S.L.L.

Here's something I wrote about Kamala a few years back when Segunda Caida was doing a Black History Month special: Here's the thing about Kamala's gimmick. When you become a wrestling fan, you kind of have to accept the overwhelming social backwardness inherent in it. That said, unless you're just an unfettered bigot, you're gonna have to draw the line somewhere. I never had a problem with Kamala as an African savage, the likes of which haven't existed in the real world (at least not in any meaningful numbers) for over a century or more. But if that crosses Jerry or Jerome's line, or anybody else's line for that matter, who am I to tell them that they're wrong and shouldn't be offended? If that's a stopping point for them, I don't think I have the right to say it shouldn't be. Having said that, I think that the "scared animal" thing is part of what makes the gimmick awesome to me. Yes, African savage Kamala often works as cautious backpedaling heel...but lots of heels are cautious and backpedaling. If I really felt like being an asshole, I could ask Jerry why, say, Ric Flair is praised for work as a cautious backpedaling heel, but when a black man does it, he sees a "scared animal", but I'm trying to dial back the needless douchery these days, so I'm not going there. Besides, I already know the probable answer to the question - it's because there's also that "I dun seed a ghost/feets don't fail me know" stereotype of black cowardice, and once we've already applied one old-timey black stereotype to a character, it becomes very easy to see others. Here's the problem: those stereotypes cancel each other out. Think about it. You've seen African savages in media. You've seen cowardly blacks in media. How many cowardly African savages have you seen in media? Any? And no, them getting scared by a white dude with a flashlight or some other piece of modern technology doesn't count. They've encountered something they've never seen before that, for all they know, makes the white guy a god. Them reacting to the white guy the way you would if confronted by aliens is not cowardice. Look, Kamala is supposed to be from Uganda. He's also really fat. What I'm trying to say here is that you don't get to be a really fat Ugandan by being stupid. So where Jerry sees "scared animal", I tend to see "smart African savage". Watching all the Kamala vs. Von Erich matches for the 80's Texas set, I never thought he was wary of the claw because he was scared. I thought he was wary of the claw because he knew from having it locked on him a few times that it was a dangerous hold that could take him out if he wasn't careful. He probably didn't blindly charge lions in the African wilderness, either. That doesn't make him a coward. That makes him smart, at least by the standards of a stereotypical African savage. It's also why, in hindsight, the whole "trying to pin the guy when they're on their stomach" bit from his WWF face run was really bad - it was the first time they portrayed Kamala as actually dumb (he never had this problem before, why does he have it now?) and as someone who had difficulty learning from his experiences. I'm sure that at least some of this is me reading too much into his matches, but probably not as much as it sounds like. Kamala was a savage, yes, but he definitely played it as someone who would actually succeed as a savage.

I liked Putski in Southwest more than I expected, but I'm hesitant to extrapolate from that.

Also, spectacular flippy floppy guys are still getting repped. Just not the Japanese ones.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6eadt_bi...rt#.URRwRmfyDTo Big Bubba Rogers vs. Sting (WCW, 3/19/1995) If you haven't seen this match, I highly recommend it. That said, it feels more like a match you would use to illustrate Sting's greatness than Bubba's. Bubba seems to slip up a few times here (literally at one point where he falls off of the top rope), and he's not as dynamic on offense as he can be. All the same, he does still bring a lot of really good stuff to the match. The whole opening comedy sequence was a bunch of fun, and Bubba was great as the big blowhard getting humiliated. I loved him begging off of Sting threatening his hat. Also, the smug look on his face after Sting hurt his knee when Bubba didn't duck enough during a leapfrog. Without knowing better, I'm assuming that was a botched spot, and that these guys were just savvy enough to build the rest of the match around it rather than let it derail the match. But either way, Bubba's look of pride at how smooth he was for taking down Sting when it was clearly an accident was delightful. Bubba didn't have a lot of ways to work the knee here, but I did appreciate how much he wrenched in what he had. Also, he takes a ridiculous bump off of a German suplex for a guy his size down the stretch. So yeah, not the most dynamic Traylor performance I've looked at, but a very good one in a strong match.

