Triple H sees his heart failure as “a gift.”
The WWE boss — real name Paul Levesque — has a defibrillator in his chest almost four years after a near death experience, when he was suffering from viral pneumonia and a cardiac event, caused by a genetic issue.
It almost cost him his life.
In an interview with his wife Stephanie McMahon for her ESPN series Stephanie’s Places, Levesque admits: “In this really weird, f–ked up way, my heart issue was a gift.”
“It made me see things differently, look at life differently.”
McMahon was visibly emotional as she admitted she’d “never heard” him say that before.
“You can go through life — no matter how great it is or all the things you’re doing, and you’re just doing it,” the wrestler explains.
“All of a sudden, you’re partway through it, have a reset and go, ‘Holy s–t, this doesn’t last forever.'”
Levesque was also emotional when he brought out a coin from his pocket.
McMahon was choked up as she told him: “I was just about to ask you about that.”
“You gave it to me,” the WWE legend responded. “Memento Mori. You can die at any second. This can all stop at any second.”
“Basically saying, don’t get caught up in all these bulls–t. Life is f–king fleeting, so it can all go away at any moment.”
A few months after his hospitalization, Levesque — who serves as WWE’s chief content officer and leads their creative process across Monday Night Raw and SmackDown — confirmed he would never be getting back ini the ring, as he’s officially retired from in-ring competition.
“I will never wrestle again. First of all, I have a defibrillator in my chest, which, you know, probably not a good idea for me to get zapped on live TV,” he told ESPN’s First Take in March 2022.
“I had viral pneumonia. My lungs were inflamed and as the next couple days went on, when I got home it got increasingly worse. My wife saw some blood and stuff that I was coughing up and I went and got checked.”
The 14-time world champion was warned by doctors that he was suffering “bad” heart failure.
“I was nose-diving and sort of at the one-yard line of where you don’t want to be really, for your family and your future.”
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