FanPost

The Lion and His Fellow Hunters

WWE.com

Aesop has a fable about lions.

Once, a lion, a fox, a jackal, and a wolf went hunting. They caught a stag and killed it, and quartered the meat. "This quarter," said the lion, "is for me, as I am the King of Beasts. And this quarter is mine as the arbiter of the spoils. The third quarter is mine because of my part in chasing down the stag. And as for the fourth – well, I'd like to see any of you dare to put so much as a paw on it." The other three animals were bitterly disappointed, but they slunk away, unwilling or unable to fight for their share of the meat.

Just because you help a lion doesn't mean he'll share.

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Triple H always wins, even when he loses.

That's the story the WWE has told us over the past year, since the introduction of the Authority after last year's Summerslam. He rigged the main event so that his anointed champion, Randy Orton, could win the WWE Championship; he arranged it so that Daniel Bryan never got a fair shot at the belt again. He put Evolution back together, lost twice in a row, and then broke up the Shield anyway. His nom de guerre is "The Cerebral Assassin," after all; he makes plans and executes them. And as long as he can work according to plan, he wins; he always has a Plan B.

The only time he unequivocally lost control of the situation was during the "Occupy Raw" segment leading up to WrestleMania: Triple H lost his composure as Bryan and his troops took over the show, and he let his emotions overpower his intellect. Bryan got his match, the titles, his WrestleMania moment. All because Triple H made a decision out of desperation. It's the only way he can lose.

He just did it again.

The Plan: Randy Orton faces John Cena at SummerSlam. Their long history proves that Orton can, at least sometimes, beat Cena – after all, that's how the WWE World Heavyweight Championship came to exist in the first place. But even if Orton loses, he will rough Cena up enough that the Authority's other handpicked man, Seth Rollins, can cash in his Money in the Bank contract and bring the belts back home either way.

But, as Paul Heyman explained, The Plan won't work: Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose are too invested in stopping Orton and Rollins. So, in another moment of weakness, Triple H opted for Plan C: Brock Lesnar versus John Cena at SummerSlam. Lesnar has no personal issues with either member of the Shield, and he broke the Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania.

New Plan: Lesnar tears John Cena into tiny neon pieces and brings the belts back to the Authority. But there's a problem with this plan, one that Triple H apparently hasn't considered yet – at least based on his reactions at Raw and during his weekly WWE.com interview.

The problem is that Brock Lesnar is not part of the Authority. He – and even more to the point, his advocate, Paul Heyman – are their own breed, heels who do not answer to the corporate interests embodied in Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Lesnar is the monster that Rusev dreams of one day becoming: physically unstoppable, beholden to no one, and steeped in mythology more powerful than any finisher.

If Brock Lesnar takes the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, is he really going to be a good little soldier for the boss? No, of course not. He may end the line of champions by taking both titles with him back to Minnesota. He may stand atop the company, holding onto his gold like a dragon that cannot be slain.

The question isn't whether or not Brock Lesnar will win at SummerSlam; the question is what The Authority will do once they realize their deal with Paul Heyman was the same deal Faust made with Mephistopheles.

Brock Lesnar represents the end of the Authority as we know it – the end of a faction that could manipulate the outcome of any match so that, even if the good guys won everything in the ring, they would still lose everything outside of it. You can't control a monster, even a monster of your own creation. At best, you can only try to get out of the way, and I don't think that will be an option for the Authority in this story.

All because Triple H lost his cool for just a moment.

What's your plan now, Hunter?

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