Chyna's Mother Reacts to WWE Hall of Fame Induction

WWE announced on Monday that Chyna would finally be entering the WWE Hall of Fame this year as part of D-Generation X's induction in the Class of 2019.

Jan LaQue, Chyna's mother, responded to the news in an interview with Pro Wrestling Sheet on Tuesday.

"I am absolutely thrilled," LaQue said. "And so is my husband. We have been invited to the ceremony and will be so proud to be there and celebrate this awesome occasion. She certainly earned this, to say the least."

After Chyna's passing in 2016, LaQue publicly campaigned multiple times for her daughter to be recognized by WWE's Hall of Fame. Her most recent plea came back in December.

"As many of you know, yesterday would have been Joanie's (Chyna's) birthday," LaQue wrote. "I truly appreciate all of the messages and (remembrances) of her that were posted by so many of you. As you can imagine, it's always a very sad day for me. But it helps a lot to know how many people remember her and loved her.

"It's one of the worst things in the world to lose a child," she continued. "We HAVE to get her into the WWE hall of fame. She richly deserves to be there. WWE — LISTEN UP and do what's right for Chyna!! You owe her that for what she did for you and women's wrestling. She earned her place there. And it's long overdue."

Chyna wrestled for the WWE from 1997-2001, originally debuting as an enforcer for Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Rick Rude. Due to her massive strength and size, Chyna often competed and dominated male wrestlers, resulting in her winning the Intercontinental Championship twice, competing in Men's Royal Rumble matches and even challenging for the WWF Championship.

During an interview with Steve Austin back in 2015, Triple H stated part of the reason Chyna hadn't been inducted into the Hall was due to her brief stint in the adult film industry. He addressed those comments in an ESPN interview on Monday.

"Look, people believe what they want to believe," he said. "When I said a few years ago on the Austin podcast, or show, or whatever you want to call it, there's complexities around it. But absolutely, definitely deserves to be in there. It'd be tough to pick a female that was more impactful on the business. She did something that was completely so out of left field that it wasn't even being considered when we first brought it up for her to come in. It wasn't even a consideration ... it wasn't an easy thing, and against all odds she did all of that. She earned everybody's trust. She won over the fans. She won over the boys. She did all of it.

"From that standpoint, absolutely 100 percent deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and should probably be more than once — as a group, but individually as well," he continued. "There's more complexity to that than meets the eye, but here we are. I'm just happy that it's here. I'm happy for her family, the people that she was close to, that hopefully this is super-meaningful to them. I know it would be to her. It's a great thing — very deserving."