Paul "Triple H" Levesque is one of WWE's most popular and successful stars of all time, winning the WWE Championship nine times and the World Heavyweight Championship five times over the course of his storied career. Triple H has been part of WWE since 1995, feuding with the likes of The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in the Attitude Era and more recently helping to develop a new generation of talent in NXT. Triple H's most recent televised match took place at Super Showdown on June 7, 2019 when he faced Randy Orton. And as it turns out, that match will go down in history as Triple H's last.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Triple H confirmed that he is retiring from in-ring competition. "I will never wrestle again," he said. This comes months after the 52-year-old suffered heart failure that required hospitalization and as it's now been revealed, he has a defibrillator in his chest. "It's probably not a good idea for me to get zapped on live TV," Triple H explained in the ESPN interview.
Triple H has had incredible longevity in WWE, having been with the company for a staggering 26 years at this point. Prior to his time in WWE, Triple H wrestled on the independent circuit and for WWE competitor World Championship Wrestling, where he wrestled under the ring-names Terra Ryzing and Jean-Paul Levesque. Upon joining WWE, Triple H changed his name to Hunter Hearst Helmsley, which was eventually shortened to Triple H.
Triple H was featured as a low- to mid-card talent in WWE at first. The Ultimate Warrior infamously defeated Triple H in a squash match at WrestleMania 12, and the plans to have him win the 1996 King of the Ring tournament were scrapped after the "Curtain Call" incident where he, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Shawn Michaels broke character at Madison Square Garden to say bye to the departing Hall and Nash, who were jumping ship to WCW. The King of the Ring push was given to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin instead, with Triple H finally winning the tournament in 1997.
From there, Triple H and Shawn Michaels formed the group D-Generation X, which Triple H became the leader of after Michaels retired from in-ring competition. DX became one of the most popular stables in wrestling history, propelling Triple H to the main event scene during the Attitude Era. He would ally himself with Stephanie McMahon, who later became his real-life wife, and then started a reign of dominance as the leader of the Evolution stable that helped make Batista and Randy Orton stars.
Recent years have seen Triple H focus more on backstage work, and it seems that he will continue to work for WWE in that capacity. But while Triple H was not wrestling a full-time schedule, he did make regular appearances at WrestleMania, beating Batista in a hard-hitting No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania 35, his last WrestleMania match.
Source: ESPN