It should be noted that, in some respects, Colt might be hurt by not being pigeonholed enough. Earlier in the thread, Shoe said: You could argue that having Santino and Brodus on the same roster at the same time is overdoing it on the comedy front. I wouldn't make that argument, but it's an argument that can definitely be made. But even if they provide excessive comedy, they don't provide redundant comedy. Santino's "funny Italian stereotype with silly finisher" gimmick is an appreciably different comedy act from Brodus' "funny dancing fat guy of vague ethnicity" gimmick. They have specific routines that make them both unique, and by extension, more valuable to WWE than they otherwise would be. Colt Cabana's gimmick is basically just "funny guy". Not even really a specific type of funny guy. Just "funny guy". I guess you could argue "funny guy who does World of Sport spots", but Santino has been presented as a deceptively athletic guy who can surprise even high-ranking superstars, and Brodus as a hard-hitting big man who didn't back down from the Show when Show was at his most vicious, so I don't know that "this guy can go in the ring" is a meaningful distinction for Colt next to those two guys unless he gets a much, much bigger push than I'd really expect him to get in WWE, which just leaves him as "funny guy". When you have both "funny Italian stereotype with silly finisher" and "funny dancing fat guy of vague ethnicity", I'm not sure what demand there would be for "funny guy". I mean, that's not even really a unique trait on the indies anymore, nevermind WWE. I could throw a penny at any random indy and hit a few shitty Chuck Taylor clones...or, worse yet, I could hit Chuck Taylor. Colt is certainly better than those guys, but I'd argue his selling points in 2013 just don't mean as much as they used to. I know we all joke about WWE wanting him to Jew it up more in his last run there, but honestly, if he wants to get rehired and still work a comedy gimmick, it might not be the worst idea in the world to repackage him with a wrestling Rodney Dangerfield gimmick, or something like that. Colt doing Caddyshack/Back to School "funny Jew who's wealthy but still relates to the common man" actually feels like an act that Cabana could do well and get over with. If he's willing to not be billed from Chicago, Colt as Florida-based real estate magnate who sold a summer home to aristocratic British wrestlers who taught him their style in appreciation gets most of his current pluses in while making his gimmick more salable. And then you could introduce him with vignettes advertising Goldman Real Estate, featuring glowing testimonials from William Regal. I don't know where you go from that, but I think once you get Regal involved, it sort of justifies itself.

The Big Boss Man feeds Pepper to Al Snow (WWF, 9/2/1999) Previously on Traylor of the Day: "It was one of those angles that you saw the WWF dabbling in a lot in the early 90's - stuff that was still accessible to a family audience, but was also darker than what you would usually get from the Rock 'N' Wrestling era. Like most of those angles, this felt far more adult than any of the supposedly "adult" angles of the Attitude and post-Attitude eras, and was a far more rewarding watch." Yeah...I'm not gonna be the asshole who tells you this was secretly a great angle and that you're all pawns of Dave Meltzer for not getting it. I will, however, be the asshole who tells you that this was at least an entertainingly bad angle, and to the extent that it "works", it's because of how committed Boss Man is to selling it. And to Al Snow inexplicably bumping right on his head when he gets thrown over the bed. And the close-up of Jerry Lawler's reaction to the video when it ends. But mostly to how much Boss Man sells it. "THAT'S WHAT HARDCORE IS ABOUT!"

