Born Paul Michael Levesque on July 27, 1969 in Nashua, New Hampshire, Triple H began bodybuilding at the age of 14. Upon graduating high school, he entered body building competitions and later met Ted Arcidi, who introduced him to professional wrestling. In 1992, Triple H enrolled at Killer Kowalski's wrestling school and soon joined the Independent Wrestling Federation, where he became the IWF Heavyweight Champion and an IWF Tag Team Champion with fellow Kowalski trainee, Perry Saturn. By 1994, he became part of World Championship Wrestling, where, in his first televised match, he defeated Brian Armstrong. In 1995, he became part of WWF and debuted in April's WWF Wrestling Challenge. A year later, he defeated Marc Mero and thus won his first Intercontinental Championship in October. He also won the King of the Ring tournament in June 1997, when he defeated Mankind (Mick Foley) in the finals. Triple H then battled Owen Hart for the WWF European Championship, which Triple H later won.

By January 2000, Triple H had already established himself as a three-time WWF champion. He already had a feud with Vince McMahon, who won the title from Triple H in an episode of Smackdown. Triple H also feuded with Mick Foley in early 2000, but ended shortly after Triple H defeated Foley, who soon retired. His next feud was with Steve Austin, who lost to Triple H in the 2001 Three Stages of Hell match. Triple H also fought with The Undertaker, who defeated him at WrestleMania, X-Seven. Triple H then teamed with former nemesis Steve Austin to form the Two-Man Power Trip, a tag team who won both the WWF Tag Team Titles and the Intercontinental Championship twice by the end of the next pay-per-view.

In 2001, Triple H suffered a tear in his left quadriceps muscle, causing it to get torn completely off the bone. Despite the injury, he was still able to complete the match, but immediately undergone surgery afterwards. Returning to WWF in 2002, he fought Chris Jericho for the WWF Undisputed Championship at WrestleMania X-Eight.



(Photo courtesy of WWE)