Joseph Sawyer, formerly known as Joe Gacy in WWE, captured the GCW World Championship on Saturday night in Atlantic City.
Sawyer defeated Atticus Cogar in the main event of GCW Homecoming Weekend Night 1 at the Showboat Hotel, ending a title reign that had lasted 266 days.
It is Sawyer’s first reign with GCW’s top championship.
The finish involved interference from two figures. Max Recon was revealed as an associate of Cogar’s VNDL group and assisted the champion, but former WWE referee Drake Wuertz, known during his wrestling career as Drake Younger, appeared and prevented Recon from completing a count.
Sawyer subsequently hit Cogar with a Sister Abigail and scored the pin.
Cogar had held the championship since November 22, 2025, when he defeated Effy and Charles Mason in a three-way match at GCW Dream On.
Wuertz spent seven years as an NXT referee before being released in May 2021. Around this time, he attracted attention for appearances at local government meetings in Florida where he spoke against COVID-19 mask requirements in schools and made false claims connecting masks with child trafficking.
Wuertz returned to wrestling after his WWE departure but announced the end of his in-ring career in 2023 after suffering a broken back.
Sawyer has been working regularly on the independent scene since departing WWE in April. He signed with the company in 2020, competed in NXT as Joe Gacy and later joined the Wyatt Sicks alongside Bo Dallas, Nikki Cross, Dexter Lumis and Erick Rowan. Gacy and Lumis also held the WWE Tag Team Championship.
Sawyer had challenged Stu Grayson for the interim MLP Canadian Championship at C*4 Wrestling’s Fighting Back 15 in Ottawa on Friday, losing the match one night before becoming GCW World Champion.
