Right to Censor

Infobox Wrestling team
article_name= Right to Censor
type= S


caption= From left to right, Val Venis, The Goodfather, Ivory, Mr. Buchanan and Steven Richards.
members=Steven Richards
Bull Buchanan
The Goodfather
Val Venis
Ivory
names=
former_members=
debut= July 2000
disbanded=April 2001
promotions=WWF
retired=

The Right to Censor or RTC was a professional wrestling faction in the World Wrestling Federation from mid-2000 to early 2001. The group was a parody of the Parents Television Council, who were, at the time, protesting the level of violence and sexual content in WWF programming and threatening to boycott several of their sponsors. According to Ivory, the writer responsible for the Right to Censor storyline had left the company by the time the stable became active.

The uniform of the Right to Censor was a white t-shirt, black tie, and grey slacks for men (although Val Venis wore white slacks on occasion), and a long grey skirt for the women, which parodies the look of a Mormon missionary. Though Ivory soon had to wear grey slacks as well due to the limitations a dress has on in-ring wrestling.

Instead of the standard musical theme, the entrance of RTC members was accompanied by the sound of shrill alarms and buzzers.

History

The group was formed when wrestler Steven Richards began to randomly appear on WWF programming to cover up the bodies of scantily clad women or remove "hardcore" weapons such as tables from matches. He apparently took offense to the Acolytes's rowdy reputation and disapproved of the Dudleys' use of tables. He was eventually joined by Bull Buchanan, The Goodfather (formerly the Godfather), Val Venis, and Ivory. The group temporarily forced The Kat into its fold, but The Kat and the WWF parted ways before that storyline could completely play itself out. Before being forced into the group, The Kat was starting a group called Right to Nudity, which was to play on The Kat's infamous pay-per-view stunt where she appeared topless. Her group is what brought her to Right to Censor's attention.

The Right to Censor came out victorious in at least one match of every pay-per-view they participated in from mid-2000 to early 2001. At "SummerSlam" 2000, Richards, Buchanan, and The Goodfather won a 6-man tag match against Too Cool & Rikishi. At the next pay-per-view, "Unforgiven", the RTC (now with Val venis) won an 8-man tag match against the Acolytes Protection Agency (APA) and the Dudley Boyz. Even though The Goodfather and Bull Buchanan lost the Dudley Invitational at "No Mercy" 2000, Venis and Richards managed to defeat Chyna and Mr. Ass in a tag match. When Women's Champion Ivory joined the group, she won 3 pay-per-view matches in a row for the group. She defeated Lita in a title match at "Survivor Series" 2000 while The Goodfather and Buchanan lost a Survivor Series Elimination Match. At "Armageddon" 2000, Ivory came out victorious once again in a triple-threat title match against Molly Holly and Trish Stratus, and Val Venis also was victorious over Chyna. Meanwhile, Buchanan and The Goodfather continued the losing streak when they lost the Tag Team titles to Edge & Christian in a Fatal Four-Way tag match. At the 2001 "Royal Rumble", Ivory once again retained her title by defeating Chyna; on the other hand, Buchanan, The Goodfather, and Venis all failed in their attempt to win the Royal Rumble Match. No Way Out 2001 that year marked the last time the RTC would win a match at a pay-per-view when Steven Richards defeated Jerry Lawler.

The group had a moderate level of success, with Buchanan and The Goodfather holding the Tag Team Championship and Ivory capturing the WWF Women's Championship before entering in to a high-profile feud with Chyna.

"WrestleMania X-Seven" was the symbolic end of the Right to Censor, since the stable lost all of the matches they were scheduled to participate in, Buchanan, Venis, and The Goodfather lost a 6-man tag match against the APA and Tazz while Ivory lost her title to Chyna.

The group was finally disbanded after Steven Richards was hit with the Last Ride by The Undertaker. The Goodfather, Buchanan and Ivory all walked out and left him lying in the ring. After this, the group's members were kept off television for a period of time before Richards adopted a psychotic jobber gimmick while Bull Buchanan was briefly rebranded as B² (B-Squared) and made a bodyguard for the then-debuting John Cena before being released. The rest of the group reverted to their previous personas before the advent of the faction.

Buchanan and Ivory were released from WWE in 2003 and 2005 respectively and remain on the independent circuit. Venis remains with WWE, though he has been relegated to "jobber to the stars" status since Venis's short-lived stint in 2003 as Eric Bischoff's "deputy GM" under his given name, Sean Morley. Richards remained active with the company largely on its ECW brand until 2008, when he was released in a routine talent purge. The Godfather retired from active competition in 2002 after a brief revival of his old gimmick and currently runs Cheetah's a gentlemen's club in Las Vegas, though still makes occasional one-shot appearances on WWE television under his Godfather gimmick.

Championships and accomplishments

*World Wrestling Federation
**WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time, Buchanan and Goodfather)
**WWF Women's Championship (1 time, Ivory)