Vince McMahon: Popular female star chose Playboy shoot over WWE title win

Vince McMahon once offered Chyna a run with the WWE Championship, but only if she turned down a feature in Playboy.

Chyna broke a lot of records during her time with WWE, including being the first woman to appear in the Royal Rumble match.

However, Chyna was offered the chance to do something no woman did in WWE before her, and no woman in WWE has done after her.

In 2020, it was claimed that Chyna was offered a run with the WWE Championship, but Vince McMahon said she’d only get the belt if she didn’t do a Playboy feature.

In an interview with WrestlingInc in November 2020, Chyna’s former manager, Anthony Anzaldo, spoke about the incident.

He claims that Chyna was offered a slot in Playboy around the same time she was offered the WWE title, but was told she’d only win the belt if she didn’t do the feature in the magazine.

“They offered her the WWE Championship belt, but Vince said, ‘But you can’t do Playboy’ because she got offered to do Playboy. She chose Playboy over the belt.”

Anzaldo explained that it was Vince McMahon who gave the ultimatum to the female WWE Superstar, but she decided to go with Playboy.

The decision seemingly paid off for Chyna, as Anzaldo says that the Playboy issue she was in was one of the “highest-selling out of the box”:

“Vince says, ‘If you do Playboy, you don’t get the belt.’ She said f*** the belt. I’m doing Playboy. Highest selling out of the box Playboy, first week Playboy, in the history of Playboy, more than Kim Kardashian. It’s top three of all time behind Kardashian and Marilyn Monroe.”

Chyna did Playboy in 2000, and again in 2002, the year after leaving WWE.

Thanks to SK Wrestling for the transcription.