Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Scenic City Invitational 2015 – Night 2

Anthony Henry vs. Joey Lynch

After the great match with Jimmy Rave on Night 1, pairing Anthony Henry up with Joey Lynch felt like a real missed opportunity for the SCI to solidify this as a breakout weekend for Henry. Lynch has got a lot of potential based on his immense physical skill, but he’s still far away from being someone whom I find compelling. There’s just something very soulless right now, and I can’t get into him. The fact that he ended up beating Henry was a bit mystifying to me on top of that. (**1/4)

Scenic City Invitational Second Round Match
Corey Hollis vs. Jason Collins

This was basically a showcase for Corey Hollis to put him over somewhat strongly on his way to the tournament final. Hollis took most of the match and did so in a legitimate matter. As soon as it seemed like Collins might have an opening to really build some momentum and finish Hollis in the same way that he beat Caprice the night before, Hollis poked him in the eye. Hollis then hit a superkick for the win. If this was longer or Hollis didn’t take so much of the match, the eye poke would have probably annoyed me. It wasn’t that bad of a call though given the actual context of the match. Hollis dominating the match also ensured that the match was actually fun. (***)

Scenic City Invitational Second Round Match
Ace Rockwell vs. Gunner

The opening few minutes of this match told me that these two could have a really hot brawl that did not go too long. For some reason, they then transitioned into a regular match. The story they ended up telling was not that bad mind you. Gunner dominated, and Rockwell teased making a comeback a number of times. There were even a couple of believable nearfalls for him. Gunner won in the end though with his powerbomb. The match went a little long for my tastes, but it at least effectively positioned Gunner well for the final. (**1/2)

Scenic City Invitational Second Round Match
Kongo Kong vs. Moose

After seeing Kongo Kong deliver a very strong performance against Chris Hero, I was curious to see what he could get out of the still-green Moose. While I still prefer to watch Kong against smaller guys, he does clearly have a talent for pulling off matches with fellow giants. This was fun hoss-fest, and I liked how they gradually built to some big spots (Kong even hit a hurricanrana) toward the end. Kong then finished him with the Superfly Splash. (***)

Scenic City Invitational Second Round Match
Gunner Miller vs. Jimmy Rave

Jimmy Rave is so good. In order to properly convey how good, I’m going to go intro great detail about how he worked the beginning of the match. Rave does the same at the start of Gunner Miller as he did in the Henry match with the stalling. Then he goes for the lariat because that was what cut off Henry for him. He immediately relaxes after hitting the lariat on Gunner because he thinks that’s cut him off. Gunner somewhat no-sells it though because he’s much bigger and then takes him down. GOOD.

While that would have been a great start to a proper match, we instead got a storyline finish. Rave faked an injury and then caught Gunner with a small package for the win. Rave’s initial strategy did not work, and he went to Plan B. I was more than okay with this turn of events. It protects Gunner, gets Rave into the final, and it fit very well into the story of Rave in the tournament in general. (***1/4)

Alexander S. Kirk, Chip Day, Matt Fortune & Ryan Vega vs. Corey Coxx, Mark Vandy, Mr. Sports Entertainment & Tank

This was not a dumpster fire which was a victory in it of itself. Chip Day’s heel team controlled almost all of the match. That was not terribly entertaining, but it set up a fun closing stretch. Tank of all people showed a ton of fire during this portion and really stood out. He won the match for his team with a chokebreaker on Chip. (**3/4)

Scenic City Invitational Final
Corey Hollis vs. Gunner vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Kongo Kong

Okay, this was a bloody mess. I mean that in the British way and not the southern territory brawl way. The initial idea was Kongo Kong did a lot of dominating. Rave and Hollis also both went after Gunner’s left leg a ton and did a lot of damage to it. The match was a bit methodical, but things appeared to be at least moving in sensible directions. The first fall went on for a good while and ended in very surprising fashion: Kongo Kong was the first person eliminated.

That in it of itself is not awful, but I was hoping for a payoff to the Superfly Splash finish he had gotten over in the first two rounds. (Alternately, you could have also been upset that Gunner did a running knee to eliminate him, and he used his injured knee. That did not bother me too much, but that kind of “selling” bothers some.)

Then the match really started to get annoying as Gunner mostly began to run around with no issue and do huge power movez. Given how much focus was given to the damage done to his leg so far in the match, this was absurd and annoying. It looked like the leg might at least play a part in his elimination, but he ended up falling victim to the low blow/superkick combo Hollis had been using all tournament.

The final came down to Hollis and Rave, and this is where things really got bizarre. Jimmy Rave inexplicably started acting like a valiant babyface, and Hollis had some stooges running in to help defeat Rave. This felt completely tonally wrong given the context of the tournament, did not add up with anything we had seen so far, and made for a really unsatisfying closing stretch to the final of a tournament that had previously been booked fairly well.

It seemed like the idea was that Rave was getting some sort of redemption in this match for winning and winning cleanly. Given that he was mostly being a subtle heel coming into this match, that was not an impossible goal. They just did not spend any time before the Hollis vs. Rave portion to build to that at all. We were just suddenly expected to be invested in the biggest heel of the tournament winning valiantly seemingly out of nowhere. Bizarre end to say the least.

Between the poor Gunner performance, the downright bizarre booking after that, and the forty-minute match length, this was a very disappointing finish to the tournament and ended it on a really bad note. (**)