YMMV / Chyna

• Broken Base: For a long time, the ongoing IWC debate was on if Chyna deserved to be in the WWE Hall of Fame despite her rather controversial history. After her death, the debate swinged heavily in the favor of "yes", but it was exacerbated when it was finally announced in 2019 — as part of D-Generation X as a whole being inducted. Cue arguments over whether Chyna not being inducted by herself was disrespectful or not, and whether or not they will eventually induct Chyna on her own.
• Fetish Retardant
  • 1 Night In China is the Pink Flamingos of its generation, an oddity which thrives on morbid curiosity alone.
  • Queen of the Ring. Not even Ron Jeremy could get it up.
• Funny Moments:
  • During D-Generation X's parody of The Corporation, Chyna was given the role of the Big Boss Man. Contrary to her usual role as The Stoic of the group, Chyna starts doing flashy moves with her nightstick (parodying similar moves done by Boss Man) before the nightstick flies away from her hands.
  • Her guest appearance on Whose Line Is It Anyway? certainly counts.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Almost everything WWE-related considering she was let go on bad terms. But specifically, her relationship with HHH is so harsh it could be the trope image. They made a good team from 1997-1999 and many fans still enjoy them on screen as a badass Battle Couple. However, when HHH's marriage storyline with Stephanie McMahon started in October 1999, he began dating Stephanie for real, allegedly behind Chyna's back. The latter wasn't aware their romance was real until she found out the affair for herself one year later.
  • During an interview on the Martin Show, they get asked about how their relationship started & HHH talks about their first meeting, trying to get her into the wrestling business, and noting they've been together longer than most married couples. This interview took place in November 1999, which means he was already with Stephanie.
  • In one segment, HHH confides in Chyna about his issues with Stephanie. She talks to him about how important trust is in a relationship and to give things another chance. HHH gives a warm smile, a thanks, and hugs Chyna. So, Chyna does a story-line telling her actual boyfriend to give another chance to the woman he'd been cheating on her with IRL. Ouch. Some have pointed out the scene must have been awkward for HHH as well when he's actually cheating on Chyna as she talks about relationship trust.
  • A later segment deals with Stephanie finding out about HHH and Chyna hugging (the hug from the aforementioned segment). She slaps HHH and accuses him of being unfaithful. HHH says Chyna hugged him as a friend, which a tearful Stephanie doesn't believe since he didn't tell her about it. HHH says he didn't tell her because it meant nothing. So, Stephanie accuses HHH of cheating, which he was doing with her to Chyna in real life, and (segment-wise) HHH is faithful and repeatedly reaffirms to her that he has no feelings for Chyna — again, whom he'd been cheating on and no longer loved — unbeknownst to her at the time. Double-Ouch all over here.
  • Making fun of her appearance becomes a lot less funny since after her death it came out that she got bullied for her appearance a lot, even before her career, and that the reason she posed for Playboy in the first place was that it made her feel like a woman, willingly sacrificing her chance to receive a world champion title.
• Heartwarming Moments: In this interview, Paige Turner said that she watched wrestling as a kid and that Chyna was her biggest inspiration, using her workout video as motivation to lose 30 pounds while in high school. Keep in mind, this was the same workout video that was trashed by WrestleCrap.
• Hilarious in Hindsight
  • Chyna squashing Trish Stratus repeatedly before she left WWE is slightly hilarious, given that Trish would become the face of the Divas division, even winning the Women's Championship for the first time after it had been vacated due to Chyna's departure.
  • On a TV interview, she got into an argument with Sable over whether or not she wanted to challenge for the Women's Championship. This does become hilarious with the knowledge of the various times WWE has done the 'models vs wrestlers' feud since then (Candice Michelle vs Beth Phoenix, Divas of Doom vs Kelly Kelly etc.).
• Once Original, Now Common: Chyna was never really the best wrestler. Depending on her opponent, she could put on a good match, but a lot of her matches haven't aged as well. As far as ring presence goes there have been larger women before (Monster Ripper in CSP/WWC, Nickla Roberts in her WCCW and CWF days), contemporary to (Rio Storm on the independent circuit, Midnight in WCW) and after her (Jamie D/Sirelda in TNA). Match wise, fans of other promotions might have been desensitized by having already seen women with much less presence such as Jacqueline or Jazz give and take hits from men just as well as Chyna or later seen women such as Amazing Kong, Sara Del Rey, Beth Phoenix or Alpha Female in similar brute roles with superior wrestling ability. But at the time, the only notable wrestling female in WWF/E was Sable - a glamorous Diva who had it written into her contract that she couldn't take bumps. The idea of a woman like Chyna even existing at all in WWF/E was groundbreaking (the aforementioned Monster Ripper was in WWF before Chyna, but was treated like a joke and barred from using her best moves). Several people actually argued about Beth Phoenix being put into WWE's Hall of Fame before Chyna for this reason.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Inverted. She was a huge icon of the Attitude Era. While she had her detractors even then, she was one of WWE's biggest mainstream stars. Nowadays she's viewed as average in the ring at best. Bringing her up is going to result in a Broken Base. This was also the case on the independent circuit. Before WWF she was seen as one of the nation's top prospects. When she tried to return to the indies she gained a reputation for being overly demanding even by WWF wrestler standards and got much less work despite much more being available since her first run. Now that she has passed away, expect the Broken Base to narrow down a bit.
• Shipping: She's all over the map with this on Archive of Our Own.
  • Les Yay Shipping: Mainly with Original Female Characters and a couple of stories with Tammy Lynn Sytch, though also with Diana Hart Smith, the widow of Davey Boy Smith, and even with Stephanie McMahon.
  • Her most common Het pairing is with HHH.
  • There are two stories that ship her with HHH, Shawn Michaels AND Original Female Characters.
• So Bad, It's Good: Her feud with Masahiro Chono in New Japan Pro-Wrestling was pretty much humiliating for both of them and got panned by puroresu pundits, but people nowadays can find it entertaining in its own way.
• Spiritual Successor: Beth Phoenix is considered a modern example, the two often being compared. Beth also became the second woman to compete in the Royal Rumble - and even took a (kayfabe) shot at Chyna afterwards.

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