On Saturday, August 23rd, Game Changer Wrestling hosted night 1 of “Homecoming 2025” from the Showboat in Atlantic City, NJ. The show marked a celebration of 10 years of GCW. With night 1 in the books, let’s look at the top moments from the show.

Nick Gage Returns Home To GCW

There were many run-ins and surprises during the opening match between Matt Cardona and Shotzi Blackheart. The first surprise was the return of GCW Legend Nick Gage!

After leaving the company for a year, Gage returned home to a hero’s welcome from the crowd. Gage made the save for Blackheart, who was outnumbered as Cardona had Tommy Invincible with him.

Later in the night, Gage would appear again as GCW Owner Brett Lauderdale would speak in front of the packed crowd about their history and asked him to come out.

Killer Kross & Scarlett Make Their First Appearance Post-WWE

The hits kept on coming in the Garage Beer Championship Match between Matt Cardona and Shotzi Blackheart.

In the closing seconds of the match, Cardona called for backup, as several masked henchmen made their way into the arena. Shotzi took out the masked henchmen, until there were two remaining.

The two made their way to the ring. One low-blowed Matt Cardona as they revealed themselves to be former WWE stars Killer Kross and Scarlett! The crowd lost its mind. They helped Shotzi secure the win to become the new Garage Beer Champion.

JCW Invades GCW To Set Up The Art Of War Games Match

After a full-out GCW/JCW War last week, in which JCW was successful, Violent J came out with his champions from JCW to interrupt Brett Lauderdale and Nick Gage while they were speaking to the crowd.

Violent J wasted no time cutting a promo on Brett, GCW, and the crowd there. Brett issued a challenge to Violent J and JCW. He challenged them to an Art Of The War Games Match when GCW returns to the Showboat on October 11th.

Violent J gave the finger and said nothing was left for them to prove. They had already won the war and showed who had the better promotion. The JCW crew left the ring, and Nick Gage called them pus*ies as they exited.

An announcement was made shortly after the show that the two promotions will do battle in the Art Of The War Games Match on October 11th! Tickets will go on sale for that event on August 29th.

GCW World Champions Retained Their Titles

The show had two championship matches on the card, with both champions retaining their titles. The first championship match was the GCW World Tag Team Championship.

The champions YDNP (Alec Price & Jordan Oliver) took on Los Desperados (Gringo Loco & Jack Cartwheel) in an action-packed, high-intensity match! The match saw the champions successfully retain.

The second title match featured GCW World Champion Effy taking on KJ Orso. Orso tried everything and sometimes came close to winning the championship; however, Effy refused to quit. Effy defeated Orso to retain his championship.

Part 2 of GCW’s “Homecoming 2025” will air live today at 5 PM EST from the Showboat in Atlantic City, NJ, and will stream on TrillerTV+.