Career

Triple H was taught to wrestle by legendary wrestling heel Killer Kowalski. In 1994 he joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW), wrestling there as a heel under the names Terra Ryzing and Jean-Paul Levesque. He left in 1995 for WCW's rival organization, the WWF (now the WWE). The WWF packaged him as heel Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a spoiled rich kid from Greenwich, Connecticut whose name invoked both the family of publisher William Randolph Hearst and "The Queen of Mean," Leona Helmsley. Along with fellow Clique member Shawn Michaels and Chyna, he formed D-Generation X (DX) in 1997. Around the same time, he shortened his alias to Triple H (a reference to the character's initials, HHH). This was the beginning of The Game's rise to become one of the most successful professional wrestlers ever.

Road to Heavyweight Gold

Triple H led the "DX Army" throughout 1998; this was the first time he had performed as a face in the WWE and he quickly became one of its most popular wrestlers. It was during this time that Triple H began feuding with The Rock who at the time was a heel. This rivalry eventually spilled onto the Intercontinental Championship, at the time both superstars were at the "top of the ladder" in the mid-card division. When The Rock won the WWE Championship in late 1998, the rivalry between the two continued but became more of a gang war as DX fought Mr. McMahon's Corporation stable, of which Rock was the crown jewel.

As 1999 began, Triple H began to re-evaluate his position in the WWE. He longed for a shot at the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, however due to his inferior popularity compared to Stone Cold Steve Austin he knew that the fans would never want to see him take on another fan favorite. At WrestleMania XV Triple H wrestled as a face for the last time in several months when he beat Kane with the aid of Chyna. Later on he betrayed his long-time friend and fellow DX member X-Pac by helping then-heel Shane McMahon retain the European Championship, thus turning heel. This decision earned him the hatred of the fans, and helped push Triple H further in the direction of the WWE Championship. Triple H joined the Corporation, however this placed him in the same boat as The Rock, a long-time Corporate member. Unable to get along, The Rock took Triple H's place as a face and quickly became one of the hottest superstars in WWE history.

Meanwhile Triple H worked hard to get closer to the WWE Championship. Along with turning heel, Triple H got rid of his old "DX" look and took on the look he has to this day. Triple H was changing his image and his personality as he fought to get a World title shot. During mid-1999, Triple H was "groomed" for the World title. Eventually, with the death of the "Corporate Ministry" (the group which was created out of a merger of the Corporation and the Undertaker's Ministry), Triple H found himself closer to the WWE Championship. Eventually after numerous failed attempts he finally got what he and many others thought would finally see him at the top of the WWE ladder. At SummerSlam 1999 Triple H, along with Mankind would challenge then-WWE Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. In a memorable match which featured Governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura as the special guest referee, Triple H lost out to Mankind who became World Champion for the third time.

The following night on WWE Raw, Triple H threatened to break Jim Ross's arm if Mankind refused to give him a title shot that night. Mankind gave Triple H a shot, and that night Triple H won his first WWE Championship. After winning the title Triple H then "interviewed" Jim Ross to see "What Ross thought of him." JR's reply was that he thought Triple H was a, "No good, drunken S.O.B." Triple H replied by beating JR to the ground. From then onwards, Triple H would feud with the biggest WWE superstars to date. The Rock, Mick Foley, Steve Austin, Vince McMahon, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle and many, many more. He would earn the hatred of fans around the world due to his dirty, under-handed tactics, and scheming nature such as forcing Mick Foley out of the WWE.

Although he was one of the most hated wrestlers in the WWE, this was not always the case. In the year 2000, Kurt Angle was making advances towards his wife (in the storylines), Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, and because of Triple H and his anger towards Angle, the fans took his side and cheered for him to destroy Angle. After HHH disposed of Angle, he continued to "hear the cheers" during his feud with Chris Benoit, but in November 2000, he turned heel again when he was revealed to be the man behind "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's accident one year prior. In 2002, 'Triple H' chants were heard again when he returned to RAW after eight months of being out of action thanks to a quadricep injury. This continued until mid-2002, when he attacked Shawn Michaels and turned his back on him.

Current

During Triple H's WWE career, he has held a number of titles, including the WWE Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, the European Championship, and (with partner Stone Cold Steve Austin) the WWF Tag Team Championship. He is only the second of five wrestlers to have held all four of those titles, the first being Shawn Michaels. This is sometimes referred to as being a Grand Slam Champion. He also won the 1997 King of the Ring tournament and the 2002 Royal Rumble match.

