Where'd you get that Tony and everyone was kicking up to Junior? Junior only got the kick up's from the rackets he controlled , that was the deal he and Tony made after Jackie died and Tony walked into Juniors social club and told him he wanted Junior to be boss. Tony only controlled two rackets at the time, but they were the major money makers for the DiMeo Crime Family, which they were a part of, which was Barone Sanitation and I think webistics, not sure. Junior's main racket was the cocaine, I think, and he merely got a percentage from one or two routes of Barrone, because when they're hugging and talking this all out , Junior kind of hesitates to agree to Tony's demands, but agrees ultimately because he was finally "the boss", which is all Junior ever really wanted.
More evidence that everyone wasnt kicking up to Junior , is after Chris is back on the streets after being kidnapped by the Russians on Juniors orders and after Mikey Palmice whacks Brendan, Chris goes to get the money from the "yo-yo" for the drugs that he's being given to sell by the DiMeo's through Tony and Chris. And thats when "Yo-Yo" tells Chris that he didnt have the money, because he got a visit from Juniors guys, which they told him, that "from now on everything goes to Junior", thus he gave all the money to Junior basically. Chris proceeds to beat him up, robs him, and goes back and relays the message to Tony. If everyone was kicking up to Junior, then wouldnt he have already been getting that money? Granted this is all while Jackie is dying in the hospital. And even with the Hesh situation, Junior never gets the original amount of money he approached Hesh for, Hesh goes to Tony, who then goes to Johnny Sack and they basically manipulate the whole situation to Hesh & Tony's advantage and Junior doesnt know anything about it , and in order to get Junior to fall for everything , they spend the whole meeting stroking his ego. That was Juniors biggest weakness, his ego. You could basically manipulate him in any situation by stroking his ego. And when Junior was boss, in title, Tony wasn't a Capo, he was the Street Boss, as seen in the FBI chart , which they rearrange after Jackie dies.
You are messing up the entire timeline of the season 1 and 2.
Tony started the show as a capo who was basically running things while Jackie was fighting caner. When Jackie died, Junior made his power play by killing Brandan and moving in on on Tony (by taking Yo Yo Mendez's kickup money). After that, Tony and Junior settle their beef by letting Junior become boss. All the capos agreed to let Junior have his day so he can be the focus of the FBI. Despite Tony running things behind his back, Junior was still the actual boss of the family. He named Mikey his consig, taxed Hesh and ordered hits. He wasn't a front boss or anything. It's only after Junior gets arrested that Tony takes over and lets Junior be a front boss while Tony is acting/street boss. Junior even tells Tony in one episode "I'm still the boss off this family despite what arrangements have been made."
