American wrestler, Paul Michael Levesque, better known by the ring name, Triple H, has announced his retirement after more than 30 years in pro wrestling.
Advertisement
Triple H, started wrestling in 1990 and made his WWE debut in 1995 after two years in World Championship Wrestling.
Levesque began his career with a “blueblood” character going by Hunter Hearst Helmsley with a finishing maneuver known as the “Pedigree.”
He won 14 world championships and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019. Levesque, 52, went into heart failure last September and hasn’t performed since 2019.
“… I have a defibrillator in my chest, which, you know, probably not a good idea for me to get zapped on live TV,” said Levesque, who is also an executive vice president with WWE and married to Stephanie McMahon, WWE’s chief brand officer.
Advertisement
“… There are moments in there when they’re putting you out for stuff and you think, ‘Is this it? Do you wake up from this?’ That’s tough to swallow and makes you think differently,” he said.
News of Triple H’s retirement brought out stars from around pro wrestling to sing his praises.
In WWF, Triple H gained industry fame after co-founding the influential D-Generation X stable, which became a major element of the “Attitude Era” in the 1990s.
After winning his first WWF Championship in 1999, he became a fixture of the company’s main event scene and was widely regarded as one of the best wrestlers in North America by the turn of the millennium.
Triple H has headlined several major WWE pay-per-view events, closing the company’s flagship annual event, WrestleMania, on seven occasions.
Triple H has also won a number of championships in his career.
He is a five-time Intercontinental Champion, a three-time world tag team champion (two World Tag Team Championship reigns, and one Unified WWE Tag Team Championship reign).
He is also a two-time European Champion, and a fourteen-time world champion, making him the company’s seventh Triple Crown Champion and second Grand Slam Champion.
Leave a Reply