Triple H announced his retirement from in-ring competition in an interview with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s “First Take.”
Triple H, a 14-time World Champion, is one of the most decorated Superstars in WWE history. From co-founding the iconic D-Generation X to shepherding future main-eventers Randy Orton and Batista toward WWE greatness in Evolution, The Game was always at the forefront of sports-entertainment.
BREAKING: @TripleH announced his retirement from in-ring competition on @espn @firsttake with @stephenasmith. pic.twitter.com/qnyw9NVtv4— WWE (@WWE) March 25, 2022
“For me, as far as in-ring, which I get a lot, I’m done,” Triple H told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
“I won’t – I would never wrestle again. First, I have a defibrillator in my chest. Which, it’s probably not a good idea for me to get zapped on live TV,” he added.
Back in September of last year, WWE had announced that Triple H had undergone a successful heart surgery.
“I had viral pneumonia. My lungs were inflamed. and as the next couple of days went on and I got home it got increasingly worse and my wife saw some blood and stuff that I was coughing up. I went and got checked and I – it was coming from the viral pneumonia but I had fluid in my lungs. I had some fluid around my heart. So they followed up on it. Did an EKG and echo and everything and basically the way your heart pumps out 55-65% of your ejection fraction is a good number. I was at 30. and I got a quick text message saying, ‘Don’t take time. Pack a bag real quick, head to the emergency room. I’ll fill you in on the way,” Triple H said.
“So by the time I got to the emergency room, my ejection fraction had gone down to 22. Which, I was in heart failure. Bad. By the next morning – as they figured that out that evening – by the next morning as they got the MRI done and they were sending me in for a heart cath my ejection fraction was down to 12. So I was nosediving and sort of at the one-yard line of where you want to be – or where you don’t want to be, really, for your family and your future,” he added.
Triple H went on to add that the fact that he has three daughters was a decisive factor for him.
“They tell you it’s 99%. It gets real. We have 3 young girls – 15, 13, 11. You know, suddenly I come home. I’m a little bit sick and their dad who’s strong always suddenly is in the hospital and I don’t know if they understood the consequences of it but there’s moments in there where – when they’re putting you out for stuff and you think, ‘Is this it?’ Do you – Do you wake up from this? That’s tough to swallow and makes you think.”
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