What Are the Three H’s in “Triple H” and How Did He Get His Name?

WWE’s Chief Content Officer Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, carved out a legendary wrestling career during his heyday. Having spent nearly three decades as a wrestler under his belt, The Game is undeniably one of the greatest of all time in WWE. The fourteen-time World Champion’s decorated in-ring career concluded in 2022 after he suffered from heart failure. The future Hall of Famer rose to fame during the Attitude Era after forming WWE’s most entertaining and controversial faction alongside Shawn Michaels, Degeneration X.  

In pro wrestling, most wrestlers are assigned a ring name, while others get to keep their real names. Triple H has had some interesting monikers throughout his career in WWE. The Cerebral Assasin made his debut in Vince McMahon’s promotion in 1995 as Hunter Hearst Helmsley, however, that wasn’t the first name that was pitched for his character. 

What are the three H’s in Triple H?

Before The King of Kings was signed to WWE, he wrestled for WCW under the ring name Terra Ryzing. Following his debut in WWE, Trips was suggested many names that weren’t to his liking.

Speaking on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, The Game recalled how he came to be Triple H. Triple H stated that he was initially asked to pitch a “bunch of names” for his character in WWE.

After he thought up a few names, he was approached by wrestling manager J.J Dillion who revealed to him that his ring name was going to be “Reginald DuPont Helmsley”. 

The next thing I heard, J.J. called me up and said, ‘Hey, we went with a little bit of your suggestions and you’re going to be Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Three H’s.’ and I was like, ‘Okay? I can work with that a little bit.’ So we went with that and then Shawn Michaels started calling me ‘Triple H’ from day one,” Triple H said.

After a while, he was called again by Dillion who agreed to consider a part of Triple H’s suggestion, making it Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Although the name was a mouthful, Triple H agreed to work with it. The Game started working under the given ring name until he met his good friend Shawn Michaels, who came up with a short for the three H’s. Thus, the name “Triple H” came to be. 

Terra Ryzing was not the brainchild of WCW 

Triple H initially trained to be a professional wrestler under Killer Kowalski in his wrestling academy in Malden in 1990. He made his professional debut in 1992 in Kowalski’s promotion, Independent Wrestling Federation(IWF).

Kowalski seemingly wanted The Game to play the gimmick of the cousin of Jack Scream, who had parted ways with the promotion. The gimmick required Triple H to scream while wrestling.

Unsurprisingly, The Game did not want to play the role, so it became “The Terrorizer”. However, The Game was still not satisfied with the name and pitched “Ryzing” taking inspiration from then-NFL star Andre Rison. And so, Terra Ryzing was born. After he left IWF, he was signed with WCW with the same ring name. 

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