The Game agrees to The Animal's suggested stipulation in their No Holds Barred Match at WrestleMania.

Triple H and Batista’s No Holds Barred Match came out of nowhere as one of WrestleMania’s marquee contests, and two weeks out, the wrinkles just keep on coming. In his latest power play to turn the situation to his advantage, The Animal got litigious on The Game, delivering a letter from his lawyers threatening to bail on the match unless Triple H agreed to put his career on the line. Triple H accepted — though, as the 14-time World Champion pointed out, his decision to do so may have come as a bigger surprise to Batista than anyone else.

As far as Triple H was concerned, this new stipulation was nothing more than a chance for Batista to rewrite history in the same vein that The Game believed his former protégé already had. Batista’s recruitment as Triple H’s muscle in Evolution, for instance, went from being an obvious, mutually beneficial arrangement (remember, Batista was World Heavyweight Champion when he left the group) to a stifling power play; and quitting after failing to defeat John Cena became a protest resignation over The Game’s heavy hand as a manager. The King of Kings disputed every one of The Animal’s well-documented grievances and didn’t hesitate to call this one like he saw it, either, claiming the letter was a veiled attempt by Batista to quit once again without having to suffer the agony of defeat.

The surprise, then, was that The Game didn’t exactly disagree with the stipulation on its merit: In his mind, if he couldn’t defeat Batista at this stage of either of their careers, then he was better off as a full-time COO anyway. Triple H’s only exception was the way in which Batista went about handling his business, and now, there’s no way out for either of them. For better or worse, Batista is going to get exactly what he wanted.