They had a shot, but they failed the same way Galante failed on the zips. They undermined and disregarded the zips in the family. Sonny Red owed money to the Rizzutos in a drug deal and had not paid them back. Lucky Phil had a lot of respect from other high up family members in other families. Phil made the mistake of not killing Joe Massino when he had the chance. Half of the capos were on their side with a few more on the fence. How they conducted and did business with everyone else up to them getting killed, is what made them only having five crews with them. The hit was a master stroke in by taking out both Sonny Red and Lucky Phil, no one would try to take over the family from Rastelli, eventhough Rastelli was doing a lousy job from prison. Only revenge killings which is why they worried about Bruno Indelicato, and Tommy Karate, who's antics against Gene Gotti and Angelo Ruggerio of the Gambino family, and an unidentified Capo in the Colombo crime family made those families to support Sonny Black and Massino. So they ordered contracts on them, but they were later pulled, when Pistone was revealed to be an FBI agent.