The Elite Two VGCW Co-Op Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Requiescat in pizza
The Elite Two is a tag team consisting of Ezio Auditore and Raphael. The two originally became allies as members of The McMahon Elite Four, and continued their association after the remaining members disbanded.
In VGCW[]
Their official debut as a team happened on 2013-02-22, with the two facing The Wario Brothers for a shot at the Tag Team championship. With Ezio bizarrely spending more time in the ring than Raph (something that would become common) and Wario putting on quite a showing, it looked like they were down for the count. Wario put Raphael into a submission hold, prompting Ezio and Waluigi to run out and interfere. Wario then pinned Raphael and held him for a period of time longer than a standard 3 count, which caused the tag partners to stay in the ring instead of returning to the ropes, but the distracted Referee was not paying attention and instead disqualified WarioWare Inc. for Waluigi's continued presence, despite the fact that Ezio was technically on grounds for disqualification as well and that Raphael had more or less been successfully pinned. Some suspected that the Ref had been paid off with pizza or florins. Nevertheless, the win was theirs and they were now the contenders for the belts.
On 2013-02-28, the duo squared off against Gerudo Skies, with Ezio surprisingly did the most work while Raph just sat in the corner crying and stuffing himself with pizza. Ezio, being the unremarkable wrestler he is, faced off against both fighters himself and acquitted himself well, putting on a convincing performance but eventually received a walloping and was on the verge of defeat. However, the terrible twosome pulled off another one of their dirty tricks: as Ganon performed a final Gerudo Valley Driver and went to pin Ezio, Zangief ran over to distract Raphael, but as he slowly limped out of the ring, the referee counted him out for taking too long despite the fact that Ezio had more or less been successfully pinned. Gerudo Skies retained the title due to the champions' advantage, but the fact that the Elite Two had both reached the title fight and won the title fight (fights that they would have otherwise lost) due to disqualification shenanigans led many to believe that they may have paid off the referees, which rubbed more than a few fans the wrong way. At least Ezio's impressive one-on-two performance netted him a few fans. The reason for Raphael's hands-off approach in the fight is unknown, but Ezio got some catharsis for it on the 2013-02-28 Royal Rumble by eliminating Raphael. He also eliminated former Elite Four member Gary Oak for good measure.
With what could barely have been called their days of glory behind them, The Elite Two were in danger of sinking into irrelevance. Dracula put them in a match against Gabe Newell and Adam Jensen, hoping the two would defeat Gabe and Adam and put a stop to their plans of dethroning Dracula. Despite a strong initial showing and their use of The Practice's tried-and-true "trap the fat guy in the corner" strategy, Ezio was defeated by Gabe's Wallet Squeeze while Raphael was distracted by Jensen.
Despite this loss, The Elite Two returned on April 26th to face the only tag team in the VGCW more disliked than they are: the Game Grumps. As a result, the inconceivable happened: The Elite Two were actually cheered for by the crowd. Though most expected a complete squash match, the Game Grumps put up more of a fight than anyone expected. However, in a shining moment of teamwork, Ezio speared JonTron while Raphael shell-shocked Egoraptor, picking up the pin. With this win (their first by pinfall), the Elite Two seemed to be back on track to VGCW relevance.
Sadly, these hopes were dashed as quickly as they took root. The terrible twosome returned to the ring on 2013-05-08, ready to fight for the #1 Contendership and a title shot, against fan favorite team GameCenter FU. Unfortunately for them, they ended up getting their pizzas handed to them every which way - even by humble Arino. In the end, not even their referee racketeering shenanigans could save them, as the ref proceeded with a three-count for the pin on Ezio well after he had waited a good five seconds for him to break free. Despite this setback, two fighters of their caliber can't be expected to want to stay out of the title picture for very long (especially not with the officials seemingly in their pocket!) and will surely be back in the ring.
Team Dynamic[]
Though both members of the Elite Two are accomplished wrestlers and are capable of working as a team to great effect, Raphael tends to be an uncooperative partner. He often lets Ezio do the brunt of the fighting, occasionally hopping off the ramp to let Ezio fend for himself and famously letting Ezio fight Gerudo Skies all by his lonesome. Whether this is due to bitterness stemming from being an ex-VGCW Champion relegated to the tag team division or a refusal to "carry" his partner (which is perceived as happening in some other teams) is pure speculation, but it hasn't paid off for the team so far.
Tag Team Record[]
Date | Opponents | Result | Tag Record | Notes |
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10-15-13 | Dream Teamcast | Loss | 3-4-0 | Tornado Tag |
7-26-13 | Shadaloo | Loss | 3-3-0 | |
5-8-13 | GameCenter FU | Loss | 3-2-0 | #1 Co-Op Contenders Match |
4-26-13 | Game Grumps | Win | 3-1-0 | |
4-17-13 | Adam Jensen & Gabe Newell | Loss | 2-1-0 | |
2-28-13 | Gerudo Skies | Win | 2-0-0 | Co-Op Championship Match, Gerudo Skies retain via DQ loss |
2-22-13 | Wario Ware Inc. | Win | 1-0-0 | #1 Co-Op Contenders Match, Waluigi was DQ'd for being in the ring too long |