Staff and wire services

Chyna, the WWE star who in the 1990s became one of the best-known and most-popular female professional wrestlers in history, has died.

Police in Southern California said they were responding to a 911 call from a friend of former WWE wrestler Chyna when they found her dead in her Redondo Beach apartment.

A friend had gone Wednesday to check on Chyna, whose real name is Joan Marie Laurer, after she had failed to answer her phone for a few days, Redondo Beach police said in a statement. The friend told the 911 operator that Laurer wasn’t breathing.

The 45-year-old Laurer was dead when officers arrived, police said.

Neither police nor coroner’s officials have released any cause of death.

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Laurer was born in Rochester in December 1970. She went to school in Penfield and Pittsford and then in the city at the former Monroe High School.

Noelle Ahuna met Laurer during her sophomore year at Pittsford Sutherland when Laurer’s family moved to Pittsford. The two became close and Laurer, who had a difficult home life, moved in with Ahuna’s family for a while.

Ahuna, a 1988 Sutherland graduate who now is a real estate agent in Georgia, remembers Laurer as “a great friend,” who competed in gymnastics before having to give up the sport. She enjoyed hanging out with a close group of high school friends and was determined to succeed in life.

“She always strived to be better,” Ahuna said. “I think that she just wanted more out of life than what she was dealing with on a daily basis.”

Irondequoit resident Rich Jones, the founder, producer and host of "The Pain Clinic," a weekly radio pro-wrestling talk show on Rochester's Fox Sports 1280 since 1999, says Chyna was a stereotype-shattering figure in professional wrestling.

"She brought a new athleticism for women to the WWE. She had a body builder's physique and was brought in as an enforcer for a group of guys. Never had the wrestling world seen such a big strong female," said Jones, whose hour-long show airs Saturday mornings at 10.

"She started a trend in the business of muscular women, but none had the ability or staying power of her," Jones added. "She lasted 10 years in the spotlight. ... It's sad (that she has died)."

Laurer graduated from the University of Tampa in Florida before taking up wrestling.

The tall, muscle-bound, raven-haired Laurer billed herself as the “9th Wonder of the World” because her wrestling predecessor Andre the Giant had already called himself the eighth.

She was a member of the wrestling squad that dubbed itself “D-Generation X,” often wrestled against men and at one point was the WWE women’s champion.

On her official website a statement posted Wednesday night reads, “We lost a true icon, a real life superhero. Joanie Laurer aka Chyna, the 9th Wonder of the World has passed away. She will live forever in the memories of her millions of fans and all of us that loved her.”

She joins a long list of WWE professional wrestlers who have died relatively young, including Rick Rude, Curt “Mr. Perfect” Hennig, the Ultimate Warrior and Owen Hart.

After leaving the WWE in 2001, Laurer posed for Playboy and appeared in adult films and on reality TV, including the shows The Surreal Life and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Ahuna didn’t see Laurer much after high school, but will always remember one thing about her friend.

“Her infectious laugh,” Ahuna said. “She just had this laugh that no matter where you were in the room you would hear it and laugh with her.”

Mike DiGiorgio, a lifelong pro wrestling fan who lives in Henrietta, says Chyna’s character likely inspired most female wrestlers in the ring today.

“They were kids when she was popular and they thought they could do that too. I could see where, as athletes, they wanted to maybe be more like her and less like the attractive valet that would walk a man to the ring,” DiGiorgio said.

“But Chyna had a unique position that the modern women don’t have — she wrestled men. She mixed it up with the men in the storylines and she won their championships. That’s not going to happen today. The women — many of whom are great in the ring – compete against each other in their own division. If today’s female wrestler were to get the better of a man, it’d be played for laughs or to take the male wrestler down in the viewer’s eyes. Chyna beat a man and you totally bought it.”

Reaction to her death poured in on Twitter from around the pro-wrestling community and beyond.

Democrat and Chronicle sportswriter Jeff DiVeronica and content strategist Steve Bradley contributed to this report.