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| Right to Censor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Stable | |
| Members | |
| Debut | July 17, 2000 (2000-07-17) |
| Disbanded | June 14, 2001 (WWF) |
| Years active | 2000–2001 (WWF) |
The Right to Censor (frequently referred to asRTC) was avillainousprofessional wrestlingstable in theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) from mid-2000 to mid 2001. The group was aparody of theParents Television Council (PTC),[2][3] which was protesting the level of violence and sexual content in WWF programming, and threatening to boycott several of their sponsors.
Throughout the stable's existence, the team had held theWWF Tag Team Championship (Buchanan and Goodfather) and theWWF Women's Championship (Ivory). The group feuded with several WWF wrestlers such asThe Undertaker andThe Rock. Right to Censor was ultimately dismantled by The Undertaker in April 2001, two months before its final dissolution.
The Right to Censor gimmick was a parody of theParents Television Council (PTC) which actively campaigned against the company’s product in 1999. Its uniform was a white button up shirt and black tie, with black slacks for the men (althoughVal Venis wore white slacks on occasion) and a long black skirt for the women. Eventually Ivory, the only woman officially recruited to the group, was forced to adopt the black slacks out of necessity, due to the skirt limiting her in-ring abilities.
Entrances of RTC members were accompanied not by the standard musical theme but by the sound of shrill alarms and buzzers, with an underlying swing jazz beat, along with a monotone voice repeating the word "warning" over and over again.
The group was formed in July 2000 when wrestlerSteven 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 theAcolytes' rowdy reputation and disapproved of theDudleys' use of tables. He was eventually joined byBull Buchanan,The Goodfather (formerly the Godfather),Val Venis, andIvory. The group temporarily forcedThe Kat into its fold, but The Kat and the WWF parted ways before thatstoryline 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'sinfamous pay-per-view stunt where she appeared completely topless. Her group was 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. AtSummerSlam on August 27, Richards, Buchanan, and The Goodfather won a 6-man tag match againstToo Cool (Grandmaster Sexay andScotty 2 Hotty) andRikishi. At the next pay-per-view,Unforgiven on September 24, the RTC (now with Val Venis) won an 8-man tag match against theAPA and the Dudley Boyz. Even though The Goodfather and Bull Buchanan lost the Dudley Invitational atNo Mercy on October 22, Venis and Richards managed to defeatChyna andMr. Ass in a tag match. WhenWWF 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 atSurvivor Series on November 19 while The Goodfather and Buchanan lost a Survivor Series Elimination Match. The next month, atArmageddon on December 10, Ivory came out victorious once again in a triple-threat title match againstMolly Holly andTrish Stratus, and Val Venis also was victorious over Chyna. Meanwhile, Buchanan and The Goodfather continued the losing streak when they lost theWWF Tag Team Championship toEdge andChristian in a Fatal Four-Way tag match. At theRoyal Rumble on January 21, 2001, 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. The following month atNo Way Out on February 25, it marked the last time the RTC won a match at a pay-per-view when Steven Richards defeatedJerry Lawler.
The group had a moderate level of success, with Buchanan and The Goodfather holding the WWF Tag Team Championship and Ivory capturing the WWF Women's Championship before entering into a high-profilefeud withChyna.
WrestleMania X-Seven on April 1 was the symbolic end of the Right to Censor, as the stable lost all of the matches they were scheduled to participate in,[4] Buchanan, Venis, and The Goodfather lost a 6-man tag match against the APA andTazz while Ivory lost her title to Chyna.
On the April 26 episode ofWWF SmackDown!, Richards, Buchanan, Val Venis, and The Goodfather facedThe Undertaker in a 4-on-1 handicap match. The group was finally disbanded when Steven Richards was hit with theLast Ride by The Undertaker.[4] The Goodfather, Buchanan and Val Venis all walked out and left him lying in the ring. The group's last match was contested on the May 24 episode ofSmackDown!, when Buchanan, The Goodfather and Ivory lost toSteve Blackman,Grand Master Sexay andTrish Stratus in a tag match. Then Ivory and Richards made an appearance forMemphis Championship Wrestling losing toRodrageous andVictoria on June 14, 2001. Following this match, RTC was officially disbanded, with Ivory appearing for the last time under the Right to Censor gimmick on the June 16 episode ofMetal.
Ivory and Richards returned as members ofThe Alliance during theInvasion angle while Venis and Goodfather returned at the2002 Royal Rumble under their old personas. Steven Richards adopted apsychoticgimmick while Bull Buchanan was briefly rebranded asB2 (B-Squared) in 2002 and made a bodyguard forJohn Cena before departing the WWE in January 2003. The rest of the group reverted to their previouspersonas before the advent of the faction. Godfather was released in 2002 (and later inducted into theWWE Hall of Fame in 2016), Ivory in 2005 (inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018), Richards in 2008 and Venis in 2009.
The Right to Censor gimmick returned for one night at the2022 Royal Rumble, when Ivory made a guest appearance in the women'sRoyal Rumble match. Ivory's participation primarily consisted of her cutting a promo deriding the roster's unladylike behaviour; she lasted thirty seconds in the match before being eliminated byRhea Ripley. Buchanan's son,Benjamin, who wrestles as Brooks Jensen, is now signed with the company and, as of 2026, currently performs in itsNXT developmental brand.
The righttocensor.com domain remained active for 19 years even after the group's dissolution; until mid-2002, the address redirected to WWF's/WWE's Superstars website, before WWE lost the domain tosquatters. For unknown reasons, an unknown individual acquired the former website's domain in July 2020 and redirects the righttocensor.com domain to rivalAll Elite Wrestling (AEW)'s website.[5][6] As of May 2024, the domain returned to squatters and contains advertisements for various unrelated services.
