Trent Beretta Says His Neck Problems Began With Video Game Motion Capture Work

AEW original Trent Beretta is currently a "Dynamite" and "Rampage" regular; however, in the early days of the promotion, he was forced to miss an extended period of time due to a torn pec and then the need for spinal fusion surgery. While appearing as a guest on "Talk Is Jericho," he discussed his need for this serious surgery, revealing it didn't come from one individual match, but from years of wear and tear stemming from an incident while filming motion capture for a WWE videogame.

"It was on a crash pad ... It didn't even have to be the move it was," Beretta explained. "We needed four moves where the guy on top slips behind, started from like a fireman's carry, [and] the guy on top slips behind. We need four different moves as reversals ... [and] we'll use whatever, and somebody said, 'Dragon suplex.' Luckily it was on a crash pad, but the guy, I don't think, was a guy who did Dragon suplexes. And he threw it how you would throw a German [suplex] with a high arc, but he had my neck instead of my waist, so I just landed right on top of my head on a crash pad. And it wasn't like, 'Oh, no, I can't wrestle.' It was just slowly, for over five or six years, whatever it was, like it started getting worse and worse."

Now 36 years old, Beretta would end up being out of the ring for the majority of 2021 while recuperating from the aforementioned surgery and, in total, lost just under eight months of his career. Since then, though, he has been relatively injury free and wrestled more than 75 matches across multiple AEW brands and even competed for New Japan Strong thanks to the promotions' working relationship.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Talk Is Jericho" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.