Plans for Chyna If She Stayed with The Company...

[sungod2020]

As we all know, the 9th Wonder of The World was one of the most popular acts during the Attitude Era. Known for her strength and be able to hang with the guys, she was a trailblazer and an inspiration to women who one day wanted to step into the square circle themselves.

The first woman to enter the Royal Rumble match, participate in the King of The Ring tournament, as well as the first(and to date only) female wrestler to hold the coveted Intercontinental Championship. The future looked bright for the beloved star.

However, it wasn't until a year and a half later she was downgraded to the Women's division, which to me didn't make sense since she kayfabe-proved she can hang with the guys. She not surprisingly dominated it and defeated Ivory at Wrestlemania X-7 to become the Women's Champ.

She then entered a feud with fellow Attitude Era star diva Lita with a victory over her at Judgment Day. She wasn't seen on TV since even though her contract ran out that November completely missing the Invasion Angle.

Instead of letting her contract run out, what were the plans for her after Judgment Day? What role(if any) would she play in the Invasion Storyline? Also, how would they get the belt off of her. I just think booking Chyna to be in the women's division is booking themselves into a corner. The only way I can see her losing it is through some sort of cheating from her opponents part(or protection booking) ironically enough, how she had victories over her male opponents or in a triple threat match where someone else takes the pin.

Any ideas how Chyna would've been used for the rest of 2001(and maybe beyond)?

[CMWaters]

Well, for the going to women's division thing, they explained that the spike piledriver she took messed her up so she may never have been able to compete with men like she had before (I'm sure if she stayed they could have found a workaround to that in story).

Had she stayed, I could have seen her turn heel (something her predecessor in the posing for Playboy department, Sable, eventually did), acting as a juggernaut to be overcome by the others in the division...with Lita eventually getting her win back from Chyna maybe at WrestleMania. Or the surprise fluke by relative rookie at the time Trish Stratus (remember, she didn't become a regular wrestler until Survivor Series 2001).

This of course doesn't take into account whatever plans could have been if she were around during the Invasion storyline.

[Mozenrath]

Ideally? Putting over Lita.

I feel like Chyna feeling like working with the women was this enormous downgrade is also something of a tell about why they just let her contract run out. She had very little interest in elevating anyone or anything. That was her prerogative, but it also put her in a dead end after the Ivory feud.

[sungod2020]

Mar 6, 2023 17:52:20 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Ideally? Putting over Lita.

I feel like Chyna feeling like working with the women was this enormous downgrade is also something of a tell about why they just let her contract run out. She had very little interest in elevating anyone or anything. That was her prerogative, but it also put her in a dead end after the Ivory feud.

Here's the problem with her putting over Lita(or any woman for that matter). If she jobs to Lita, does that mean Lita has a shot against the men? I can understand Chyna having an ego was part of the issue, but it seems she was also difficult to work with in the sense of her putting over any of the women(how to book it, not attitude-wise), even with the neck injury angle to explain why she was put there to begin with.

[Mozenrath]

Mar 6, 2023 18:16:22 GMT -5 sungod2020 said:

Mar 6, 2023 17:52:20 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Ideally? Putting over Lita.

I feel like Chyna feeling like working with the women was this enormous downgrade is also something of a tell about why they just let her contract run out. She had very little interest in elevating anyone or anything. That was her prerogative, but it also put her in a dead end after the Ivory feud.

Here's the problem with her putting over Lita(or any woman for that matter). If she jobs to Lita, does that mean Lita has a shot against the men? I can understand Chyna having an ego was part of the issue, but it seems she was also difficult to work with in the sense of her putting over any of the women(how to book it, not attitude-wise), even with the neck injury angle to explain why she was put there to begin with.

The men already sold for Lita's hurricanrana, plus she had beaten Spike Dudley in a match, so I mean, sure?

Chyna had her big moments and men sold for her, but she also honestly just as often got guitar shotted by Jarrett or kept at bay by Mark Henry, etc. It was still treated as a novelty when she did face men and her victory was definitely not assured.

This is sort of like arguing that Cruiserweights in WCW shouldn't have been pushed unless they should be going toe to toe with Reese or Giant. It feels like an unnecessary qualification needed if you just don't use them that way.

[tirtefaa]

Yeah, I thought it would lead to Lita being out over, and then Chyna eventually turning heel when she couldn't beat her again. Maybe Chyna takes a protege in Jazz or Victoria. I could see Molly Holly get elevated, but I don't know if Trish is given the same opportunity.

There may be a few other things she could do in the women's division, but I think she would float back to the men's midcard.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

I could easily see her turning heel during the InVasion and joining the Alliance.

[CMWaters]

Mar 6, 2023 22:17:07 GMT -5 Jumpin' Jesse Walsh said:

I could easily see her turning heel during the InVasion and joining the Alliance.

See, you say that, but had Chyna stayed I ALMOST could see them, even if she was gone from WCW by then, bringing in Asya to feud with Chyna.

[Mozenrath]

I feel like if they did have Chyna around, she'd probably be doing something like either intimidating Stacy and Torrie to send the heel women scrambling, or they'd feed her someone low on the totem pole like Stasiak. I don't think she'd have been a major player, in any case.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

Mar 6, 2023 22:17:07 GMT -5 Jumpin' Jesse Walsh said:

I could easily see her turning heel during the InVasion and joining the Alliance.

And then winning the cruiserweight title or some shit like that.

[Sephiroth]

Honestly I doubt much different. She’d have bounced around the women’s div for a few years and ended up getting future endeavored anyway. She might have been used to put over Trish on her way out. Her peak popularity had passed and her fall down the card was a hard one; she was never going to reach those previous heights again for so many reasons. At a stretch I could have seen her as another lackey in the McMahon-Helmsley Era, but she definitely wouldn’t have been paired with Trips again.

