50 Ups & 50 Downs For WWE's Decade: The 2010s
32. Rollins Turns On The Shield
...24 hours after The Shield had defeated Evolution in a gripping elimination six-man war at June 2014's Payback pay-per-view, Batista walked out on Triple H completely, leading to Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose closing the show with a united front to prove their dominance over the fallen heels.
'The Game' and Randy Orton swaggered out to confront them, with Hunter noting coyly that he always had a "Plan B". It was the cue for Rollins to annihilate his two 'brothers' with a steel chair. So the story eventually revealed, at some point during the day, Hunter had paid off 'The Architect', and offered him an accelerated ascent in the ranks of the Authority. He took the opportunity.
Rollins was loathed for ripping the heart out of such a popular unit, and his subsequent feud with Dean Ambrose harnessed all that sympathy into an initially prosperous run for the 'Lunatic Fringe'.