Glory by Honor VI Night 1 Results

Now, in a kayfabe sense everything works perfectly. Hero's a dick so he wanted to take advantage of Nigel's injury by challenging him to a match, but he didn't count on one thing, Nigel's toughness. Nigel has finally reached the top of the mountain and is bound and determined to maintain his title by any means necessary. So he summons the sheer testicular fortitude or to steal from the Briscoes, mans up, and earns a hard fought win over Hero.

In a booking sense, I think it also makes sense. Hero isn't a dominating heel; he's a cowardly heel. He always rolls with an entourage. He's always preening and showing off. That kind of heel doesn't need wins to maintain his heat, or at least not that many of them. Nigel beating Hero just puts an exclamation point on how Hero doesn't live up to the hype he and Sweeney create.

Now, if Nigel had won clean, it would have killed his momentum, but Hero nearly won. Now, Hero can boast how he should be the champ and how he was robbed and make a big ado about it. Of course, we all know that Nigel beat him fair and square and that he's just a sore loser. So much the better if Nigel is on the shelf for a while and can't go. Hero can claim that Nigel is ducking him and he doesn't want to wrestle him because Nigel's afraid he would lose again (because in Hero's mind he won the 1st match).

All the while, the fans rally around Nigel, the courageous babyface champion. They long for him to be fully healthy so he can give Hero the beating he richly deserves. By the time Nigel is healthy, Hero has talked mountains of crap about how far superior he is to Nigel and Nigel and the fans are fairly frothing at the mouth for a taste of Hero's blood. So, actually Nigel's absence would make the eventual encounter even more dramatic.

What Gabe might not have counted on is that a majority of the board (but probably not ROH fans in general) view Hero as a face and even prefer him to Nigel and thus are outraged that their man couldn't beat a one-armed man. Of course, they are totally ignoring the character that has been created. Thus, the board, being infested as it is with Hero marks, craps on the angle even though it makes sense when you view Hero and Nigel within their characters.