Quick Facts
Biography
Gregory "Greg" Marasciulo (born March 30, 1987) is an American professional wrestler, currently working for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) under the ring name Beretta. He currently teams with Rocky Romero as Roppongi (RPG) Vice, where they are currently in their fourth reign as the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. He also wrestles for Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG) and various independent promotions under the ring name Trent?.
Marasciulo began his professional wrestling career at New York Wrestling Connection in 2004 before signing to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He worked in WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in drag as The Girl from Mexico. Marasciulo debuted on WWE's main roster in 2009 as Trent Barreta and was one half of the Dude Busters with Caylen Croft. After teaming with Croft, he began wrestling as a lower-card singles competitor and was released from his WWE contract in 2013. After his release from WWE, Marasciulo started wrestling in wrestling promotions including Pro Wrestling Guerilla, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor.
Professional wrestling career
New York Wrestling Connection (2004–2007, 2017)
Marasciulo made his professional debut for New York Wrestling Connection on July 10, 2004, under the ring name Plazma in a losing effort to Dan Barry. After wrestling primarily in singles and tag team matches, Plazma defeated Matt Maverick on January 28, 2006 to become the promotion's first ever Hi-Fi Champion, which was also the first championship of his career. On February 25, Plazma retained the title against Maverick in his first title defense. On March 18, Plazma lost the title to Mike Spinelli. Plazma would defeat Spinelli in a rematch for the title on May 20. After successfully retaining the title against the likes of Jamie Van Lemer, Spyder, Javi-Air, and Jerry Lynn throughout the next few months, Plazma lost the Hi-Fi Championship to Dickie Rodz on October 21. After two unsuccessful attempts to regain the title in February and March 2007, respectively, Plazma teamed with Maverick to defeat The Angus Brothers (Danny and Billy) and Dan Dynasty and Jamie Van Lemer in a three-way match to win the Tag Team Championship. The team would retain the title on several occasions before losing them to MEGA and Prince Nana on December 15. That same night, Plazma defeated Quiet Storm to win the NYWC Heavyweight Championship, although the title was vacated shortly afterwards due to Marasciulo announcing his signing to World Wrestling Entertainment.
On May 20, 2017, Marasciulo was inducted into the NYWC Hall of Fame as Trent Barreta and competed in an 8 man tag team match at Master of the Mat.
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Developmental territory (2007–2009)
Between August 2007 and January 2008, Marasciulo had several tryout matches for WWE, using the ring name Greg Cardona. He was signed to a WWE contract and began wrestling in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) under the ring name Greg Jackson. His name was later changed to Trent Barreta, then tweaked to Trent Beretta. He also competed under a mask as The Girl From Mexico in an attempt to become the first Queen of FCW, but was eliminated in the second round by Angela Fong. Beretta would soon form a tag team with Caylen Croft called The Dude Busters. Together, they would defeat Tyler Reks on May 30, 2009 to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship after Reks' tag team partner, Johnny Curtis, failed to appear. On July 23, Barreta and Croft lost the title to Justin Angel and Kris Logan. The Dude Busters reclaimed the title when Croft and Curt Hawkins, their new ally, defeated the Rotundos (Bo and Duke) on November 19. Barreta was officially recognized as a champion alongside Croft and Hawkins, and was allowed to defend the title alongside either Croft or Hawkins via the Freebird Rule. On January 14, 2010 at an FCW television taping, the Dude Busters lost the Florida Tag Team Championship to The Fortunate Sons (Brett DiBiase and Joe Hennig).
The Dude Busters (2009–2010)
On the December 1, 2009 episode of ECW on Syfy, Marasciulo, under the respelled name of Trent Barreta, and Caylen Croft debuted as villains, squashing a tag team. The duo would then feud with Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu, which culminated in a loss to Goldust and Tatsu in a match to determine the number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship on the February 9, 2010 episode of ECW. When the ECW brand ended in February 2010, its roster became free agents. Barreta and Croft signed with SmackDown, making their debut for the brand on February 19 in a losing effort against Cryme Tyme. Barreta and Croft would then feud with The Hart Dynasty, but could never manage a win against them. In April, they began using their Dude Busters name again, which they had seemingly dropped since debuting in ECW. The Dude Busters then turned into fan favorites when they entered into a feud with the Gatecrashers (Curt Hawkins and Vance Archer) in August. The Dude Busters then earned their first tag team victory since joining the SmackDown roster when they defeated the Gatecrashers on the August 26 episode of Superstars.