[Feyrhausen]

What I have always read was that she was slated to be the top heel of the womens division. Be the monster for the smaller women to topple.

She supposably had a bad attitude because of the H thing (understandable) and being forced to move down to the womens division. The move down was due to her slimming down and being less believable wrestling men.

Best bet IMO would have been to let her heel it up until Lita or Trish could topple her. Then let her either wrestle men in the cruiserweight division as mentioned, or just be a special attraction. If she could get the drugs under control.

[Jindrak Mark]

Her last few months in the company I don't think she was well liked backstage due to how she treated the other women and resented working with them. I get the Ivory match at Wrestlemania. That didn't need to be anything more than a quick demolition job as revenge for injuring her but she would sell for absolutely none of the women. She completely squashed Lita at Judgment Day and made her look like shit. There's no reason that couldn't have been a fun David and Goliath match that made Lita look good even if she wasn't winning.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

It was a f***ed up situation because WWE refused to pay female talent. They say them as replaceable so when Sunny, Sable or Chyna in that era asked for more money they depushed them or fired them.

[Billie Gein]

I imagine they would have had her squashing a bunch of the WCW dudes in intergender matches in Sara-over-DDP style, but as for after the invasion, it's tough because as others have mentioned, they would have had to convince her to work non-squashes with the other women.

[theghostofalwilson]

Mar 6, 2023 18:16:22 GMT -5 sungod2020 said:

Mar 6, 2023 17:52:20 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Ideally? Putting over Lita.

I feel like Chyna feeling like working with the women was this enormous downgrade is also something of a tell about why they just let her contract run out. She had very little interest in elevating anyone or anything. That was her prerogative, but it also put her in a dead end after the Ivory feud.

Here's the problem with her putting over Lita(or any woman for that matter). If she jobs to Lita, does that mean Lita has a shot against the men? 

Well, Lita had already beaten Dean Malenko on RAW earlier that year ...

[wallabylikeyou]

If you follow the AE Podcast's Smackdown Crawl, there was a mostly forgotten angle being set up around the time that Chyna faced Lita, with Eddie Guerrero schmoozing his way into Team Extreme - Eddie comes out to watch their title match at Judgement Day. If Eddie didn't get fired, they speculated that it might have led to Eddie and Chyna getting back together and sticking to the 'Bonnie and Clyde' heel dynamic against Lita and Matt.

[celtics543]

Mar 8, 2023 6:39:06 GMT -5 wallabylikeyou said:

If you follow the AE Podcast's Smackdown Crawl, there was a mostly forgotten angle being set up around the time that Chyna faced Lita, with Eddie Guerrero schmoozing his way into Team Extreme - Eddie comes out to watch their title match at Judgement Day. If Eddie didn't get fired, they speculated that it might have led to Eddie and Chyna getting back together and sticking to the 'Bonnie and Clyde' heel dynamic against Lita and Matt.

This would have been probably the best way to use her at that point. Pair her up with someone she could do intergender tag matches with. Heck, they could create an intergender tag team championship, that would be kind of fun. Around that time you had Lita and Matt, Eddie and Chyna, Trish and Val, maybe Molly and Spike, or Torrie and Kidman. Just make it fun. Nidia and Jamie Noble was later on.

It would give Chyna something to do and also kind of keep her out of the IC title scene.

[Susan "Poison" Candy]

I don't think Chyna would have wanted to stick around through 2001. I mean to be honest the Women's Division at that time was non existent with only Chyna, Jacqueline, Ivory, Lita, and Molly Holly with the actual wrestling ability. Trish was on her way to becoming something more than eye candy and I respect her for pushing herself to actually learn and want to be more than how she was depicted. Terri is a hard nope. Then they acquired WCW and the only women they took were Stacy Keibler & Torrie Wilson who had no skills whatsoever.

Chyna literally had no competition and she obviously wasn't going against men at that time after her injury so to be honest I doubt she would have been there much longer either way. I mean she was even complaining on TV about being in a non existent division and pretty much went through the competition.

If I booked her through to the end of 2001 I would have had her be the top dominant heel and just have her continue to run down everyone. Maybe have some Local Talent on to have her run through them. Then at Survivor Series regardless if the Invasion happens or not, have her defend the title at Survivor Series against Trish Stratus and have Trish win in an upset victory. If the Invasion happens have Chyna defend her title in the 6 Pack Challenge at Survivor Series and still have Trish win in an upset victory. Then have Trish & Chyna face off once more at Vengeance 2001 in December and have Chyna finish up and then have her leave if a deal can't be reached. I mean the Women's Championship wasn't defended from after Judgment Day 2001 til Survivor Series 2001 so once again there really wasn't much that could be done if Chyna stayed or not.

[sungod2020]

Mar 7, 2023 12:18:55 GMT -5 Feyrhausen said:

What I have always read was that she was slated to be the top heel of the womens division. Be the monster for the smaller women to topple.

She supposably had a bad attitude because of the H thing (understandable) and being forced to move down to the womens division. The move down was due to her slimming down and being less believable wrestling men.

Best bet IMO would have been to let her heel it up until Lita or Trish could topple her. Then let her either wrestle men in the cruiserweight division as mentioned, or just be a special attraction. If she could get the drugs under control.

In all fairness she didn't become a drug addict until after the left the company. Also, I think she was teasing a heel turn headed into Judgment Day so it wouldn't surprise me if she went full on after that. I can picture her snapping on Lita after she loses the belt to her.

I also like the idea of her bringing in someone like Jazz or Victoria as a protege while Chyna gets quietly phased out.