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Triple H vs. Seth Rollins has all the ingredients for a performance art masterpiece this Sunday, with a rare instance of fully fleshed out character development informing a story that can be traced back years through the ebb and flow of interpersonal relationships and the changing landscape of WWE’s fictional universe. When the fiction is committed to in this way, WWE’s product transforms (the very reason I champion, and wrote a book about, the performance art theory with which I receive my pro wrestling - 101 WWE Matches To See Before You Die currently on sale on Amazon UK, US and Europe). It’s easy to think that this story is mere months old, and that it really only started, in fairly typical fashion, when the mentor pulled the rug out from under his apparent protégé. However, over the last few weeks this entire story has been lent fresh context, reframing the events that have led us to the Unsanctioned Match at WrestleMania on Sunday. As Seth stated last Monday, this is not about revenge anymore, but about redemption. Furthermore, this is about Seth Rollins rebuilding himself as a man. In the end, “Rebuild, Redesign, Reclaim” was never about a championship lost, but a champion who became lost. There is something powerful in that story, and as a Seth Rollins fan, but also as a fan of artistic professional wrestling, I am utterly spellbound by this epic fable of a man stripped of his soul searching to rebuild himself as a human being. I will start by making three points. First, to really understand the true depths of this confrontation, we must strive to understand the two characters embroiled, so moving forward throughout this column, as I mention a name, know I am referring not, as normal, to the performer but rather, more specifically, to the fictional character. Second, so too am I going on WWE’s slightly revised fictional history of certain players involved in the wider scope of this long-running story, so bear that in mind, and know that I may not necessarily believe what WWE has nevertheless decided was the way things were. This is, however, WWE’s story and so, to fully appreciate its intended context, we must adhere to WWE’s sponsored fictional history. Third, that, as performance art reception encourages, I am deliberately taking the impetus in interpreting details that have happened throughout, at times, almost certainly by accident. Just because I interpret them to be something does not necessarily mean I am contending WWE did it on purpose. First, how do we best define Triple H? It’s really rather simple: power. Triple H is a man obsessed with power. He craves it, and his entire life’s pursuit has been to obtain and exercise increasing amounts of it until, now, he stands as the heir apparent to the WWE throne. He is ruthless when exercising this power, and even more so when seeking to obtain it. Most importantly, Triple H knows this to be his vice, understands his obsession fully and is perfectly happy to embrace it. It is vital to keep this in mind. So what about Seth Rollins? What defines Seth Rollins? That’s really rather simple too, if somewhat different: success. Seth Rollins is a man obsessed with success. He craves it, and his entire life’s pursuit has been to obtain it no matter the cost. The only difference between the two men is that, unlike his persecutor, Seth Rollins never knew this about himself. Even now, he describes it as “a chip on his shoulder,” but the truth is undeniable: everything the Architect has done he has done in order to be the absolute best, most successful pro wrestler in the world. Success is a drug to him. That is why this story starts before Triple H and Seth Rollins ever came into contact. It starts with The Shield; the group the Architect put together. Why did he put the group together? The evidence is clear: to succeed. That is exactly what The Shield did, dominating every heavy hitter in WWE, from The Rock to The Undertaker. The Shield shattered the glass ceiling that kept so many others as underlings, eventually furthering their influence with championships. And then, when a new regime emerged in the form of The Authority, The Shield joined up, guaranteed to succeed even further in the palm of the hand of the powers that be. Then, when even that had run its course, seeking success still more, Seth Rollins and his brothers turned on those powers, smelling fresh meat to devour. They toppled Attitude Era legends in short order at WrestleMania and even met with a clean sweep against one of the most infamous, dominant groups in the history of their world: Evolution. Truly, The Shield had met with all the success they could. Enter the Cerebral Assassin; a man who understands what makes people tick, and a man who sees now what seems so obvious to me. You see, there’s one essential difference between power and success. Power can be attained, even exercised in a whole myriad of ways. It is fluid and can be manipulated. Success, however, is an absolute; you meet with it or you don’t. There is no middle ground, no back-up plan, no alternative. It’s everything or nothing all the time, and to meet with constant success is to be possessed of a sheer force of will few, if any man, can match. Put simply, after having encountered Seth Rollins – the man as obsessed with success as Triple H was with power – and having lost to that man’s sheer force of will to succeed several times over, the Cerebral Assassin came to know that where he had spent his own career playing chess, Seth Rollins had spent his playing Russian Roulette; and being just as successful at it. This presented a threat that demanded drastic action be taken for the sake of survival, and a new game was started. The same poison we heard Triple H spew forth last Monday about humanity’s relationship with the successful he poured, at some point, in Seth Rollins’ ear at a time when Seth Rollins’ group had succeeded in every way they possibly could. And much like we once heard Triple H promise Roman Reigns, The Game offered everything Seth Rollins wanted on a silver platter; all the success Seth Rollins could ever want. Fame; fortune; status; World Championships; a place atop the mountain; all Seth Rollins had to do…was buy in. He did. Triple H, ever the master of manipulation, ensured Seth Rollins’ lust for success overcame even his bonds of brotherhood with Ambrose and Reigns and, in the worst act of fratricide in WWE history, Rollins shattered The Shield so he could attain more of his favourite narcotic. What happened next? Well, Seth Rollins said it in a new interview that just earlier this week was posted on WWE’s Youtube account: he became entitled. You see, the plan was never to make Seth Rollins a puppet; puppets can come off their strings. The plan was to rob Seth Rollins of the one trait that, going on precedent, made him a threat: that sheer force of will to succeed. Triple H found the perfect way to do it. Isolate Seth Rollins from his brothers, then feed him all the success he could want, from Money in the Bank briefcases to WWE World Heavyweight Championships to mainstream media appearances to Big Four main events to even a golden statue of his visage; more and more and more and more of it until, like any addict, Seth Rollins was stripped of any self-determination and made utterly dependent on his dealer. That would be control you could trust. And for a time it worked, and we heard just why, once again, from Seth Rollins last Monday night: Well, for the success Seth Rollins didn’t know he needed so badly, but that Triple H did. While Seth Rollins played Triple H’s game, we saw him destroy his own brotherhood; cheat his way to cheap victories; threaten to kill a man to bring back the regime; pull off the heist of the century in a shortcut to title glory; and then strive to maintain that title however he possibly could, shedding his dignity, his pride, his principles, his morality and, yes, everything that made him who he was. Most importantly of all, in becoming entitled and so utterly dependent, he unknowingly shed his sheer force of will that had, before, made him so dangerous; and that was Triple H’s real victory – the elimination of the true threat. Who knows how long this might have gone on for had fate not intervened to injure Seth Rollins and create distance between addict and dealer? That initial injury was all important, because in having to rehabilitate Seth Rollins’ idea of success shifted away from fame and fortune and championships toward something far simpler: his health. As the man himself has recently intimated, being given such perspective no doubt lit a spark that would later become an inferno. Only fate didn’t just have eyes on one half of this particular equation. After Triple H lost to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 32 in his bid to retain the power Reigns threatened to dilute, he disappeared, and in disappearing unintentionally created room for a prodigal son to upset the natural order of all things. Triple H’s spouse became embroiled in a sibling rivalry that ensured, upon Seth Rollins’ return, the Architect could no longer be kept as close; could no longer be kept dependent. This only exacerbated what began with the man’s rehabilitation, for what did Seth Rollins go on to do? Win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in his first match back, alone and without help, the hard way, and without shortcuts. He might have held it for only a few moments, but it was the victory that mattered: the reminder of who Seth Rollins once was, and a momentary light cast on that sheer force of will that Seth Rollins, through his obsession with success, possessed. Events spiralled out of control. Brands were split, creating further competition that demanded fiercer will power from any man craving relentlessly to be top dog. Moreover, the gap between Seth Rollins and Authority continued to widen. It was perhaps seeing this upon his return, and upon the lingering memory of how dangerous Seth Rollins’ drive to succeed was to Triple H’s retention of power, that prompted The Game to take action. The real Seth Rollins was re-emerging, so Triple H had to get ahead of the game, if you’ll pardon the pun; he had to pull the plug before the tide could turn, so he screwed the Architect out of the Universal Championship in the hopes of driving the final nail into the coffin he had been building for some time; in the hopes that Seth Rollins would then be left bereft and broken, without any friends; without any soul; and without even any success. It didn’t work. Even in spite of the drastic action he had gone to, Triple H still even then had underestimated just how wilful Seth Rollins was, and just how deep the man’s drive to succeed ran. Instead, all Triple H had done was redefine what Rollins thought of as success – now, that had become the usurpation of the King of Kings. So, and this is the most important revelation of all, Triple H, knowing what Rollins was capable of and realising his attempted checkmate hadn’t worked, became afraid. When you go back and you look over Triple H’s choices following his betrayal of Seth Rollins, the entire picture begins to coalesce. First, the chess master played in siege mode, waiting out the storm in the hope that starving Seth Rollins would see his burning passion fizzle into nothing; it didn’t, and Seth Rollins turned up on Triple H’s doorstep in San Antonio. Go back and watch that Raw the following night – how Rollins’ force of will re-emerges; how Steph momentarily recoils in the face of it; how Triple H goads Seth Rollins into an ambush. That was the second attempt to avoid confrontation: deploy the heavy hitter. It seemingly worked. Samoa Joe took out Seth Rollins and aggravated