Professional Wrestling stable of the WWE.

The Right to Censor was arguably one of the most entertaining storylines of 2000 and 2001 because not only did it bring some real talent to the attention of the fans, but it actually got some fans around the world rethinking their priorities, including myself.

The RTC, as it was known for short, began innocently enough with underutilised wrestler Michael Manna aka Stevie Richards appearing in June 2000 to physically censor an attempted show of frontal nudity.

Slowly but surely, Manna, now calling himself Mr. Steven Richards, began converting people to his philosophy of "cleaning up" the depravity in the WWE, beginning with the partnership of Bull Buchanan, a former prison guard (in the storyline of course), who now continues his law enforcement training to add muscle to Richards' mantra.

Then in July 2000, the unthinkable happened, and the RTC scored a major victory over the "pimp daddy" Godfather, who had tittilated audiences with his entourage of "hos". The arrogant fan-favourite had put his career on the line and lost it. When the RTC next appeared, they brought their newest addition, the "Goodfather" with them, cleaned up and brainwashed to the beliefs of the Right to Censor.

Over the next couple of months, the RTC continued to be a thorn in the side of everyone in the WWE and their numbers grew. After the Goodfather, then, in a very politically correct move, former Women's Champion Ivory and then came "former porn star" Val Venis.

Ivory's addition was particularly interesting especially since many complaints were being made about the way women were being treated in the world of professional wrestling. In real-life, Lisa Moretti (Ivory's real name) is also a strong advocate of proper female wrestling and is against women fighting for the Championship title in Bra and Panties matches, for example.

The RTC angle lasted almost a year and became quite the highlight for fans who usually didn't pay attention to storylines outside the main event.

In actual fact, the RTC was an obvious spoof of the various political groups that had protested the show's vulgar, sexual nature, spearheaded by the L. Brent Bozell III-led Parents Television Council, an ultraconservative group that helped convince some advertisers to pull their ads from the WWE.

Ironically, many of the RTC's arguments did make a whole lot of sense, and the WWE hasn't had quite as much popularity as it used to since.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.