Woman wrestler Chyna's brain reportedly is wanted for testing for CTE by Dr. Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who discovered the trauma-related degenerative ailment while examining NFL players.
"We want to donate her brain," Antony Anzaldo, her manager, told the
New York Daily News. "We want to know what made Chyna tick."
The pioneering wrestler, 45, whose real name is Joan Laurer, was found dead last Wednesday in her apartment in Redondo Beach, California. Anzaldo said she was working on a documentary about her life when he found her body.
Anzaldo said attorneys previously contacted her about becoming a plaintiff in a brain injury lawsuit against the WWE.
"When she died, (Omalu) called me again and asked, 'Can we have her brain,'" Anzaldo told the Daily News. "My hope is that we can do it. I'm in the process of getting the permission to speak on behalf of family to tell the coroner it's okay to release it."
CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a progressive degenerative disease that afflicts the brains of people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries, according to the
Bennet Omalu Foundation website.
CTE has been found in NFL, players as well as athletes from wrestlers to hockey players. CTE has also been found in deceased military veterans and domestic abuse victims.
At the height of her fame in the 1990s, Laurer was the only woman ever to win a WWE title but she was dropped from her contract in 2001, reported
The Guardian. WWE, though, still owned her Chyna persona.
"… She was not allowed to use the name Chyna, nor anything related to that character, which was her entire career," said The Guardian. "WWE owned the character of Chyna the same way Marvel Comics owns Spider-Man, even if Spider-Man isn't technically just a person in a latex outfit. From there, Chyna fell into substance abuse, appeared on reality shows clearly intoxicated, and ended up doing adult films for Vivid Entertainment."