GCW Cage of Survival 2 Results and Review

GCW had a second night in Atlantic City and this time it was streamed live on 6/4/2023. They were at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City, and they had a good deal of people in the crowd. I wasn’t sure what to expect after the matches we saw on night one of their double header. I reviewed GCW Tournament of Survival 8, and wanted to follow up with this one as well, so here we go, the results and review of the GCW Cage of Survival 2.

Maki Itoh defeated Janai Kai

I’m a huge Maki Itoh fan, she’s so cute, and ruthless. She’s also gang affiliated! A solid opener, with Itoh using her head a lot to get moving forward. Janai Kai had some nice kicks overall, but it was Maki Itoh after hitting a sweet DDT. Itoh got a good deal of praise from the fans here, and I loved it. Good opening match.

After the match Steph De Lander and Matt Cardona came out and started talking about how they are indie gods. Itoh was in the ring, and just waited for the duo to come through. Itoh got on the mic and refused to bow down to the royals, and had some words to say, which were very cute.

Matt Cardona and Steph De Lander defeated The Kirks (Brandon Kirk and Kasey Kirk) in a tag team match

The people were firmly against Cardona and it was loud in the building. There were several chants going at various stages of this match, which started a bit slow. After a slow start, this match got moving, and we see he reason why Cardona is so fun to watch. Steph De Lander is good too, don’t get me wrong. In fact, all four of these competitors showcased some good overall wrestling. We had a nice mixed wrestling match, and the crowd was into it, as was I. Cardona would get the pinfall after Steph De Lander used a title belt to knock out Kasey Kirk. Good stuff, fun match!

After the match, out came Maki Itoh and Nick Gage! Maki Itoh hit Matt Cardona with a bundle of light tubes! It was a rush, and Cardona was bloodied badly. That was a great way to end things, and I hope they have a match sooner than later, perhaps a tag match with Maki Itoh, fun stuff.

El Hijo del Vikingo defeated Ninja Mack

Two high flyers battled it out in a lucha libre style match, and if you’re a fan of the style, you were in for a treat on the smaller stage. El Hijo del Vikingo gets a lot of attention, in a lot of matches that are with tens of thousands of people in attendance, so it’s nice to see him on the indie scene. This was perfection to me, with everything you could expect from a lucha libre match. There was a little bit of modern wrestling thrown in, but it was a lot of lucha flying through the air, and impressive moments. There were so many close calls too, this was one hell of a match and perhaps my favorite match I’ve seen in a very long time. Vikingo’s 630 Splash gets the win, and it was absolutely breath taking, you owe yourself to watch this one, wow.

East West Express (Jordan Oliver and Nick Wayne) and Mike Bailey defeated Alec Price, Jack Cartwheel, and Jimmy Lloyd in a six man tag team match

This six man tag was fun, lots of action overall. I liked how things broke down overall. This match had a great deal of back and forth, modern wrestling, and really getting the crowd going. East West Express was very impressive, as was Mike Baily. Don’t get me wrong, the other guys threw down too, but it was most memorable seeing the East West Express, except for Jack Cartwheel which was just fun. Overall a good match, nothing too fancy, good back and forth, nice tags, quick reactions, and the crowd made this an enjoyable romp.

Los Macizos (Ciclope and Miedo Extremo) defeated Soul Meat (Tomoya Hirata and Toru Sugiura)

This was a brawl, with a lot of light tubes. While I’m sure that these guys can throw down, and there were flashes of good wrestling, it had a lot of brawling. The brawling wasn’t bad, mind you, but don’t expect much of a wrestling match in the traditional sense. Miedo Extremo injured his shoulder, so he was limited in what he could do. However, Ciclope, Tomoya and Toru did a lot of the heavy lifting at times. The end had a broken door and a broken pane of glass, with a top rope slam, in one chaotic match overall. It was hard hitting, and definitely tough on the guys.

El Desperado defeated Joey Janela in a Death Match

A back and forth battle from these two. This death match had some wrestling, mind you, but it broke down to weapons, and things of that nature. Blood flowed from both competitors, and they kept fighting back and forth, brawling for the most part. This was a good deal of fun, and the two work well together. Janela really impressed me with his toughness in this one, as Desperado really threw down some good moves and chops overall. A giant ladder and a huge stomp from Janela was impressive and had to be mentioned here.

Blake Christian defeated Masha Slamovich and Rina Yamashita for the GCW World Title

Fans of death match wrestling are going to eat this one up. It had half a cage around it on one end, and a scaffold on the other. There were light tubes, glass panes, doors, and much more. There was a lot of back and forth with this one, and it was hardcore throughout. There wasn’t a lot of wrestling here mind you, as much as it was a brawl and punishing moves. The crowd was going nuts for Rina at various stages, and the ring was covered with broken glass, barbed wire and more. After an insane sidewalk slam off of a scaffold through 3 doors, Blake Christian ran out and cashed in his title shot, getting the win here.

Overall Thoughts

This was a great night of wrestling, with a good mix of wrestling styles. I enjoyed it greatly, and will be watching more GCW as they keep putting out quality products on FITETV. Fun stuff here, and wow, just wow, great stuff if you ask me.