If IRS Stayed During the Attitude Era?

[Deleted]

He would've been perfect as one of Vinces stooges.

[hassanchop]

He’d form a WWE version of the Varsity Club with Kurt Angle and Bob Backlund and if he stays, Dr. Death Steve Williams.

[Limity (BLM)]

Jun 21, 2021 22:11:08 GMT -5 Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) said:

Jun 21, 2021 21:40:33 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

Not to shift the focus too much, but The Godfather was such a strong number 2 for so long. He’s definitely a case of a guy who got pushed so hard and did so well that without pushing him to the main event he just seemed to be spinning in place after a while. Which he did for a while. Then the spin slowed down until the RTC run happened.

I get the argument that you can’t make a Blaxploitation pimp your champ. I think that is more a longterm booking problem though. If he’s a transitional champ it’s less of a problem. I didn’t mean to say he should have taken Rock or Austin’s place or anything. In more recent eras where we’ve had two top belts, I could definitely see him as World Champ while the WWE Title was the top belt.

This is one of those things were everyone had a good gimmick and was massively over but with that gimmick, you could not make him champion

He was not winning the title with that gimmick, even transitional. If he was that over as Papa Shango, he probably would have 

This is a really interesting point. You had so many gimmicks in the attitude era that were massively popular, moved merchandise like crazy, and made the wrestlers popular.

BUT, those very same gimmicks limited the ability of the wrestlers to move up the card. It was like massive short term success with no ability to translate that into long term growth.

Has there been another era like that? My first thought was the new generation era, but even then almost everyone except pretty much Bret Hart had an outlandish and colorful gimmick, and a clown had as much of a chance as a dump truck driver to win a title.

[4real]

Feud with Austin because he didn’t pay his beer taxes
Feud with Kane because he didn’t pay his pyro tax
Feud with HHH because he didn’t pay his Sledgehammer tax
Feud with Steve Blackman because he didn’t pay his kendo stick tax
Feud with Dudleyz because they didn’t pay their table tax
Feud with Mick Foley because all his multiple personalities are tax cheats!

And it goes on like this.

[hassanchop]

Here’s another he’s revealed to be the higher power. And the druids from 95 show up and reveal themselves as Tatanka, Nikolai, and other former Million Dollar Corp members.

[James Fabiano]

Jun 21, 2021 19:22:22 GMT -5 Limity (BLM) said:

At first I couldn't imagine IRS fitting in, but on second thought he could have been a great addition to the Corporation. Make him less of the cartoony IRS, and more like a cold, ruthless Accountant type. His catchphrase, "It's just business."

In this alternate timeline, Bossman would come back in his updated look, and we'd still have the IRS/Wallstreet and Bossman/Bubba team. Only it's for the Corporation and not some pact to stop Hacksaw Jim Duggan and his taped fists.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Jun 22, 2021 6:38:09 GMT -5 James Fabiano said:

Jun 21, 2021 19:22:22 GMT -5 Limity (BLM) said:

At first I couldn't imagine IRS fitting in, but on second thought he could have been a great addition to the Corporation. Make him less of the cartoony IRS, and more like a cold, ruthless Accountant type. His catchphrase, "It's just business."

In this alternate timeline, Bossman would come back in his updated look, and we'd still have the IRS/Wallstreet and Bossman/Bubba team. Only it's for the Corporation and not some pact to stop Hacksaw Jim Duggan and his taped fists.

Their team name could be Tax Law.

Or had that been used already?

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I actually think a gritty version of IRS that smoked cigarettes and insulted people and actively cheated on his accounts all the time would definitely get over. He could slam people on an analogue abacus.

[XIII]

He’d definitely try to tax The Godfather’s ho profits before accepting the ho’s as a payoff.

[krozor]

Huge IRS face turn when he strips The Ministry of its non-profit status when it's revealed that they are in league with The Corporation. IRS himself saves Austin when Vince reveals himself as the Higher Power, and we get the famous call of "He didn't do it for love of Steve Austin, he did it because The Ministry was violating a number of codes as a tax shelter for The Corporation!"

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Jun 21, 2021 22:09:35 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

Jun 21, 2021 21:33:39 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

And then this happened and pretty much hurt them for a while (though Val would get a later Tag Title reign as Chief Morely):


Had to find a picture with white-pants Val. Wonder why he was allowed that bit of "individuality" as it were (Ivory's I can understand in a way).

When Val joined they were trying to make him the star.

Which is ironic because of all the RTC members he ended up getting the least out of it. Richards was the leader and focal point of it, Ivory was Women's Champion, and Bull and Goodfather were Tag Team Champions. Val really never had a clear cut role in it. I guess he was the primary male single wrestler of the group but there was so much talent even in the midcard at that point he just kind of got lost in the shuffle and kind of floundered.

