14-time WWE champion Triple H announces retirement after battling viral pneumonia

14-time WWE champion and current executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development of WWE, Triple H announced his retirement from in-ring wrestling after shockingly revealing that he has been battling viral pneumonia. The Game had suffered a serious cardiac arrest that led him to undergo successful heart surgery back in September last year. The major news development was relayed via WWE's official social media handles.

WWE legend Triple H retires after winning 14 championships

In an interview with ESPN, Triple H highlighted that he was retiring from in-ring wrestling owing to his recent heart issues and that he had been given a defibrillator in his chest after having been hospitalized earlier. During the interview, the Kings of Kings said,

"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."

With 14 world championships (9 WWE Championships and 5 World Heavyweight Championships), Triple H was undoubtedly one of the best wrestlers of the company, and it would be sad for all the fans to know that he would not be competing in the ring ever again. In a career that spanned over 30 long years, he also won the Intercontinental Championship on five occasions, the King of the Ring in 1997, the Royal Rumble in 2002 and 2016, among several other staggering achievements.