SmackDown and Superstars (2010–2012)
On November 19, 2010, Caylen Croft was released from his contract, effectively ending The Dude Busters and turning Barreta into a singles competitor. After becoming a singles competitor, Barreta would largely be involved in lower-card feuds. During this period, a majority of his matches would be on Superstars, and when he appeared on SmackDown, he would almost always lose, only garnering a single win when appearing on SmackDown during his tenure in WWE. Barreta would continue to feud with Hawkins, whose partner Archer had also been released together with Croft. Both wrestlers would exchange wins in various matches on Superstars. Barreta would then feud with Drew McIntyre, even managing to earn an upset victory over McIntyre on the January 14, 2011 episode of SmackDown, his first singles win on the SmackDown brand since the breakup of The Dude Busters.
In 2011, Barreta would largely be used as enhancement talent, mostly competing on Superstars and losing to various wrestlers such as Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Tyler Reks, Ted DiBiase, Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, and Jinder Mahal. From April, Barreta would enter into a long rivalry with Tyson Kidd, but he found himself on the losing end in five singles matches against Kidd. However, Barreta managed a win over Kidd when he teamed with The Usos to beat Kidd, Justin Gabriel, and Heath Slater on the June 30, 2011 episode of Superstars. Barreta finally defeated Kidd in a singles match on the August 23 episode of NXT, his first match on NXT.
NXT (2012–2013)
In 2012, Barreta would exclusively wrestle on NXT, failing to wrestle on Raw or SmackDown. On NXT, Barreta formed an alliance with Yoshi Tatsu from December 2011, they feuded with Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks; both teams managed to score one win apiece during the feud. Both teams would play pranks on each other, with Tatsu being locked in a closet and Reks' hands being superglued onto a video game controller. During this feud, Barreta would score rare singles wins over both Hawkins and Reks on consecutive episodes of NXT in January 2012. The feud ended when Hawkins and Reks defeated Barreta and Tatsu on the January 18 episode of NXT. Barreta disappeared from television after February 2012 due to a torn triceps, instead being confined to the "Where's Trent?" segments within the Z! True Long Island Story YouTube show. A video package on the September 12 episode of NXT acknowledged Barreta's six-month absence and the "Where's Trent" segments, scheduling his return on the September 19 episode of NXT, where he defeated Johnny Curtis. After trading wins with Kassius Ohno, Barreta was injured by Leo Kruger before the third match in the series. On January 11, 2013, Marasciulo was released from his WWE contract; with his last televised match for WWE being a disqualification win over Kruger due to Ohno's interference on the January 16, 2013 episode of NXT, which was taped before his release.
Independent circuit (2013–present)
On January 18, 2013, Marasciulo made his first independent appearance since his WWE release, when he worked for the Hart Legacy Wrestling (HLW) promotion in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In the opening four-way elimination tag team match, Marasciulo, still working as Trent Barreta, teamed with Brian Cage, with the two being eliminated by El Generico and Samuray del Sol. Later in the main event of the evening, Barreta teamed with Davey Boy Smith, Jr., El Generico, Jack Evans and Samuray del Sol in a ten man tag team match, where they were defeated by Teddy Hart, Brian Cage, Cam!kaze, Flip Kendrick and Pete Wilson. On March 22, 2013, On April 6, Trent? made his debut for Dragon Gate USA, defeating Jon Davis via disqualification. On April 26, Barreta made his debut for Full Impact Pro, defeating AR Fox. On July 5, 2013, Barreta made his return for Full Impact Pro (FIP) at Declaration of Independence, where he defeated the FIP World Heavyweight Champion Jon Davis by disqualification. On August 9, Barreta defeated Davis in a rematch to become the new FIP World Heavyweight Champion.