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3nt0z_bi...rt#.URB9AmfnfTo Big Bubba Rogers vs. John Tenta (WCW, 6/16/1996) So, like I was saying earlier, this is a feud that was loathed back when it happened. The RSP-W crowd hated it with a passion, and I don't it fared much better with the WON readers. Even now, those of us who love Traylor and are starting to reconsider Tenta tend to not have a lot good to say about either of them at this point in their careers. So color me mildly surprised that I totally dug this match. Bubba takes a crazy bump from the top rope to the floor right at the start of the match, and things don't let up from there. Bubba eats a quality beating from Tenta, who is laying it in extra hard tonight. Love him repeatedly jumping ass-first into Bubba while he's slumped in the corner, totally brutal looking. Bubba gets a lucky shot in with what we would later find out were the infamous Carson City silver dollars to turn the tide. He really starts working double time in this match. Great sequence with him snapping off the enzuigiri, and then quickly charging in with the rocking horse when Tenta falls into position, followed by two more. His signature baseball slide to the outside followed by an uppercut didn't go as smoothly as usual, but he spends most of the rest of the match seriously wailing on Tenta, so I'm letting it go. There's a little bit of work on Tenta's leg, which looked good, and a really impressive back suplex to the 500-pounder. Unfortunately, we get a really abrupt finish not long afterwards, as Bubba comes off of the top and Tenta catches him with a powerslam for the pin. Tenta manages to get ahold of the scisssors that Bubba had cut his hair with, and cuts his goatee in response. Bubba's post-match freakout is delightful. "HE CUT IT! HE CUT IT OFF!" Good times. So yeah, not a fraction as bad as you were told. It's pretty short, going about 5-6 minutes. I wouldn't put it on the level of their '91 Royal Albert Hall match, but I'd put it ahead of the Survivor Series Showdown '90 match no problem. It crammed a ton of action into it's short running time, and I came away genuinely curious to see more of this reviled feud.

I really like Colt when he's on, but that's not all that often. I dug his comedy act in the past, but Colt was usually a silly character working around serious wrestlers, which made that stuff stand out. Since then, there seems to have been something of a comedy wrestler explosion, and while I'd still take Colt over the majority of the CHIKARA roster, he doesn't stand out from the pack like he used to. Ideally, this would be when he starts making with the great matches more often to counteract that, but he doesn't, so he's just kinda there.

The Big Boss Man vs. Dave Roulette (WWF, 4/29/1992) The squash is solid enough, but of course, the big takeaway from this was Nailz making his debut, jumping out of the crowd and attacking Boss Man. Nailz sucked something fierce, and I guess we'll have to come back later to see how well Boss Man dealt with it in their matches, but for a post-match beatdown angle, he does a great job. His selling is aces, particularly of the nightstick shot to the leg. They put it over on commentary like it broke his leg, and hearing Boss Man scream in agony, you'd believe it. The officials take their sweet time doing something about the guy in the prison jumpsuit assaulting their employee who's been receiving mysterious threats for the past few months, which makes this a little awkward, but otherwise, it was a damn fine angle. It was one of those angles that you saw the WWF dabbling in a lot in the early 90's - stuff that was still accessible to a family audience, but was also darker than what you would usually get from the Rock 'N' Wrestling era. Like most of those angles, this felt far more adult than any of the supposedly "adult" angles of the Attitude and post-Attitude eras, and was a far more rewarding watch.

I don't know if I'll be around for this, but if I am, I'll join you guys.

The Big Boss Man vs. Col. Mustafa (WWF, 10/28/91) I had forgotten that Boss Man was feuding with IRS at this point. Irwin comes out to talk shit at Boss Man, allowing Mustafa to get an early advantage before Boss Man levels him with a clothesline and chases IRS to the back. This was a pretty fun short match. Sheiky Baby doesn't have much left in the tank at this point, though he does break out what I can only describe as a primitive Exploder suplex that made me stand up and take notice. Boss Man does a good job of making the rest of his offense not look totally feeble, and his own offense is killer, including a deadlift vertical suplex and the jumping spinebuster that he uses to win the match. Not a great match, but I doubt there were too many Col. Mustafa matches better than this.

Big Bubba Rogers vs. Bart Sawyer (WCW, July/August? 1995) AWESOME competitive squash. Bubba pushes Sawyer around early, but Sawyer fires back with some swank punches to send Bubba reeling. He hits a dropkick, but Bubba swats a second one right out of the air and then plants him with a nasty jumping spinebuster. Funny moment as Bubba puts Sawyer in an abdominal stretch, and then lets out a primal scream as he grabs the top rope for leverage. The ref makes him let go, so he does the awesome thing of just punching Sawyer in the ribs while he still has him in the stretch. Seriously, Bubba is just on fire here, beating the tar out of Sawyer, shit-talking him, intimidating the ref, and giving Bart plenty of opportunities to sneak in some offense of his own, which also looks really good. Bubba is really good at timing Sawyer's comebacks. Always knows when to let him get one over on him to keep things interesting, sells him as a credible threat if he lets up too much, but also knows when to cut him off before it crosses the line from "competitive squash" to "competitive match". Bubba polishes him off with whatever they called the Boss Man Slam at this point, and I just love that move. Bubba pins Sawyer with one finger on his chest, and you totally buy it. Need to watch more Traylor squash matches, because he strikes me as a guy who may have been a great squash match worker.

any main event matches among that list?? Now here's what I needed: an actual, established troll to provide a point of comparison. Thanks, aceman!

