Trent Baretta

Gregory "Greg" Marasciulo (March 30, 1987) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Trent as part of the tag team Best Friends with Chuck Taylor. In his career, he has worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) and Ring of Honor (ROH) under the ring names Trent?, Baretta and Trent Baretta and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the ring name Trent Barreta.
==Professional wrestling career==
===New York Wrestling Connection (2004–2007)===
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 Heavyweight Championship, although the title was vacated shortly afterwards due to Marasciulo announcing his signing to World Wrestling Entertainment.
===World Wrestling Entertainment===
====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 Baretta, 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, Beretta 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. Although not a champion, Beretta 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).
====ECW and SmackDown (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 in a winning effort against Bobby Shields and Tyler Hilton, two local competitors. On the February 9, 2010 episode of ECW, they lost to Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu in a match to determine the number-one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship.
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. On the April 2 episode of SmackDown, they began using their Dude Busters name again, which they had seemingly dropped since their move to the main roster.
The Dude Busters turning face earned their first tag team victory since joining the SmackDown roster when they defeated Curt Hawkins and Vance Archer on the August 26 edition of Superstars.
====Singles competition (2010–2013)====
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 as 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 SmackDown since the breakup of the Dude Busters.
In 2011, Barreta would largely be used as enhancement talent, mostly competing on WWE 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, Baretta 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 WWE Superstars. Barreta finally defeated Kidd in a singles match on the August 23 episode of NXT, his first match on NXT.
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 an 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. Baretta 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 Baretta'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===
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, Marasciulo, working under the ring name "Trent?", made his debut for Southern California-based Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), losing to Roderick Strong in a singles match. At the following day's PWG event, Trent? was defeated by Paul London in another singles match. 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, Baretta defeated Davis in a rematch to become the new FIP World Heavyweight Champion.
On August 30, Trent? returned to PWG to take part in the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles, but was eliminated from the tournament in his first round match by Kyle O'Reilly. The following day, Trent? formed the Best Friends stable with Chuck Taylor and Joey Ryan as the three defeated B-Boy, Tommaso Ciampa and Willie Mack in a six-man tag team match. On October 12, 2013, Trent made his debut in Family Wrestling Entertainment 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 January 31, 2014, Trent? and Chuck 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). On February 22, Baretta 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. 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).
On November 14, 2014, during WWNLive's tour of China, Barreta lost the FIP World Heavyweight Championship to Rich Swann.
===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 (2013–2019)===
On May 3, 2013, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) announced Marasciulo, working simply as "Baretta", as a participant in the 2013 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Baretta 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, Baretta won three of his eight matches, finishing seventh out of the nine wrestlers in his block.
On October 15, NJPW announced that Baretta, now representing the Chaos stable, would return to the promotion on October 25, teaming with Brian Kendrick in the 2013 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. Baretta and Kendrick were eliminated from the tournament in the first round by The Young Bucks, following a pre-match assault by Bullet Club. Baretta 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 Baretta 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.
===Ring of Honor (2015–2019)===
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 Baretta. The following day, Baretta 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).
===Global Force Wrestling (2015)===
On May 13, 2015, Global Force Wrestling (GFW) announced Barreta as part of their roster. With Chuck Taylor, Barreta competed in tag matches during the June 2015 GFW Grand Slam Tour against The Tate Twins.
===All Elite Wrestling (2019–present)===
Baretta debuted on May 25, teaming with Chuck Taylor in a tag match defeating Angélico and Jack Evans at AEW Double or Nothing. The following month, Taylor and Trent as team Best Friends returned for Fyter Fest, where they won a three-way tag match, defeating teams SoCal Uncensored (SCU) (Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) and The Private Party. Two months later at AEW ALL OUT, team Best Friends competed in a tag match to qualify for a first round advancement in the upcoming AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament. They lost however, to The Dark Order. Two months later on October 2, team Best Friends wrestled in a pre-show tag match leading to the inaugural airing of AEW Dynamite. On that occasion, they wrestled teams Angélico & Jack Evans and The Lucha Brothers. On October 8, team Best Friends made their televised debut on the series premiere of AEW Dark, joining forces with team Private Party in an eight-man tag match lost against teams Hybrid 2 & The Lucha Brothers.
==In wrestling==
*Finishing moves
**Dudebuster (WWE) / Crunchie (independent circuit) (Back to belly piledriver)
**Dudebuster DDT (Springboard tornado DDT)
**Piledriver
*Signature moves
**Flying back elbow smash to a cornered opponent
**Frankensteiner
**Gobstopper/Sexy Chuckie Knee (Running single leg high knee, sometimes to a cornered opponent)
**Snap DDT onto the ring apron
**Springboard dropkick to the opponent's back
**Springboard moonsault to the outside of the ring
*With Caylen Croft
**Inverted atomic drop (Croft) followed by a running single leg high knee (Barreta)
*Tag teams and stables
**The Premier Athlete Brand with Anthony Nese, Mr. A, Su Yung and Caleb Konley
**The Dudebusters
**Roppongi Vice
**Best Friends
==Championships and accomplishments==
*Florida Championship Wrestling
**FCW Florida Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Caylen Croft (2) and with Curt Hawkins (1)1
*New York Wrestling Connection
**NYWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
**NYWC Hi-Fi Championship (3 times)
**NYWC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Maverick
*Full Impact Pro
**FIP World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*New Japan Pro Wrestling
**IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (4 times) with Rocky Romero
**NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
*Pro Wrestling Illustrated
**PWI ranked him #154 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010
*WrestleCircus
**WC Big Top Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Rocky Romero
*Wrestling Observer Newsletter
**5 Star Match (2020) with Chuck Taylor vs. Santana & Ortiz on September 10
1When Croft and Hawkins won the title, Beretta could defend the title with either of them under the Freebird Rule.
==See also==
*Trent Baretta/Image gallery
==External links==
* Profile
* Profile
Category:Florida Championship Wrestling alumni
Category:New York Wrestling Connection alumni
Category:Ohio Valley Wrestling alumni
Category:1987 births
Category:2004 debuts
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment alumni
Category:Jersey All Pro Wrestling alumni
Category:NWA On Fire alumni
Category:Top Rope Promotions alumni
Category:Pro Wrestling Unplugged alumni
Category:Gung Ho Wrestling alumni
Category:New Japan Pro Wrestling alumni
Category:NWA Florida Underground Wrestling alumni
Category:National Wrestling Alliance alumni
Category:Dragon Gate USA alumni
Category:Pro Wrestling Syndicate alumni
Category:Hart Legacy Wrestling alumni
Category:Pro Wrestling Guerrilla alumni
Category:Full Impact Pro alumni
Category:Connecticut Wrestling Entertainment alumni
Category:Future Of Wrestling alumni
Category:Next Generation Wrestling alumni
Category:New York wrestlers
Category:Total Nonstop Action Wrestling alumni
Category:Paragon Pro Wrestling alumni
Category:Living people
Category:Male wrestlers
Category:IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions
Category:WrestleCircus alumni
Category:Global Force Wrestling alumni
Category:FCW Florida Tag Team Champions
Category:NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions
Category:Ring of Honor alumni
Category:All Elite Wrestling current roster