Chyna death: Manager claims WWE icon died of accidental overdose

Anthony Anzaldo says Chyna may have misused her prescription medication in the weeks leading up to her death

Chyna’s manager has claimed the WWE legend likely died of an accidental overdose of her prescription medication.

The 46-year-old was found unresponsive in her apartment in Redondo Beach on 20 April by her manager Anthony Anzaldo. He believes she may have died up to three days before he arrived at her home.

Mr Anzaldo told the Associated Press that her death of an accidental overdose is “98 percent certainty and two percent speculation”.

Mr Anzaldo said Chyna’s brain will now be examined by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist who was depicted in the film Concussion by Will Smith. Mr Omalu has led research into the degenerative brain disease developed by sports athletes who suffered repeated blunt force trauma to their heads.

But Mr Anzaldo does not believe Chyna died because of the type of brain injury associated with athletes. “It wasn't what cost her life,” he said.

He had lined up the wrestling icon to star in the reality television show Intervention before her sudden death. The Emmy-award winning programme looks at people suffering from addiction as they undergo a 90-day treatment programme.

Chyna, real name Joan Marie Laurer, had struggled with insomnia throughout her life and had prescriptions to treat her sleeping problems and anxiety, according to Mr Anzaldo. She also battled substance and alcohol abuse intermittently, but no alcohol was found in her home at the time of her death.

“A lot was going on in her life emotionally. But she wasn't depressed; it was just a lot to deal with,” he said.

“She accidentally, over the course of two or three weeks, misused her legally prescribed medication,” he added. ”They're not going to find, like, 60 pills in her stomach."

Despite troubles in her personal life, Chyna enjoyed a successful wrestling career and was the first female wrestler to win the WWE International Championship. Her death sparked an outpouring of tributes highlighting her legacy within the wrestling world and propmted questions as to why she still has not been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Results from a toxicology report are still pending. The death was initially reported as a possible overdose with prescription drugs but the Los Angeles County Coroner spokesman Ed Winter said nothing is certain until the report comes back.