News

Triple H Teases NBA Star For WWE Royal Rumble

By John Canton • Published 1st February 2025
Triple H WWE Raw

A comment from Triple H has led some people to think an NBA All-Star could appear in the Men’s WWE Royal Rumble match.

The Royal Rumble is promoted as the most unpredictable event in WWE. That’s because it’s a night where there are a lot of surprises in terms of who can be in the Men’s and Women’s Rumble matches. Sometimes a surprise entrant wins the Rumble and sometimes it’s somebody who isn’t a regular WWE superstar.

Several hours before WWE SmackDown in Indianapolis, there was a Royal Rumble Kickoff show hosted by Michael Cole and Pat McAfee. They brought out Tyrese Haliburton, who is a two-time All-Star for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and he’s also a massive WWE fan.

Haliburton introduced WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque on the stage, who hyped up the crowd. Triple H also teased Haliburton as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble.

“As I’m thinking about the Royal Rumble, it makes me think just about anybody could enter the Royal Rumble as a surprise,” Triple H said as he turned to Haliburton. “Got a minute?”

“Let’s go,” Haliburton said.

The Royal Rumble takes place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis with a 6 p.m. ET start time. During an appearance on SmackDown, Tyrese said that his Pacers take on the Atlanta Hawks at 5 p.m. ET in Indianapolis and after the game ends, Tyrese plans to go to the Royal Rumble to catch the show.

While Triple H’s idea to include Haliburton sounds good, it seems unlikely since Haliburton is getting paid about $50 million per year by the Pacers to play basketball, so the team likely wouldn’t allow him to take a bump in a wrestling ring. However, if WWE came up with something that would allow Haliburton to be in the Rumble without taking a bump then perhaps it could happen that way.

Triple H Thankful For The Love After WWE Hall Of Fame Announcement

After spending the last 30 years in WWE as a wrestler and now an executive who is running the show, Triple H will finally be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2025 for his wrestling career as a singles wrestler. The announcement was made by his good friends Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, who surprised Triple H during a WWE Town Hall at WWE Headquarters.

In response to the Hall of Fame announcement, Triple H shared a message on social media.

Been trying to come up with a way to say “Thank You” for the immense honor announced yesterday.

I have had the incredible pleasure of a 30+ year of creating memories and moments… meeting life-long friends (which I’m rethinking both @Undertaker & @ShawnMichaels right now) and of course, the most incredible wife and mother @StephMcMahon.

…and the opportunity to entertain the best fans in the world.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out, I appreciate the kind words and well-wishes.

The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will take place during WrestleMania 41 weekend in Las Vegas, but no specific date for the Hall of Fame has been announced yet.