WWE superstar Triple H announced Friday on ESPN that he’ll retire from in-ring competition. Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, has been in the WWE since 1995. He began working in WCW in 1994 before signing with the then-World Wrestling Federation in 1995.
Levesque as Hunter Hearst Helmsley first appeared in a then-WWF ring in 1995, but quickly rose through the ranks to be one of the bigger stars in the company. His membership in The Kliq with Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, and Scott Hall was an essential part of the growth via cable television of the promotion. Monday Night Raw became essential television for a generation of grappling fans, and much of the promotion’s current success still is based in fans that came from that time in the history of wrestling.
He rose to prominence as a member of the stable D-Generation X and was a major player in the famed ‘Attitude Era’ in the late 90s and early 2000s. As Triple H, he is regarded as one of the best in-ring technicians of all time, with multiple title reigns and fantastic work as part of DX and later Evolution.
The Game is literally married to the game as well, as his wife Stephanie McMahon-Levesque is the Chief Brand Officer of WWE as well. He currently serves as WWE’s Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development. He has been behind the rise of the NXT brand of the WWE.