You'll be sorry when everyone's getting along and people start getting bored. REVOLUTION!!!!

Hurricanranas, Planchas, Topes...matches with lots of Spanish named moves is all I got lol. Are you considering those good aspects of lucha or bad aspects of lucha?

Admittedly, I thought this might have been the case after I made my post. I think I may be getting a little cynical about people as of late. You can like and dislike what you want to. I wasn't getting uptight because you disliked something that I liked, but because I thought you were being dishonest. I still don't really get how you managed to pick up on the fact that we tend to like Memphis and Hashimoto, but not that we tend to like lucha and dislike post-comeback Michaels. But that doesn't give me the right to jump to conclusions like that. I'm sorry.

The Big Boss Man vs. Earthquake (WWF, 10/29/90) At some point in this project, I'm gonna have to look back on the Big Bubba/John Tenta matches of '96, because those were brutally panned at the time, and yet, looking back now, it kinda makes sense that that program would happen. I mean, I doubt WCW brass was sharp enough to think about it that way at the time, but Traylor and Tenta were good dance partners for each other in the WWF, and it kinda makes sense that you would pair them with each other again in order to try and reignite their respective flames at a time when they were starting to get burnt out. It may not have worked in '96, but these two did well by each other earlier in the decade. I always point to their Royal Albert Hall match when people ask me if Tenta ever had any good matches, and while I don't think this was as good, it was enjoyable in it's own right. It's hampered by a finish that brings the match to an end just when Act 3 should have been starting, but this was really smartly laid out up until then. One of the things everybody from my generation seems to remember about Bossman is how quick and agile he was for his size. I don't know that this match is the best example of that, but it's a great example of why people remember that. These are two big boys, and the match starts out by Quake asserting that he is the bigger boy by shoving Boss Man into the corner and flexing (because in wrestling, fat = strong!), so Boss Man has to take the advantage by being quicker, outmaneuvering him and socking him in the jaw when he gets the opportunity. He also manages to slip behind Jimmy Hart in one of my favorite parts of the match, and Jimmy comically reaches behind himself to feel Boss Man's face, much to his dismay. Quake retakes the advantage with his power, hits a nasty headbutt, and slaps on a bearhug, and we get a really cool moment were Bossman manages to fight him off. He hits a few headbutts of his own, bites his nose, and claps his ears to get him to release the hold...but as soon as he does, he falls to his knees, because his lower back has been damaged so much by the hold that there was nothing else keeping him upright. I was really struck by it. It was just such a clever way to sell the effects of a bearhug. It's the sort of thing that anyone could do, but not too many are actually smart enough to do. If nothing else, I come away from this match thinking of Boss Man as a guy who knew his craft. Earthquake starts focusing on the lower back after that. I should note that Boss Man was in the midst of a feud with Bobby Heenan at this point, and when Quake takes charge, Heenan comes down from commentary to "apologize" for his wrong-doings towards Boss Man, giving Quake quite the managerial dream team. We even get Jimmy lending Bobby the megaphone for a little while, which is another neat touch in a match filled with them. Boss Man digs down deep and starts fighting back, busting out the enzuigiri I forgot he hard, and getting Quake tied up in the ropes Andre-style, leading to the Edge-style crossbody to the guy in the ropes that I also had forgotten/didn't realize he did. Heenan interferes, and Boss Man chases him to the back and gets counted out, ending the match just when it should have been kicking into high gear. This might have been a high-end match with a little more time, but even without it, it's a fun way to kick this off, and I'd recommend it to fans of either of these guys.

