Gage was brought in to help promote a new kind of deathmatch tournament, which they named specifically after him. The initial Nick Gage Invitational did absolute gangbusters for an otherwise unknown independent, and it set the future for the company's success; prominently feature rising independent talent and build the event around their gimmick and their preferred styles of performance, and work it out from there. Other events were soon named in honor of deceased wrestlers, such as the Acid Cup. Their big mainstream break would come in 2017 two-fold; both by invading CZW's Cage of Death event, and by working with Joey Janela to create a show called Spring Break, which was hailed for it's party-like, absolutely surreal atmosphere and matches, culminating in a dream match for Janela, and a barn-burning main event that settled up nicely for the promotion to create new events with new wrestlers. Since then, the promotion's biggest month of the year is usually around the week of WrestleMania, where they are often a centerpiece Mania Weekend with their 3-day jam packed group of shows, typically referred to as The Collective. In 2020, GCW would revive the JCW name after a reported deal to outright purchase CZW fell through, and would promote together with them closely. In 2022, the company would promote their first show in the Hammerstein Ballroom; their first traditional PPV event.
Besides their work with prominent indy stars and unique shows, GCW is well known for having a revolving cast of wrestlers with very few repeats; which allows them to surprise and delight fans whenever possible. Their fans meanwhile absolutely adore the company, and have been compared both favorably and unfavorably to the ECW mutants.
GCW recognizes four titles that are defended at their shows, though their open door policy means plenty of titles from other companies are allowed to be defended in their ring.
- GCW World Championship: Masha Slamovich since March 17, 2023
- GCW Ultraviolent Championship: Rina Yamashita since August 13, 2022
- GCW Extreme Championship: Joey Janela since October 9, 2022
- GCW Tag Team Championships: The East West Express (Jordan Oliver & Nick Wayne) since March 31, 2023
- The Collective - GCW's biggest event, typically run three days straight during the week of WrestleMania. While three of the events are static, the rest of each day is typically booked up with different shows of all kinds, sometimes along with other indie promotions.
- Jimmy Lloyd's D-Generation-F - Usually the first event of the Collective, with it's focus being on wrestlers who are under 30. The main presenting talent is GCW mainstay Jimmy Lloyd, who is in his early 20's.
- Joey Janela's Spring Break - Pro Wrestling's
Bizarro Episode. It's most well-known match is the Clusterfuck Battle Royal, which could easily win an award for truth in advertising. There is no adequate way to describe what happens during Spring Break, it simply must be seen to be believed. - Josh Barnett's Bloodsport - A wrestling event held in a ring without ropes, and contested under "mixed martial arts" rules. Initially presented by Matt Riddle, Josh Barnett took over the duties as the presenting talent after Riddle joined the WWE.
- Nick Gage Invitational - A Deathmatch tournament, the first event ever promoted under the GCW name, typically held in August or September of the year. Nick Gage is usually a featured talent.
- Planet Death - A deathmatch themed show which typically starts one minute to midnight, to get around the tradition of not hosting any Mania weekend shows on the actual day of Mania.
- The Acid Cup - A tournament held in honor of late wrestler Trent Acid. It's actually a moderately rare event for the company in that it's had long stretches of time off, only to resurface every so often.
- For The Culture - An event notable for promoting and booking solely black talent. Unlike other GCW events, it goes without a presenting talent because the intended point of the card is to help raise the profile of all the talent on the card in a way they would individually prefer.
- Effy's Big Gay Brunch - A show usually held in the middle of the day (or around "brunch"-time) notable for promoting and booking only LGBTQ+ wrestlers. The presenting talent is Effy.
- GCW vs. - An inter-promotional event where GCW and another promotion's talent will clash. Because of the nature of pro wrestling, it is one of their more frequent events.
- GCW Fight Forever - An event held in 2021 to help independent wrestlers cover their bills from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was run over the course of 24 hours.
GCW's shows and wrestlers provide an example of these tropes:
- The Ace: For most of the 2010's, it was Nick Gage, who held the title for almost two years. More recently, thanks to his lenient contract with AEW, it was definitely Jon Moxley.note
- Big Bad: 44OH! (and, more specifically, Rickey Shane Page) spent most of their time in GCW as the resident Big Bads until they left in 2022. Matt Cardona took over from RSP for a while, and Charles Mason seems to be angling for the role.
- Big Good: Nick Gage, with Effy as the other contender.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: Depending on the show, pretty much every person who's worked there has given the crowd a little color.
- Cast Full of Gay: The specialty of Effy's Big Gay Brunch in a nutshell.
- Cat Girl: Allie Katch's gimmick back when she was Allie Kat.
- Child Prodigy: GCW's got a few teenage (and a couple who are actually still minors) wrestlers who are incredibly talented for their age, like Starboy Charlie, Nick Wayne and Billie Starkz.
- Foe Romance Subtext: There are some serious sparks between Charles Mason and Effy, to the point that one match had a spot
that seriously looked like Effy was about to give Mason a blowjob in the ring (it turned into Mason whipping Effy with his belt) and later in the same match, they kissed and Mason bit Effy's lip. - Garbage Wrestler: Many of their returning talent, including Gage, fit this description. They have quite a fanbase built around it.
- Game Changer: The promotion changed the entire landscape of the independent circuit with outstanding presentation featuring specific themes per-show, accompanied with excellent booking of both the freelance and major company-signed talents. It's in the name!
- Gratuitous Russian: Russian-American wrestler Masha Slamovich spends most of her matches yelling/swearing in Russian.
- Kill the Poor: One half of Charles Mason's gimmick.
- Odd Friendship: Late 2022 created one in the form of Nick Gage and Maki Itoh, of all people, with Itoh coming off like a little sister who wants her big brother to respect her as an equal.
- Revolving Door Casting: GCW gets plenty of big independent stars and hot up and comers, preferring to keep a very small roster of regulars around, who themselves are often seen at different indy events.
- Rich Bitch: The other half of Charles Mason's gimmick.
- Shout-Out: Matt Cardona's short reign as world champion was perfectly built for the kind of raucous crowd GCW typically finds to boo him out of the building, but the icing on the cake was a shoutout to Vince McMahon's run as ECW Champion where he wore a black turtleneck and do-rag combo, and his run was similarly reviled by traditional ECW fans.
- Statuesque Stunner: Sawyer Wreck, who stands at 6'2.
- The Stoner: Grim Reefer, as one might expect from the name. He even lights up during matches. There's also Dark Sheik, who doesn't call herself the High Priestess for no reason.