that infamous weak point in the Architect’s armour. Seth Rollins was gone, and Triple H could, he thought, rest easy. At this point, it’s important to remember The Authority are fascists, and fascists are propagandists. They reframe every situation to favour themselves in avoidance of revealing any weakness. This is why Steph, after momentarily recoiling, tried to regain control by reframing Triple H’s hesitancy as sparing Seth Rollins and nothing else; further, this is why Triple H only re-emerged fully when he knew he had a literal physical advantage over his opponent, pressing the attack only then. Only he didn’t press any attack did he? You see how deep Triple H’s fear of Seth Rollins’ force of will runs when you see The Game uncharacteristically keeping his distance from even a one-legged Architect, and then always with his heavy hitter close to hand. And when, eventually, The Authority got comfortable and Seth Rollins managed to finally get to The Game, luck saved the Cerebral Assassin, who immediately sought help in the form of Rollins’ own crutch; how ironic that Seth Rollins would be reinjured by the crutch that helped him walk. But even then Seth Rollins’ force of will still would not relent. Triple H, after at first pretending to “be done” with Rollins, knew he could not risk the possibility that Rollins was not done with him. So where waiting didn’t work and ambushes didn’t work and assaults didn’t work, perhaps mind games would. His last trick was a Hold Harmless agreement; upping the risk for Rollins in the hopes of emotionally blackmailing him into voluntarily reneging from this fight permanently for the sake of his family. That is what led us to that magnificent piece of television on Monday, where Triple H involuntarily allowed his trepidation to show. First, promising to leave at the first sign of revolt, he used Seth Rollins’ obsession with this match to take control of the situation and protect his own image. Then, he tried to frighten Seth Rollins through threats, like any fascist would. It didn’t work; Seth Rollins demanded the contract be signed, still undeterred. So then, Triple H tried to tempt Seth Rollins through success, just like before. That didn’t work either; Seth Rollins didn’t react. So finally, Triple H tried to emotionally blackmail Seth Rollins like any ruthless ruler would; and when that wasn’t even working, the panic started to set in. You could feel it, as Triple H stumbled on his words. You could see it, as Triple H plunged into his final all-or-nothing bluff with a deep breath. And you could hear it, as Triple H uncharacteristically screamed “Because there has never been a one-legged man to win an ass kicking contest EVER!” Why did he break like this? Because Triple H knew he was sat across the ring looking at the one one-legged man in possession of enough sheer force of will who could. Those memories from 2014 still sit fresh in Triple H’s mind, as does the harrowing experiences Triple H has been subjected to when you’re the target of Seth Rollins’ will to succeed. The frightening reality now is that Seth Rollins can see Triple H’s master plan laid bare, and he wants his redemption; he will consider himself as having attained success only when that redemption is his through the toppling of The Game. Triple H is square in Rollins’ targets, and in for the fight of his life, and that couldn’t have been clearer when, despite all the threats and ambushes, betrayals and mind games, Seth Rollins’ will still compelled him to sign that Hold Harmless agreement and tell Triple H that he wants Seth freakin’ Rollins back even if Triple H tears off his leg and beats him with it! You know, all along Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have wanted you to believe that Triple H has avoided this fight out of fear of needing to destroy his creation, but in truth it has been because of Triple H’s fear of having created his own destroyer. Seth Rollins’ will power is confirmed by Triple H’s failure to manoeuvre his way out of this confrontation. The chess master has failed because his opponent was never playing chess in the first place. This is why Triple H got to his feet the moment Seth Rollins became impassioned last Monday, and this is why Triple H struck first; this is why Triple H needed an Unsanctioned Match, and this is why Triple H needs to embrace his most savage self; because it’s his only chance at survival, and he knows it. Could this obsession of The Architect’s with success and the force of will it mandates finally be the weapon that outguns The Cerebral Assassin’s obsession with power and the malevolence it fosters? We’re going to find out on Sunday, as Seth Rollins fights to rebuild himself as a man on the heels of a long, slow hell he hadn’t even realised he was living until it was all too late. So to quote Seth just one more time, “this isn’t about fame or fortune, or money or power; hell, dude, it’s not even about one match at WrestleMania.” What’s more, this isn’t about sports entertainment. This isn’t about pushing a new talent. This isn’t about any of those every day, tiresome, mundane conversations we all have on a never-ending cycle, that threaten to define our fandom through cynicism and negativity. This isn’t about anything other than feeling. This is pro wrestling as performance art. This is a true clash of historic characters, one well known and the other finally emergent, solidifying narratives woven across entire careers and climaxing a story positively operatic in its scope, sitting at the heart of a vibrant shared fictional universe. This is absolutely everything I live for as a WWE fan. This is WWE at their best. This is WrestleMania. This is Seth Rollins vs. Triple H: Redesigning, Rebuilding, Reclaiming a Soul; and boy, oh boy, if there isn’t a perfect blueprint for them to follow.
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