No, no, no, you're doing it all wrong. If the lucha style is garbage, and you identify Shawn's 90's style as lucha style, shouldn't that mean you hate Shawn's 90's work? This is why I always troll by telling the truth. Trolling through lies leaves you open to getting tripped up, especially when you get so overzealous as you did here. It was garbage, but you watched it for years? Why? When I think a show is garbage, I usually don't make it until the end of the episode. Also, someone correct if I'm wrong, but did lucha ever air on Univision outside of the short-lived LLL experiment? I thought it was always a Galavision thing. No, you're gonna have to start again. Like, completely from scratch. New username, pretend you've never been here before...the whole nine yards. The art of the troll is a delicate one, indeed. I don't think you have the touch for it, yet.

You got it, Will. Only problem is that, to be honest, it's been a while since I've sat down and watched a decent sampling of the Boss Man's work. So since I don't have access to Euclid's secret texts that mathematically prove his inferiority, I'm going to have to make like a mincing pinko junkie liberal and actually watch and dissect his body of work. That suits me just fine, though. I became a wrestling fan when The Big Boss Man was at the height of his powers, and I've always had a soft spot for the guy. But unlike other guys I grew up on, that soft spot never went away when I revisited him as an adult, so I'm more than happy to take a deeper look into the career of one Ray Traylor. To that end, I'm going to watch and review a match, interview, or angle from the man every day here and at Segunda Caida until I feel I have a thorough and clear (if not necessarily Complete & Accurate) picture of the man's career. Or until I just get tired of it. Whichever comes first. Also, while I appreciate OJ's willingness to do some legwork of his own on this matter, he and I tend to come at wrestling from different angles, so there will likely be some overlap in terms of matches reviewed, but you might get something from my review of a match that you won't get from his or vice versa. So hook up to the Traylor Hitch, everybody. We're taking a trip down to Cobb County, Georgia, and you better read the signs and respect the law and order. You know what happens if you don't.

He isn't downgraded for being a prick and fucking over people. Lots of guys pimped in this thread were pricks who fucked over people, and it's not held against them. He's downgraded because people feel his great 90's run wasn't as great as some people claim, and that his post-comeback run was downright bad for the most part. So what are we counting as that "90's" run? Barbershop window through Wrestlemania 14(HBK Era)? I guess what could be held against him is the showboating Lucha style or "drama" or whatever. But even if you hate the "Sexy Boy 90's" character, you got to appriciate his top matches from that Era like the 2 ladder bouts with Scott Hall, Jarrett IYH 2, IYH Diesel street fight, IYH v. Foley, KOTR with Bulldog & the British ppv with Bulldog(love this match, Shawn was such a bastard heel. Just always loved Shawn/Davey's chemistry. Power v. Speed) And I would think the consensus on here would be that his 2nd run was better. Seeing as how he wrestled more grounded, smarter matches. Of course you have the 2 Taker matches & the 2 Angle ppv matches, which liked a lot but I can see the flip side of those. But how bout the Orton S-Series match in '07? Best Orton match ever IMO. Plus the Cena Mania bout is the best of Cena's career outside the Punk MITB '11 match IMO. Sure the 2nd run Dx stuff was God-awful, but when it was just veteran Shawn out there it was usually good. Let me first say welcome to the board. Next, I don't think you know this board very well. You forgot to bold the part where he called Shawn's style "showboating lucha style", but yeah. Incidentally, a lot of people here - myself included - do appreciate the top matches from Shawn's 90's run. We just don't think they're enough to make him an all-time great. Anyway, some useful reading material: Would Shawn Michaels Make Your Personal Top 100?

