10 Things Wrestling Fans Should Know About GCW

Every few years a different wrestling promotion is the talk of the indie scene, and these days its New Jersey-based Game Changer Wrestling. Over the past few years, the GCW has gained a lot of press thanks to its deathmatch-focused product and booking of high-profile wrestling stars, making the company a bit reminiscent of the

Every few years a different wrestling promotion is the talk of the indie scene, and these days it’s New Jersey-based Game Changer Wrestling. Over the past few years, the GCW has gained a lot of press thanks to its deathmatch-focused product and booking of high-profile wrestling stars, making the company a bit reminiscent of the glory days of ECW in the 1990s.

RELATED: Game Changer Wrestling: 10 Best Moments In GCW History

Given the buzz it’s been generating recently, fans might be curious about GCW, so let’s go over what fans need to know, including its origins, some moments that have gained the promotion notoriety in recent years, and some of its common shows and sub-promotions.

10 Started as Jersey Championship Wrestling

The origins of GCW date back to 1999, when indie wrestler Ricky O started the promotion Jersey Championship Wrestling. In these early days, JCW boasted talent like Low Ki, Reckless Youth, Homicide, Jay Lethal, and even CM Punk on a few occasions. One of its big claims to fame was its annual junior heavyweight-focused Jersey J-Cup Tournament — inspired by the Japanese version — which would later be renamed the Chris Candido Memorial J-Cup Tournament. However, Ricky O would sell the company off to another promotion in 2004, only to regain it in 2013 and resume promoting shows under the JCW banner.

9 Bought By Brett Lauderdale

The revival of Jersey Championship Wrestling would last only a couple of years as the company would be purchased from Ricky O by Combat Zone Wrestling referee Brett Lauderdale and indie wrestler Danny Demanto in 2015. The goal of the purchase was to create a promotion in order to host the Nick Gage Invitational, a deathmatch tournament that would mark Gage’s comeback after a stint in prison. Upon acquiring JCW, the promotion was renamed Game Changer Wrestling, with its first show being the tournament.

8 Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport

GCW doesn’t just offer deathmatches however. True to the classic ECW ethos, the promotion features a variety of styles, some of which have their own umbrellas to thrive under. For example, since 2018 they’ve been running an annual event featuring shoot-style competition called Bloodsport, of which there have been seven shows and counting.

RELATED: 10 Matches You Didn't Know Happened At Josh Barnett's Bloodsport

Initially named Matt Riddle’s Bloodsport, former UFC Champion and wrestler Josh Barnett became the major force behind Bloodsport after that first outing. Since then, Bloodsport has brought in name talent like Jon Moxley, Minoru Suzuki, and even Dan “The Beast” Severn.

7 The Site of PCO’s Rebirth

Fans might be aware of the career resurgence of PCO, the former Pierre Carl Ouellet (and WWE’s Jean-Pierre LaFitte) who reinvented himself into a Frankenstein-esque character and took the indie scene by storm before moving on to Ring of Honor and now Impact Wrestling. But his reinvention was bolstered by an appearance in GCW, where he took on — and defeated!! — WALTER at Joey Janela’s Spring Break 2 in 2018. Fans caught wind of the new and improved PCO, and suddenly the then-50-year-old became a hot commodity on the indie scene.

6 Revived Jersey Championship Wrestling

Rather than let the Jersey Championship Wrestling brand go dormant, GCW found a new use for its old initials. In March of 2021, Game Changer Wrestling announced that it had purchased the actual JCW brand and tape library from Ricky O, and was set to revive the promotion as a platform for young up-and-comers, functioning like an NXT for GCW. Since holding its first show in May 2021, the revived JCW has hosted an array of GCW stars as well as lesser known talent.

5 Where David Arquette Had A Deathmatch

Motivated by a desire to make up for his stint in WCW where he became World Champion, actor David Arquette returned to the world of pro wrestling in earnest in 2018, performing all over the indie scene. In November of that year, his journeys took him to GCW, where he challenged Nick Gage for the GCW World Title at Joey Janela’s LA Confidential. As fans would expect, the bout got violent to the point that Arquette had to rush to the hospital after getting his neck cut up by some light tubes.

4 Debuted In The Hammerstein Ballroom in 2022

At 2021’s Fight Club: Mox vs. Gage, GCW dropped a bombshell announcement via a special video: that, for the first time ever, the promotion would be running a pay-per-view from New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center. This venue holds special value, as it was the site of many of ECW’s big shows in the early 2000s.

RELATED: ECW: 10 Things Fans Should Know About The Hammerstein Ballroom

The show in question, The Wrld On GCW, was held on 1/23/2022, and featured a battle royal, a title match between Jon Moxley and Homicide, and the surprise team of Nick Gage and Matt Tremont dethroning the Briscoe Brothers as GCW Tag Team Champions.

3 The Collective

WrestleMania weekend is always a special time, and not just for WWE. Whatever city hosts ‘Mania that year finds itself hosting myriad indie promotions who run shows all over town that weekend, and GCW is no exception. GCW tends to run a whole slew of shows under the name The Collective, featuring not only the aforementioned Bloodsport, but also Joey Janela’s Spring Break (see below), the LGBTIQA+ themed Effy’s Big Gay Brunch, the all-black For The Culture, and myriad others.

2 LA Fights

Since the aforementioned Joey Janela’s LA Confidential in 2018, GCW has been running pretty successful shows in Los Angeles, appearing in the city multiple times a year and making the town a second home for the promotion. In November 2021, GCW launched a third brand, LA Fights, which features not only GCW talent, but also the wrestlers from the Southern California indie wrestling scene including Jack Cartwheel, B-Boy, and Delilah Doom. The idea of competition between brands on opposite ends of the country has not been lost on GCW either, as they’re actually running an LA Fights vs. JCW show as part of The Collective for 2022.

1 Joey Janela’s Spring Break

Arguably the most anticipated — and possibly fun — tradition that GCW has so far is Joey Janela’s Spring Break, which also happens as part of The Collective. Organized by “The Bad Boy” himself, JJSB offers left-field matchups involving pro wrestling legends, some fun comedy wrestling, and the signature Clusterf--- Battle Royal, which uses Royal Rumble-style staggered entrances and a lot of ridiculous spectacle. The evening has featured some major matches too, as the 2021 edition featured Nick Gage dethroning Rickey Shane Page to become the new GCW World Champion.

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