[sungod2020]

Jun 22, 2021 20:57:15 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

Jun 21, 2021 22:09:35 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

When Val joined they were trying to make him the star.

Which is ironic because of all the RTC members he ended up getting the least out of it. Richards was the leader and focal point of it, Ivory was Women's Champion, and Bull and Goodfather were Tag Team Champions. Val really never had a clear cut role in it. I guess he was the primary male single wrestler of the group but there was so much talent even in the midcard at that point he just kind of got lost in the shuffle and kind of floundered.

What's more ironic is that he was the IC champion just before and was even part of a big historic moment at Fully Loaded where Rikishi jumped off the steel cage and landed on him. He could've had the IC title reign that Billy Gunn(who could never get over as a single's star despite WWF trying so hard to push him) had, which would make the RTC even more dominant, but then that leaves Richards, the leader of the group, the only one without a championship.

Naturally as the leader, it would make sense to have him as WWF champion, but up until that point(and even after the group disbanded) he was a comedy jobber, it would've looked silly for him to have the main gold, especially with guys like The Rock, a just returning "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Triple H, Kurt Angle, and sometimes Undertaker and Kane occupying the top spots that he would've been an odd fit, even at his highest profile, so in a sense, I can see why things did pan out the way the did for the group.

I do remember a Rewriting The Book on this website of "What if Rikishi Didn't Run Over Stone Cold" where the RTC played a huge role in bringing the WWF into chaos and I feel if the company booked them that way, we would've seen the group much more fondly than we did IRL. I recommend you check it out when you get a chance.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Jun 22, 2021 21:28:31 GMT -5 sungod2020 said:

Jun 22, 2021 20:57:15 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

Which is ironic because of all the RTC members he ended up getting the least out of it. Richards was the leader and focal point of it, Ivory was Women's Champion, and Bull and Goodfather were Tag Team Champions. Val really never had a clear cut role in it. I guess he was the primary male single wrestler of the group but there was so much talent even in the midcard at that point he just kind of got lost in the shuffle and kind of floundered.

What's more ironic is that he was the IC champion just before and was even part of a big historic moment at Fully Loaded where Rikishi jumped off the steel cage and landed on him. He could've had the IC title reign that Billy Gunn(who could never get over as a single's star despite WWF trying so hard to push him) had, which would make the RTC even more dominant, but then that leaves Richards, the leader of the group, the only one without a championship.

Naturally as the leader, it would make sense to have him as WWF champion, but up until that point(and even after the group disbanded) he was a comedy jobber, it would've looked silly for him to have the main gold, especially with guys like The Rock, a just returning "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Triple H, Kurt Angle, and sometimes Undertaker and Kane occupying the top spots that he would've been an odd fit, even at his highest profile, so in a sense, I can see why things did pan out the way the did for the group.

I do remember a Rewriting The Book on this website of "What if Rikishi Didn't Run Over Stone Cold" where the RTC played a huge role in bringing the WWF into chaos and I feel if the company booked them that way, we would've seen the group much more fondly than we did IRL. I recommend you check it out when you get a chance.

They were trying to push Gunn as a big babyface at that point and he was a part of the whole Chyna/Eddie storyline so him taking the belt off Eddie made sense. I guess you could argue that Val could've got Benoit's spot as the heel to take the belt off Gunn since they were feuding around that time anyways over Val and Ivory spike piledriving Chyna and injuring her neck and it then would've given all the RTC lackey's gold that being if they also had decided to keep the tag belts on Goodfather and Bull longer instead of once again going back to their default safety pick of Edge and Christian who were similar to Charlotte and New Day in modern WWE where they just throw the belts back on them when they don't know what to do with them or someone isn't working out. Benoit was definitely a bigger commodity though and Val kind of flopped during his last chance just a few months earlier so I think they made the right choice with going the route of Billy getting retribution for Chyna against Eddie and then Benoit stepping in for the Radicalz to get the job done against Billy whom Eddie had been having no luck against.

[Limity (BLM)]

Jun 22, 2021 13:12:29 GMT -5 krozor said:

Huge IRS face turn when he strips The Ministry of its non-profit status when it's revealed that they are in league with The Corporation. IRS himself saves Austin when Vince reveals himself as the Higher Power, and we get the famous call of "He didn't do it for love of Steve Austin, he did it because The Ministry was violating a number of codes as a tax shelter for The Corporation!"

I love this idea on so many levels. It taps into the long running joke of everyone being afraid of the IRS (even the Joker), and the image of IRS agents descending on the Corporate Ministry, and the Undertaker and Paul Bearer trying to provide receipts for things, and show that their funeral home is a separate asset, is a scene that rivals the very end of Monty Python's Holy Grail in absurd humor.