Chyna's Former Manager On Why He Was In Her Apartment The Day Her Body Was Found
As part of episode two of "Documenting Chyna" on The Wrestling Inc. Daily, Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman sat down to have another conversation with WWE Hall of Famer Chyna's former friend and manager Anthony Anzaldo. In their conversation, Anzaldo revealed he still has the footage of him and his friend Pete finding Chyna dead.
"There's some footage that's extraordinary sacred, that's extraordinary valuable, and it's the footage of me finding her dead," Anzaldo noted. "I have that footage."
In the first episode of "Documenting Chyna", Chyna's mother, Janet LaQue, questioned how Anzaldo got into Chyna's apartment. Anzaldo explained he did not have a key, but he did find a way into her apartment, which is explained in the footage that he alleged that an acquaintance stole.
"Well, first of all, I did not have a key, and I'll tell you how I got in," Anzaldo said. "So first of all, if she has seen the footage, and it's possible she has not, then she would know how I got in because I talk about it while I'm doing it, but that footage is not to be shown. That footage is never to be seen to the public, and I swear to God, if somebody does it, it's going to be an ugly, ugly day for that person.
"Let's talk about the things that will happen to them when the lights are out, and the things that will happen to them when the lights are on. When the lights are on, there will be a massive lawsuit, hundreds of millions of dollars worth and the things that when the lights are off, I will not discuss. You get my hint. It's not a legitimate threat. I'm just kidding.
"I'm saying I will come after them with a full-on legal activity because that footage was stolen from me by Erik. I wasn't even going to give that to Erik or anybody because it was shot by a friend of mine who happened to be with me when I went over there, and he owns it. I don't even own it."
Anzaldo recalled going to Chyna's apartment after Pete's wife instructed him to go there to check on Chyna. He prefaces that he did not recreate footage of him finding Chyna in her room.
"So Pete picks me up at 1:00 in the afternoon from LAX, and we get in the car," Anzaldo recalled. "I'm driving his car, so he can shoot me talk about us driving over to see Chyna. Now, why were we shooting this? Because of what happened three weeks earlier because Chyna and I had been on the outs, and if I'm going to see Chyna for the first time in three weeks after everything that's happened, we have to document that.
"I don't know if she's f–king dead. If I'm knocking on the door and she answers, it's the first time we're seeing each other in three weeks after everything we've just been through. We probably should document that. It's not like I found her dead, and I go, 'Oh my god, let's recreate this, and let's act it out, or let's start over or oh my God, she's dead. Let's shoot something.' Matter of fact, when I found her, I forgot we were shooting at that point."
Anzaldo later explains how he gained access to Chyna's apartment saying that he had asked the building manager for access, but the building manager instead followed protocol and called the police to do a wellness check on Chyna. Anzaldo admitted that they did trespass by following a mail person into the apartment, and he explained that Chyna typically leaves the door unlocked if she was home.
"So I get to the house and to her apartment, and I can't get in. So I buzzed the manager," Anzaldo explained. "I say, 'Nancy, hi, it's Anthony. Listen, I haven't heard from Chyna in a couple of days. You think you might be able to just go over there and knock on the door and make sure she's okay?' And she was going, 'Well, we don't really do that. If something like that happened, we usually just call the police and ask them to do a wellness check.' I said, 'Well, you know what, don't worry about it. It's all good. Don't even worry about it.' Well, unbeknownst to me, she did call the police.
"Now, while the police is being called, and I don't know this, and I have all this on tape. All of this footage is being shot. The mail person comes, and she walks in, so Pete and I walk in behind her. So now, we're trespassing. Legally, technically, I guess we're trespassing, but not in the way that 'oh my God, they trespassed. How dare they?' I'm trying to find out if my friend is alive. So we get in the elevator, and this is what I say, 'Chyna leaves her door unlocked if she's home. She does not lock her door. Even if she's at night sleeping, she does not lock her door. When she leaves, she locks her door."
Anzaldo then described getting to Chyna's door admitting that they were trespassing and breaking and entering but also admitting that neither him nor Pete knew the full situation. He described the two them smelling something strange in Chyna's apartment and said that Pete continued filming because they did not fully know what was going on in the moment.
"So we get out of the elevator, and we walk to the door. And you can see me turn the handle, and the door opens." Anzaldo described. "Now, technically, from that point, now I am breaking and entering. So I trespassed into the building, and now I broke into Chyna's apartment. Of course, that's how people see it because they're a bunch of f–king idiots, but the reality is you understand why I went over there. So we walk in, and Pete's with me.
"And that's why Pete's shooting. He doesn't know what to do at this point because we don't know, but he kept shooting, and once we walk in, there was a smell. He's like, 'Oh my God, something smells Anthony. I don't have a good feeling about this.' I'm like, 'Holy s–t,' and again, I hate to say it, but he kept shooting. I didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do, but I forgot he was shooting at this point because that wasn't on my mind at that point."
Anthony's full interview aired as part of the second installment of the Documenting Chyna interview series on The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.