For a moment, forget all the monikers and catch phrases. Overlook the seemingly countless championships and tournaments he has won. Ignore the fact that he has spearheaded two of the most important factions in WWE history, and overcome what the pundits considered a career-ending injuries. You need only two words to properly sum up Triple H: The Game

Strong words, especially when one considers the King of Kings was once a 135-pound “beanpole” from Nashua, N.H. But when he received a free one-week membership for a small local gym one summer day, the 14-year-old “gangly” teen’s life changed forever. For the next three years, he spent nearly every day in that gym, developing every muscle in his body and transforming himself into a six-foot-four, 210-pound powerhouse. He entered — and won — numerous regional bodybuilding competitions, including the prestigious Teen Mr. New Hampshire title at the age of 19. Yet The Game himself admits, “I never seriously considered becoming a pro bodybuilder…My dream was World Wrestling Entertainment.”

Enrolling in Walter “Killer” Kowalski’s Pro Wrestling School in Malden, Mass., the future Cerebral Assassin trained four days a week under Kowalski’s “tough love” tutelage, then divided his weekends between wrestling in the independent circuit and managing a Gold’s Gym in Nashua. Almost inconceivably, he would have to fly himself down to Atlanta in 1993, to convince then-new VP Eric Bischoff that he was “good enough” to join the World Championship Wrestling roster. Fortunately, the unlimited potential he showed at World Championship Wrestling quickly got him noticed at World Wrestling Entertainment; by May 1995, “Hunter Hearst-Helmsley” (a name which soon became more identifiable as Triple H) would make his WWE debut. And the rest, as they say, is history.

More than 20 years after entering that small Nashua gym, Triple H maintains the strictest of training regimens, incorporating techniques from world-renowned fitness trainers like Charles Glass. Such dedication has provided him with the fortitude to become a Grand Slam champion; the wisdom to shepherd the “Evolution” of then-newcomers Randy Orton and Batista to WWE Superstardom; the charisma to star in feature films, television shows, and commercials; and the stamina to pull countless sophomoric pranks on Mr. McMahon as a founder of D-Generation X. And it’s precisely what makes him “that damn good.”