On October 12, 2013, Trent made his debut in Family Wrestling Entertainment (FWE) with Bandido Jr. in a match for the FWE Tag Team Championship. However, the champions retained. On December 6, Barreta successfully defended the FIP World Heavyweight Championship against Lince Dorado.
On February 22, Barreta unsuccessfully challenged Johnny Gargano for the Open the Freedom Gate Championship. In March 2014, Trent? took part in German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling's 16 Carat Gold weekend. During the second day on March 15, he and Matt Striker defeated Hot & Spicy (Axel Dieter Jr. and Da Mack) to win the wXw World Tag Team Championship. They, however, lost the title back to Hot & Spicy the next day.
On November 14, 2014, during WWNLive's tour of China, Barreta lost the FIP World Heavyweight Championship to Rich Swann.
On May 13, 2015, Global Force Wrestling (GFW) announced Barreta as part of their roster. He made his debut for the promotion at GFW's first-ever event on June 12, where he and Chuck Taylor were defeated by the Tate twins (Brandon and Brent).
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (2013–present)
Marasciulo, working under the ring name Trent? made his PWG debut at All Star Weekend 9, losing to Roderick Strong. He then made his return to PWG in the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles, losing in the first round to Kyle O'Reilly. On the second night of BOLA, he picked up his first win with Chuck Taylor and Joey Ryan as "The Best Friends", defeating Willie Mack (wrestler), B-Boy and Tommaso Ciampa in a six-man tag team match. On January 31, Trent? and Taylor defeated three other teams, including the Inner City Machine Guns (Rich Swann and Ricochet) in the finals, to win PWG's 2014 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament (DDT4). As a result of winning the 2014 DDT4, Trent? and Chuck Taylor received a shot at the PWG World Tag Team Championship on March 28, but were defeated by the defending champions, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson). In March of 2016 during PWG's All Star Weekend 12, Trent? picked up his first singles win against Drew Galloway, then he defeated Adam Cole the following night.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2013, 2014)
On July 18, Marasciulo, working under his real name, made his debut for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), when he took part in the Destination X episode of Impact Wrestling. Entering a tournament to determine the new X Division Champion, he defeated Rockstar Spud and Rubix in his first round three-way match to advance to the tournament finals. On the July 25 episode of Impact Wrestling, he was defeated by Manik in an Ultimate X match that also included Sonjay Dutt for the X Division Championship. On April 12, 2014, Marasciulo returned to TNA under the ring name Ace Vedder at TNA One Night Only's event X-Travaganza 2 defeating Manik in a singles match to qualify for the Ultimate X match later that night. In the main event Low Ki defeated Rashad Cameron, Kenny King, Ace Vedder, Sonjay Dutt and Tigre Uno in the Ultimate X match for a future shot at the TNA X Division Championship.
New Japan Pro Wrestling (2013, 2015–present)
On May 3, 2013, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) announced Marasciulo, working simply as Beretta, as a participant in the 2013 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Beretta made his debut for the promotion on May 22, teaming with Titán in a tag team match, where they defeated Bushi and Hiromu Takahashi. In the round-robin portion of the tournament itself, which ran from May 24 to June 6, Beretta won three of his eight matches, finishing seventh out of the nine wrestlers in his block.
On October 15, NJPW announced that Beretta, now representing the Chaos stable, would return to the promotion on October 25, teaming with Brian Kendrick in the 2013 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. Beretta and Kendrick were eliminated from the tournament in the first round by The Young Bucks, following a pre-match assault by Bullet Club. Beretta teamed with various Chaos stablemates in midcard six-man and eight-man tag team matches for the rest of the tour, which lasted until November 6.
On March 16, 2015, NJPW announced that Beretta would be returning to the promotion later that month as part of the Roppongi Vice tag team with Rocky Romero. His return match took place on March 22, when he teamed with Romero and Chaos stablemate Gedo to defeat Bullet Club (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) in a six-man tag team match. On April 5 at Invasion Attack 2015, Roppongi Vice defeated The Young Bucks to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They lost the title back to The Young Bucks on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2015. Later that month, Beretta entered the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors, where he finished with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament. Following the tournament, Roppongi Vice received a rematch for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a three-way match, also involving reDRagon, but were again defeated by The Young Bucks on July 5 at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall.