The most difficult moment of Triple H's career occurred during a match on a live broadcast of Monday Night RAW on May 21, 2001 when he suffered a legitimate and career-threatening injury. A misstep caused him to suffer a tear in his left quadricep muscle. Despite his inability to place any weight on his leg, Triple H was able to complete the match, something that his fans and fellow wrestlers saw as an admirable display of dedication to the business. He even allowed one of his opponents in the match, Chris Jericho, to place him in his standard finishing maneuver, the "Walls of Jericho", a move that places considerable stress on the quadriceps. The tear required an operation, which was performed by famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, in Birmingham. The rigorous rehabilitation process kept him out of action until January 7, 2002, over seven months. He came back to RAW and turned face again by turning on Kurt Angle. He ended up winning that year's Royal Rumble, and would win the WWE Undisputed Championship at WrestleMania X8 over Jericho. After he dropped the title to Hulk Hogan at Backlash, he became exclusive to the Smackdown! roster due to the RAW and Smackdown! brand separation. About three months later, he would defect to RAW. On July 22, 2002 Triple H turned heel once again by turning on his long time friend, Shawn Michaels by pedigreeing him in the middle of the ring during a DX reunion setup. He also smashed Michaels's face through a car window. These events led to the beginning of a heated rivalry between the former partners.

Then prior to September 2, 2002, WWE recognized only one World Champion, and that champion represented both RAW and SmackDown! Just after that year's SummerSlam, however, champion Brock Lesnar inked a (storyline) deal to become exclusive to SmackDown!, leaving RAW without a champion. RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff then declared that since Lesnar had left for SmackDown!, that RAW needed its own champion. So with that, he opened a briefcase, pulled out the old WCW Championship, and gave it to Triple H, naming him the first World Heavyweight Champion. Since that time, Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, Goldberg, and Batista have all held the championship (often won from Triple H). With the exception of Benoit and Batista, all have lost it relatively quickly (also often to Triple H).

In January 2003, Triple H formed Evolution with Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Batista. Its purpose was to include the greatest of the past (Flair), present (HHH), and future (Orton and Batista) of wrestling, and to support Triple H as the World Heavyweight Champion, with other members interfering in matches on his behalf. However, the group no longer officially exists. Orton was kicked out of the group after winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Chris Benoit at SummerSlam 2004 (which Triple H won back only a month later). Batista won the 2005 Royal Rumble, then turned on Triple H and the next month after learning of Triple H's attempts to trick him into jumping to SmackDown! to face WWE champion John Bradshaw Layfield and No. 1 Contender John Cena in a Triple Threat match at WrestleMania instead of Triple H. With only Flair and Triple H remaining, Evolution is essentially (but not officially) dissolved.

In late 2004, Triple H released a book entitled Making the Game: Triple H's Approach to a Better Body. Mostly devoted to bodybuilding advice, the book also includes some autobiographical information, memoirs, and opinions.

Triple H lost his fifth World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 21, in which he was defeated by Batista. In a subsequent broadcast, Triple H suffered a stinger (minor but painful nerve damage to the head and neck) after a botched legdrop from Rosey. This injury would not cause him to lose any ring time and he would still be able to compete at Backlash in his scheduled rematch against Batista.

At Backlash, Triple H and Batista squared off once again in a match that saw Batista get the win. The following night on RAW, Triple H was entered into a tournament to decide the new number one contender for the World title, only to be eliminated by Chris Benoit, who received a bit of help from Batista. The next week, Triple H announced that he was leaving RAW for a while because he knew Batista could not survive as champion without him. On the May 23 edition of RAW, Triple H returned after Batista's victory over the 'Gold Rush' Tournament winner, Edge. Following a low blow from Ric Flair, Triple H attacked Batista with his sledgehammer. He then challenged the bloody Batista to a Hell in a Cell match for the World Heavyweight Championship to which he agreed, to be held at Vengeance. He lost to Batista in the Hell in a Cell match following a spinebuster onto the steel steps and a devestating Batista Bomb.

Triple H is currently on hiatus from wrestling as he begins an orientation at WWE Headquarters in Stanford designed to broaden his understanding of the corporate side of WWE.

Triple H was featured in an episode of MTV's Punk'd on Sunday, August 14th, 2005.

Personal life

Paul's family are Canadian French Americans and he is related to René Lévesque.