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I was indifferent towards the stable at the time but looking back on it, RTC basically killed the careers of everyone involved. Especially Val Venis and The Godfather. They've never been able to capture a fraction of the popularity they had before they joined RTC (Though I thought Venis was a bit underrated as Chief Morley). It's too bad because I thought Venis was shaping up to be a solid upper mid-carder.

 

I will agree that RTC was Stevie's best work outside ECW and may have been his best work overall. I thought it would have been better off if it was just Stevie and maybe Bull Buchanan as the muscle, doing battle with the miscreants of the WWF. Val and Godfather were never really convincing in the group.

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To me, this was yet another time that they missed the boat with Val Venis. Val came out and cut a wicked promo on the RTC and got a good reaction for it. After that, they had him join. Val should have said that Val Venis was obviously his stage name, and that would have been a way to get him out of the Venis character without anything terribly dumb. He still would have been a former porn star, but his character depth would have been flushed out as he had a fairly good political sense about him. Instead, he was amongst the group and lost in the shuffle.

 

Stevie did well, and Bull and Goodfather were okay in their roles. I didn't hate the group, and I understand why Vince wanted the group around so badly. However, Val could have been that mouthpiece that really hammered home how out of touch a censorship group is and they could have blasted Bozelle on a weekly basis. When RTC broke up, Val went back to being Venis and regressed to a stale character. Totally missed the boat.

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They were horrid and very overpushed. Let's face it, they were only pushed due to Vince's goofy obsession with the PTC. This didn't entertain much of anyone. A friend of mine went to Survivor Series 2000 in Tampa and said it was excruciating for the audience having to hear the horrible siren music of RTC 3 or 4 times that night.

 

As far as Stevie's best work goes, it's easily his 1995-97 ECW run.

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I'm sure the idea of poking fun at PTC by forming a similar group seemed cute at the time, but they were so limited. It didn't help the stable was packed with sub-par talent. I honestly have trouble remembering anything specific about the group's existence.

 

The faction derailed Val Venis' career. Maybe he wasn't destined for greatness, but he'd turned a corner prior to joining the group after a pretty aimless 1999. Val with the short hair and white ring attire seemed like a legit mid-card staple.

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I agree, Bruiser. Val's IC title run was underrated. His feud with Rikishi did a good job at changing them both from comedy acts to credible mid-carders on their way to the upper mid-card. Of course, what does the WWF a couple months after that feud is over? Val joins the RTC for no reason and Rikishi is found to be the guy who ran over Austin.

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Guest CorporateMankind
*Various alarm noises*

 

In all honesty, it was Stevies best work.

 

I'd also like to add , I thought RTC Member Ivory looked her best when she was with them. I really dug the pulled-back hair.

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I pretty much agree with the consensus here. The only people who benefited from the group was Stevie, Buchanan and Ivory. It was just one of those things where I was like "Okay, I get it already... It's your way of saying 'fuck you' to the PTC and we have to put up with it... blabety blah..." Though going back, a lot of it was pretty good stuff. Bull Buchanan really found a niche here, too. And Ivory stood out here as a more militant version of what they would do with Molly later on down the line, so she stood out among the female performers.

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I never liked him at the time but looking back on it, Bull Buchanan made a solid intimidating lackey. Whatever happened to Bull? Why hasn't TNA signed him yet for way more than he's worth? Wrestling needs more intimidating lackeys!

 

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I actually liked RTC when it first came out. I really wanted them to succeed on an ME level because after 2 years of the evil owner stuff they'd been doing, that'd have been something new.

 

Fuck Bull and Goodfather getting the tag belts before T&A though. That still pisses me off.

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I never liked him at the time but looking back on it, Bull Buchanan made a solid intimidating lackey. Whatever happened to Bull? Why hasn't TNA signed him yet for way more than he's worth? Wrestling needs more intimidating lackeys!

 

Bull Buchanan has found work in All Japan and also does guest columns for World Wrestling Insanity. In fact, I just got a myspace bulletin today from WWI pushing an audio interview with Buchanan that they just put up on their paysite.

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Charles "Goodfather/Goodfather" Wright said in his shoot interview that he hated RTC because he was having so much fun as Godfather. But the change to "Goodfather" got a slight chuckle out of me first time round.

 

I agree on Bull, remember the tag match from WM2000 between Bull and Bossman against Godfather and D'Lo? Bull was awesome in that match.

 

Val was underused, it would have served better him fighting against them ala Chyna, but the storyarch of him joining was pretty cool. If only it had played out more and we had some sort of payoff - like him realising what tools they are and fighting against them again.

 

Ivory was hawt.

 

It's easily Stevie's best work in the E. Plus, their ring attires where great.

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The only thing with this was there was no closure to it. The RTC had some infighting post-wm 17, but then dissappeared completely. Stevie returned in September with Kronik by his side to take out Undertaker, who he blamed for the end of the RTC somehow (It had to do with Taker beating the RTC in a handicap match in April, which led to the infighting). Venis and Godfather wouldnt return until the Rumble 02. My point is yea Stevie kinda said it was over, but they never did an angle with the breakup (it should have been godfather and venis vs stevie and Bull IMO).

 

All in all, a passable mid-card act that got Stevie over as a heel really well (the crowds HATED him, and not in an X-Pac way) since he's such a good talker. But it's not really all that memorable, although I guess a little bit since we have a thread about them.

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Guest TheFabulousJakey

When the angle first started and it was just Richards, it was great, and adding Bull and Goodfather was fine, but adding Val was unnecessary. It finally gave Ivory something to do after barely being on TV for most of the year (this was during Stephanie McMahon's women's title reign, which froze the division for a while), and her mike work was solid, but they kept the belt on her for way too long. If anything, I'm bitter that the most interesting storyline they had was the one Jerry Lawler pitched with The Kat, and we all know how that turned out.

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It killed Val's momentum, but could have been used as a tool to get Stevie up in the ranks because he had some killer heat from it. I think Chief Morley was the last time after that, that Val ever started to break through again.

 

RTC would have been something cool to build up all year and use for a big Survivor Series match, but it came at the wrong time I suppose.

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Guest TheFabulousJakey
The only thing with this was there was no closure to it. The RTC had some infighting post-wm 17, but then dissappeared completely. Stevie returned in September with Kronik by his side to take out Undertaker, who he blamed for the end of the RTC somehow (It had to do with Taker beating the RTC in a handicap match in April, which led to the infighting). Venis and Godfather wouldnt return until the Rumble 02. My point is yea Stevie kinda said it was over, but they never did an angle with the breakup (it should have been godfather and venis vs stevie and Bull IMO).

 

I read an interview where Ivory said that the writer who came up with RTC left and so they all got lost in the shuffle. Venis & Godfather forming a face tag team would have actually been a good idea, but they would have been lost in the Invasion mess anyway.

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I liked the RTC when it was a small group. It was a annoying little group but it was effective, then when a few more got added on to RTC, I think that's when it went a little over board, mainly because they were all wrestlers in the mid-card that weren't going to go no where near the main event area.

 

If the group would have stayed Stevie, Bull, and Ivory, it would have been better.

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I liked the concept behind RTC, regardless of the fact it was a parody. The whole idea of "fighting the good fight" was cool.

 

I do agree they were overpushed, especially considering all the members were average workers. Like I said though, the angle itself and the idea at the core of the group was interesting.

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Something useless to note...

 

In WWF No Mercy I listened to the Right to Censor theme for some reason or another. If you listen close enough, there's a backbeat hidden within the sirens.

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