan Pro Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki in 2002.
In 2002, New Japan was struggling both creatively and financially. Inoki had become somewhat obsessed with Mixed Martial Arts and consistently tried to incorporate MMA into New Japan programming. Ratings began to sink and live attendance was dropping rapidly. Despite all of this, Inoki was committed to continue his fascination with mixing MMA with pro wrestling. Fans, media and the wrestlers themselves began questioning Inoki’s sanity as he continually made promises of holding New Japan show’s in the United States and bringing in outside talent like Mike Tyson.
Of course, none of his promises came to fruition. This and his MMA obsession was slowly killing his die hard pro wrestling fan base. Then, Inoki made another proclamation that he was bringing in former WWF/WWE star Chyna. Naturally, many fans and critics scoffed at this latest promise by Inoki….only this time…he was telling the truth. Chyna was being brought in as the special guest referee for a tag team match between the Steiner Brothers vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kensuke Sasaki in May of 2002.
Laurer would do a press conference with the Japanese media saying that she didn’t come to New Japan to be eye candy, but to wrestle and compete against New Japan’s top stars. She went as far as to challenge IWGP champion Yuji Nagata for his title. For the September and October tour, Chyna was booked to wrestle several men. None of which were happy about the thought of wrestling a woman. Nagata went as far as saying….”Inoki bullshit, but you gotta go with it.”
When Chyna returned to Japan for the tour, she was greeted by a huge media blitz at the airport and everywhere she went. This, despite the fact that many New Japan wrestlers and employees were criticizing Inoki’s decision to book her. The national attention Chyna was bringing to New Japan was enough to solidify Inoki’s booking of her. The thing was, this wasn’t the same muscular powerhouse looking Chyna from her WWF days. She had slimmed down and dyed her hair blonde and looked more like a model. Chyna would wrestle a total of 13 times on the tour.
She wrestled the likes of Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger, a young upcoming rookie named Hiroshi Tanahashi, Gedo and Jado and Tenzan in mostly tag team matches. She did score a pinfall victory over Tanahashi. Her biggest match, however, was a one on one singles match against the very popular Masahiro Chono at the Tokyo Dome. Inoki personally trained her along with a select few trainers at the famed New Japan Dojo to prepare her for the big one on one match.
Leading up to the match, both Chono and Chyna did an outdoor press conference with fans solidly behind their local hero Chono. As Chyna spoke, her interpreter took it upon himself to crack jokes at her expense which made all the serious things she was saying she was going to do to her opponent get laughs instead. A visibly annoyed Chyna then slapped her interpreter instantly making her the heel in this match.
The broadcasters for her match continually poked fun of Chyna and the whole intergender match idea. According to Chyna, the night of the big match she approached Chono backstage and asked him not to go easy on her in the ring. Chono, who wasn’t exactly thrilled to be wrestling a woman…was more than happy to oblige. While Chono did sell for Chyna…he was a bit stiff with his chops and kicks to her face.
In the end, their Tokyo Dome match lasted a little above eleven minutes, with Chono scoring the pin on Chyna after delivering his finishing Kenka Kick. A bloody and battered Chyna conducted an interview after her match saying how much it was an honor to wrestle Masahiro Chono and be the first woman in New Japan history to wrestle men.
Chyna would continue the tour by teaming with the Great Kabuki to unsuccessfully challenge Tenzan and Chono for the IWGP tag team titles. Her final New Japan match was on December 15th where she teamed with her adversary Chono in a victory. According to her former boyfriend Sean ‘XPac’ Waltman…while in Japan…Inoki wanted to book Chyna in a wrestler versus boxer match against top female fighter Laila Ali. A repeat of the famed match between Inoki and Muhammad Ali. Chyna declined the offer.
While consistently making headlines in Japanese newspapers and magazines… Laurer also had coverage of her Japanese tour here in the United States. The popular cable sports program called ‘The Best Damn Sports Show Period’ sent a film crew to document her tour of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Despite all the negative comments and feedback she had received for her New Japan Tour….Joanie Laurer loved the experience and fell in love the country. She said…“I am Chyna in the Sports Entertainment world but then to go over into Japan and you just have a female wrestler Masahiro Chono that was absolutely incredible. All the training I did with Inoki and mixed martial artists … I just really loved Japan and it was so life changing being on the opposite side of the world. It’s a different culture, different language, so I just went and regrouped and found myself a little more.” Joanie Laurer would return to Japan in 2013 to briefly become a school teacher.
