The book successfully maintains Chyna's awe-inspiring, larger-than-life image at the same time that it imparts deeply personal, poignant and inspirational insight into Joanie Laurer. As Laurer eloquently demonstrates, her chosen profession makes a fine metaphor for her life.

In another, terrible moment, her mother and stepfather burst in on her at the doctor's office, livid because her con-artist father had already used their insurance to cover thousands of dollars of his medical bills.

In one memorable scene, while she is fighting for a spot in the WWF, she outdoes pro-wrestler Hunter (who later becomes her boyfriend) in the weight room. She leads us through the tribulations and joys of searching for her niche (belly dancing, selling pagers in inner-city neighborhoods) of getting the proper breast implant size of changing the role of women in the WWF of intra-WWF romance of celebrity. Laurer's painful childhood and adolescence were characterized by her sense of her difference from her peers (taller, more muscular) and punctuated by the antics of her divorced mother and father. Sharp-tongued, idiom-slinging and wry, the voice encountered in these pages is both more and less than the Chyna who appears in the wrestling ring. With its beguiling blend of swagger and vulnerability, anger and poise, largesse and disgust, Laurer's tell-all tragicomedy will not disappoint her many fans. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Complete with insights from other WWF Superstars, this is a must read for any fan of the WWF and for anyone who wants to see how a real-life hero overcame adversity. Joanie Laurer - lets us in what it's like to live your dream and overcome your nightmares. and the broken hearts and broken body parts that are suffered along the way.Ĭhyna - a.k.a. If they only knew offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the World Wrestling Federation, and a rarer glimpse of what it takes just to get there - the hurdles that must be overcome. She has battled her entire life: against a controlling mother against a scheming father and against a world with a predetermined view of what beauty and success should be. She was the first woman to wear the Intercontinental Championship belt, yet these were not her most significant battles. She has gained the respect of the men inside the World Wrestling Federation, and the world at large. Part feminist, part superhero, Chyna has blazed a trail where no woman had gone before.

If they only knew chyna