The Scenic City Invitational Field Is Set

Coleman is an appropriate mic-drop of a last name to be announced Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

The final two names for the Scenic City Invitational tournament, to be held August 7 and 8 at the Empire Arena in Rossville, GA, were announced Saturday night at Empire Wrestling Entertainment's Crazy from the Heat event. The last two wrestlers in will be Georgia indie wrestling icon Ace Rockwell and local-boy-done-good Caprice Coleman. With the announcement of the last two wrestlers, all the first round matches were also announced.

Rockwell is a name I've seen around in my YouTube travels, but I'm not entirely acquainted with him in the ring. However, he's been active for nearly 15 years and is a veteran of several well-regarded Southern indies such as the seminal NWA Wildside, Anarchy, Rampage Pro, and Deep South Championship Wrestling. Coleman is a name that most people should recognize, because he's made it to Ring of Honor in the last couple of years. While his tag team with Cedric Alexander meant more to his partner than him, Coleman made his mark on the indie-turned-national television property. However, he's better known around his native land as one of the standouts from NWA Wildside. For Georgia, he's about as appropriate a final name as one could get.

All of the first round matches were also announced over the last week or so. They are as follows:

• Tank vs. Kongo Kong
• Corey Hollis vs. Joey Lynch
• Chip Day vs. Gunner Miller
• Jimmy Rave vs. Anthony Henry
• KT Hamill vs. Moose
• Gunner vs. Chrisjen Hayme
• Rockwell vs. Mark Vandy
• Coleman vs. Jason Collins

The biggest shame is that either Hamill or Moose will only get to wrestle one match during this whole tournament, but that first round pairing could end up being one of the best matches of the year if given time. Right now, the field is wide open, especially since Empire Wrestling is only providing a venue for the tourney. The tournament bookers and planners are doing this independently, which throws the initial thought of this being a tournament to build up an Empire star into a breakout role into question. Either way, this tournament will be worth paying attention to, and hopefully, it will put more of an intense eye on the Southern indies.