Following a recent health scare in September, many wondered if there was an update on Paul “Triple H” Levesque. After a “cardiac event” that required surgery, information regarding the multiple-time WWE champion has largely been kept under wraps.
On March 25, Triple H teased he would be speaking with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on the "Stephen A’s World" podcast. A portion of the interview aired on "First Take." Triple H went into detail about the issues he was going through during that time. Saying that his in-ring career is over, Triple H elaborated that his heart was failing as he was dealing with pneumonia.
Triple H revealed that he had fluid in his lungs and his arms. Typically, a normal ejections fraction for a heart ranges from 55 to 60 percent. His at one point was at 12 percent and dropping fast. Triple H revealed how the experience changed his perspective, just like when Smith went through a scare with COVID-19.
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"My wife (Stephanie McMahon) saw some blood and stuff that I was coughing up . . . I was at 30 (fraction percent),” Triple H said. "I had a quick text message saying, 'Don’t take time, pack a bag. We’ll head to the emergency room. I’ll fill you in on the way.’
“By the time I got to the emergency room, my ejection fraction had gone down to 22. I was in heart failure. Bad. The next morning, as I was setting in to get an MRI done and about to go in for a heart cap, my ejection fraction was down to 12. I was nosediving and sort of at the 1-yard line, where you don’t want to be.
"For your family and your future, when they tell you it’s 99 percent, it gets real. We (he and McMahon) have three young girls, 15, 13, and 11. Suddenly, I come home and I’m a little bit sick, and their dad, who is strong, always, suddenly is in the hospital. I don’t know if they understood the consequences of it, but 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. It makes you think differently . . . about life. It doesn’t make you any less driven from the things you do, but it certainly makes you appreciate the things you have: your friends and your family.”
The King of Kings. pic.twitter.com/orXag7bxBs
— WWE (@WWE) March 25, 2022
The 52-year-old started his pro wrestling career in 1990. He competed for WCW before joining WWE in 1995. One of the founders of D-Generation X and Evolution, Triple H quickly became a dominant star for WWE. During his career, he became a 14-time world champion, a five-time Intercontinental champion, a three-time tag team champion, a two-time Royal Rumble winner and a King of the Ring winner. He joined the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 as a member of D-Generation X.
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While continuing to wrestle later in his career, Triple H became WWE executive vice president of global talent strategy and development. He also helped run the NXT brand as an executive producer, bringing in and building the stars we see on WWE TV today. While Vince McMahon’s team took over the brand for NXT 2.0, Triple H was still able to provide some input. His friend Shawn Michaels has taken most of the responsibilities from him.
One of Triple H's last matches was against Randy Orton, his former Evolution teammate and enemy, at Super ShowDown in 2019. He also wrestled with Shinsuke Nakamura against Robert Roode and Samoa Joe in Tokyo that year.
Now, Triple H says, he will no longer wrestle. The recent scare put an end to his long and storied career.
"For me, as far as in-ring, which I get a lot, I’m done. I will never wrestle again," he said. "I have a defibrillator in my chest, which, it’s probably not a good idea for me to be zapped on live TV."
