Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s wrestling career has officially come to an end due to his heart issues.
On Friday, the 52-year-old WWE star said he’s “done” with the sport afterhaving cardiac surgeryin September.
“As far as in the ring … I’m done,” he said during an appearance on ESPN’sStephen A.’s World.“I will never wrestle again.”
During his chat with Smith, Triple H opened up about the moment he realized something wasn’t right with his heart.
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“I had viral pneumonia. My lungs were inflamed. As the next couple of days went on, when I got home it got increasingly worse. My wife saw some blood and stuff that I was coughing up. I went and got checked; it was coming from the viral pneumonia but I had fluid in my lungs. I had some fluid in my heart.”
After getting multiple heart tests, Triple H was told his heart was not pumping properly.
“The way your heart pumps out, 55 to 65 percent of your ejection fraction is a good number. I was at 30,” he explained. “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.’ "
By the time he got to the hospital, his ejection fraction had dropped to 22 percent.
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“I was in heart failure, bad,” the athlete recalled.
The next morning, it went down to 12 percent.
“I was nosediving. Sort of at the one-yard line of where you need to be, or where you don’t want to be really, for your family and your future. When they tell you it’s 99 percent it gets real. We have three young girls - 15, 13, 11,” Triple H said of his wife,Stephanie McMahon,with whom he shares daughters Aurora Rose, Murphy Claire, and Vaughn Evelyn.
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“Suddenly I come home, I’m a little bit sick and their dad who’s strong, always, is suddenly in the hospital. I don’t know if they understood the consequences of it,” he said.
He then became emotional, adding,” There are moments when they’re putting you out for stuff, and you think ‘This is it. Do you wake up from this?’ That’s tough to swallow and makes you think differently about life. It doesn’t make you any less driven for the things that you do, but it certainly makes you appreciate the things that you have more, your friends, your family."
After wrestling in his final match in 2019, Levesque is now the WWE’s executive vice president of global talent strategy and development.
source: people.com
