Triple H Officially Announces His WWE Retirement

After 25 years of wrestling for the WWE, professional wrestling icon Triple H has officially announced his retirement from the ring. During a recent appearance on Stephen A. Smith‘s “Stephen A’s World” for ESPN‘s First Take, Paul Michael Levesque, better known as Hunter Hearst Helmsley “Triple H,” revealed that he will never wrestle again. The 52-year-old WWE Hall of Famer noted that he experienced health issues back in September.

Receiving a procedure for what has been discovered to be a genetic heart issue that caused heart failure, Triple H now has a defibrillator in his chest. “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. My wife [WWE executive Stephanie McMahon] saw some blood and stuff that I was coughing up, and I went and got checked, and 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 and did an EKG and Echo and everything. Basically, the way your heart pumps out 55-60 percent of your ejection fraction is a good number. I was at 30 percent. I got a quick text message saying don’t take time, pack a bag real quick and head to the emergency room and I’ll fill you in on the way. So, by the time I got to the emergency room, my ejection fraction had gone down to 22 percent, which, ya know, I was in heart failure.” Knicknamed “The Game,” “The Cerebral Assassin” and “The King of Kings” for his work in the ring, the popular WWE superstar went on to say that he was close to death and that the procedure saved his life. Despite wrestling in a few big matches in recent years, Triple H has served as the WWE’s Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy and Development, specifically running the NXT program, which cultivates young talent.

Here's How John Cena Felt About Being So Polarizing During His Prime Years in WWE

John Cena was known for two things during his run as a WWE main event — delivering great matches on big stages and be polarizing to fans. By the end of his main event run the "John Cena Sucks" chants went hand-in-hand with his entrance music, even as he gradually won over fans with gimmicks like the United States Championship Open Challenge. "The Face That Runs The Place" had always brushed off the booing fans in interviews, saying that fans were allowed to cheer for whoever they wanted. But in the latest edition of WWE Untold, he went a little deeper on that thought process.

 

The episode, titled "The Champ is HeRe," recapped Cena's feud with Edge from 2006 over the WWE Championship. The fan backlash towards Cena was on full display during the feud, particularly when Cena faced Rob Van Dam at the ECW One Night Stand event.

"Every time you see me come out, it's like I'm shot out of a cannon," Cena said (h/t Fightful for transcript). "It's because I'm ready, I'm ready to go, and that's whether you're telling me I suck or whether you're telling me that I'm great. It's why I orchestrate you to continue to make noise because as a performer, this makes me feel 10-feet tall. Just audible reaction."

"I love it when a group of people has so much energy that it's viscerally negative towards me," he added. "I also love it when the energy is so overwhelmingly positive, it does lift you up. It's like it's all so f—ing wonderful."

Cena was last seen in a WWE ring at WrestleMania 36, where he lost the Firefly Fun House match against Bray Wyatt and was forced to relive his greatest career failures. He recently commented on the match in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

"I've had many experiences and many stories in WWE over my tenure there, and a lot of it has been embracing conflict and embracing the tale of good versus evil," Cena said. "This isn't the first time I've done something like this. For the viewing audience, it was the first time they'd seen a cinematic depiction of this, but this isn't the first time that we've seen a conflicted John Cena character. As with all the opportunities I get in WWE, I never try to be complacent and I always like to push the envelope. This was an instance where we could do just that, and I think we put forth a product that certainly got people's attention and got people talking."

"It left a lot of questions," he later added. "It wasn't just single-serving, it is something you can go back and watch and enjoy. Those are some of the best efforts."

WWE SmackDown: Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura Defeat The New Day, Choose Tables Match for Extreme Rules

WWE SmackDown on Friday night opened up with a tag team match between The New Day and Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. Following last week's non-finish, the bout on SmackDown was to determine the stipulation for the two team's SmackDown Tag Team Championship match this Sunday night at Extreme Rules. The bout would either be a Tables Match or a Steel Cage match, and following the match between the two teams on Friday night, we received our answer as to who will get to pick.

In fact, though speculated, we didn't actually know these two teams would collide at the PPV. It was largely speculated following last week's non-finish in the main event of SmackDown, but we received confirmation at the start of Friday night's show. And while last week's match was seen as somewhat disappointing due to the finish, this week's bout that opened the FOX broadcast was excellent. See some highlights below.

In the end, Cesaro and Nakamura were victorious when Cesaro pinned Big E. Michael Cole raved on commentary that he believes that Nakamura and Cesaro have the number of the New Day. Following the contest, the team tried to get a table out from under the ring to inflict more damage on their opponents ahead of the PPV. Instead, Kofi Kingston came flying in to take out the pair.

Big E and Kofi set Cesaro up on the table at ringside and Kofi climbed to the top rope for a high spot, but he wasn't able to hit it as Nakamura pulled Cesaro to safety and left the ringside area.