chyna: same body, different babe

Same body, different babe.

Joanie Laurer, better-known and formerly dubbed as the World Wrestling Federation's Chyna, now puts her drawers in a dresser instead of a suitcase and is a blond with ambition.

She's tired of questions about plastic surgery and extreme measures behind her enviable muscles and is looking for a life of less public scrutiny.

That said, the 29-year-old, once dubbed 'the ninth wonder of the world' for her ridiculously well-sculpted physique, is in Toronto pushing a 10-page spread in Playboy's January issue.

She's also after the acting career she was chasing when she made a six-year stop at Vince McMahon's wrestling empire.

"I wanted to be a movie star and an actress, but I fell in love with wrestling in the interim," Laurer says.

I might be the only person who has moved on from that world. "It feels good. I'm more mature and know what I want.

"I have my own place, my own car. I'll put my underwear in a drawer instead of a suitcase."

The 5'10" Laurer says others aren't so quick to let her make a transition from Chyna to Joanie.
"I have trouble getting people not to call me Chyna," she says. "This is the real me."

Real and for the world to see in a kinky, leather-clad, dog-friendly, in-the-dungeon-with-other-babes, Playboy centrefold.

Ogle all you want, but don't pry or prattle on about plastic surgery. Laurer, who says breast implants add femininity to hard work, bristles at suggestions gimmicks made the Body Chyna.

"I'm really tired of it," she said. "Just because you have muscle doesn't mean you are on steroids.
I've based my life on fitness and health and being a strong, physically fit, sexy woman.

"It took a lot of hard work, so it's more than likely I will get offended when people try to (credit) it to a quick fix. It puts women down."

"You'll never ever see me eating drive-through fast food, but if I want to, I can have a glass of wine or cheesecake and then the next day I can pose for Playboy magazine," she says. '

HIGHLY EXAGGERATED'
Laurer says she'll keep the "brains, beauty and brawn" she built as an escape from a rotten home-life and a quest for self-esteem. "I'm not so much for equal rights thing. Whether you are a woman or a different race, if you can step up to the plate you should be able to," she said.

"Affirmative action really bothers me. I didn't become Chyna because of affirmative action. I had to fight my way for that. And still, I was not paid the same or treated the same as men."

Despite a list of wrestling injuries -- a broken ankle, tailbone, breast implant, nose, thumb, and wrist -- Laurer relishes an opportunity for a future wrestling cameo.

"Maybe on Wrestlemania or Pay-per-view. I can have my cake and eat it too," she said. "I don't think there will be another Chyna. Chyna was the great equalizer (who) transcended a role for women and gave us a lot of power. A lot of women lived vicariously through me. I lived vicariously through her, too." Still it will take time for all the boob talk to wane.

"Some of it is pretty entertaining and actually most was pretty true but highly exaggerated," says Laurer, referring to the tabloid headlines of "Sexy wrestler's boob explodes" after her TV talk show confession of a leaky implant.

"People are constantly asking me about my exploding boob."