On April 10, 2016, at Invasion Attack 2016, Roppongi Vice defeated Matt Sydal and Ricochet to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the second time. They lost the title back to Sydal and Ricochet on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2016. On November 5 at Power Struggle, Roppongi Vice defeated ACH and Taiji Ishimori in the finals to win the 2016 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. On January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, Roppongi Vice defeated The Young Bucks to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the third time. They lost the title to Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) at NJPW's 45th anniversary show on March 6, before regaining it on April 27.
Ring of Honor (2015–present)
On March 1, 2015, at Ring of Honor's 13th Anniversary Show, Rocky Romero announced he was forming a new tag team named Roppongi Vice with Beretta. The following day, Beretta was pulled from his scheduled Evolve events and announced for ROH events. Roppongi Vice made its ROH debut on March 13, 2015, defeating The Decade (B.J. Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs). On March 14, 2016 at ROH tv tapings, they won a seven tag team gauntlet match to determine #1 contender for ROH World Tag Team Championships by defeating The Young Bucks after entering the match as the seventh team.
On March 10 at the 15th Anniversary Show, Roppongi Vice was unsuccessful in capturing the ROH World Tag Team Championship in a three-way Las Vegas Street Fight against The Hardys and The Young Bucks.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Crunchy / Dudebuster (Cradle back-to-belly piledriver)
- Dudebuster DDT (Tornado DDT) – 2007–2013; used as a signature move thereafter
- Gobstopper (WWE/independent circuit)/Sexy Chucky Knee (PWG) (Running high knee, sometimes to the back of the opponent's head)
- Signature moves
- Calf kick
- Corkscrew senton, sometimes while springboarding to the outside of the ring
- Corner forearm smash
- Double foot stomp from out of the corner, as a counter to an oncoming opponent
- Dropkick, sometimes while springboarding
- Enzuigiri
- Flying forearm smash
- Hurricanrana, sometimes from the top rope
- Knife-edge chop
- Leaping clothesline
- Leg drop from the apron to an opponent draped on the second rope
- Northern Lights suplex
- Slingshot elbow drop
- Somersault plancha
- With Caylen Croft
- Double-team finishing moves
- Inverted atomic drop (Croft) followed by a running high knee (Barreta)
- Powerbomb (Croft) and neckbreaker (Barreta) combination
- Double-team finishing moves
- With Chuck Taylor
- Double-team finishing moves
- Double chokeslam
- Double-team finishing moves
- With Rocky Romero
- Double-team finishing moves
- Strong Zero (Cradle back-to-belly piledriver (Beretta) and diving double foot stomp (Romero) combination)
- Double-team finishing moves
- Nicknames
- "Yuiitsu Muni no High Flyer" (Japanese for "One and Only High Flyer")
- Entrance themes
- "RPG Vice Theme" by [Q]Brick
Championships and accomplishments
- Dragon Gate USA
- Open the United Gate Championship (1 time) – with Anthony Nese and Caleb Konley1
- Six Man Tag Team Tournament (2014) – with Anthony Nese and Caleb Konley
- Empire State Wrestling
- Ilio DiPaolo Memorial Cup (2013)
- Florida Championship Wrestling
- FCW Florida Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Caylen Croft (2) and Curt Hawkins (1)2
- Full Impact Pro
- FIP World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- New Japan Pro Wrestling
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (4 times, current) – with Rocky Romero
- Super Jr. Tag Tournament (2016) – with Rocky Romero
- New York Wrestling Connection
- NYWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NYWC Hi-Fi Championship (3 times)
- NYWC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Maverick
- NYWC Hall of Fame (2017)
- Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
- Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament (2014) – with Chuck Taylor
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Ranked No. 105 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015
- Westside Xtreme Wrestling
- wXw World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Matt Striker
1 When Nese and Konley won the title, Barreta could defend the title with either of them under the Freebird Rule.
2 When Croft and Hawkins won the title, Barreta could defend the title with either of them under the Freebird Rule.