From a certain point of view, you can see whatever you want. From a realistic point of view, I'm clearly not positioning myself as smarter than the room. Clearly not trying to enlighten the room, because - and the room can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong - the position I'm advocating is the one they already hold. I'm not setting myself as smarter than the room. Just smarter than you, at least on this matter. OK. I'm not sure what relevance that has, though, because this is a thread where you are trying to take an idea we would normally accept as a matter of opinion ("I think Million Dollar Man-era DiBiase was better than Ray Traylor") and are trying to turn it into a concrete fact. An opinion is something that can be discussed and argued, and most in this room would be happy to discuss and argue the merits of that opinion. But you don't want to do that with us, because apparently, we are objectively wrong, and you - the smartest person in the room - are going to enlighten us. First, you will state in no uncertain terms that the thing we thought was an opinion is actually a fact. Loss never needed to preface his statements with "in my opinion" because they were self-evidently opinions and it wasn't necessary to explicitly say that they were. You don't need to preface your statements with "in my opinion"...because they're not opinions. At least, not according to you. It is a fact that M$M-era DiBiase is better than Traylor. Anyone who disagrees is just wrong. But what if they have an argument to the contrary? Nope. You're not entertaining the idea. Because that idea is just wrong. And if we even think about disagreeing, you're going to set us straight with a mathematical formula of you own invention. Because when I think of things that are clearly a matter of opinion, I think of...math? No, no, silly me. Here I go thinking this was about opinions again. No the math is there for the only reason math is ever anywhere - to produce cold, hard truths. Thankfully, you were able to tamp down that limp-wristed liberal part of your brain that would have allowed us to have free and open discussions of DiBiase's merits vs. Traylor's merits, so that you could do the right thing and throw us all into the Guantanamo Bay of the hard sciences. I understand. It's for our own good, and you're the only person in the room smart enough to see it.

Ummm....no. That is not the point of disagreement. It's a point of disagreement, yes. Not at all in the way you represented it, but we do disagree over it. Still, not THE point of disagreement. This was not a thread about John Cena. This is a thread about why WWE is in the mess that it's in. I used Cena to illustrate some of my points. But this was never a thread about Cena. Some people who disagreed with my points chose to fixate on Cena, presumably because, as I wrote earlier in the thread.... Bitching about Cena is the easy way out, so naturally, the people who disagreed with me did so by trying to make this a thread about Cena. I have entertained them to a degree, but I've made a point of not straying away from the core of the thread: WWE is fucked up on a far deeper level than just "CENA IS TEH SUXXORS". In fact, despite the nature of his push allegedly being THE point of disagreement, my last post in this thread before Tom revived it had very little at all to do with Cena. I distinctly recall saying.... ....and went on to talk about Punk and Ryback instead. I asked you four questions: And your answer was...to not answer any of them, declare victory due to mysterious "recent events" that "rendered a response superfluous", and then make a point about Dolph Ziggler that was so mind-blowingly stupid that it forced you to quietly retract it in your next post: Then what was the point of pointing out Ziggler's gross mismanagement? But you know what? I don't even really want to know the answer to that question, because it's just a dodge. It's just an excuse to focus on Cena and take the easy way out rather than taking the hard, scary route of actually looking at the real problems of current WWE and what could/should be done to affect real change. If you don't want to do that...well, like you said, no one's paying you to post here. But if you were desperate enough for validation to post that "Cena isn't booked like a less successful Mulkey brother, therefore I was right the whole time," you're probably not going to stop now.

That part of you is right, and it has nothing to do with being a limp-wristed liberal, and everything to do with wrestling quality not being something meant to be determined via a mathematical formula. I'm not saying there's no value to it, but if there is, it's something you'd do for kicks just to see how wrestlers fare when held up to a certain standard, not something you use to derive hard, conclusive, scientific answers from. There are none. Also, do you see how saying that "I am not entertaining the idea that he was a better worker than Ted in WWF because that idea is not only wrongheaded but also just wrong," effectively denying any opposing view the right to even be stated, nevermind seriously considered, and then inventing a mathematical formula essentially to shut down even the remotest possibility of a contrary opinion might be perceived as you trying to be smarter than the room? I mean, seriously, at this point, why not just start a religion that says Ted's WWF run was awesome. Then you have science AND God to back you up.

He isn't downgraded for being a prick and fucking over people. Lots of guys pimped in this thread were pricks who fucked over people, and it's not held against them. He's downgraded because people feel his great 90's run wasn't as great as some people claim, and that his post-comeback run was downright bad for the most part.

Sure they have. Really? You had nearly two months to formulate a response to what I wrote, and in the end, the best you could come up with was "Cena is booked like Barry Horowitz, therefore your argument is invalid"? Really? You're really going with that? Really? Really? I don't normally demand people agree with what I have to say. Usually happy just to have people hear me out. And while that's still true here, I will note that saying "you know what, SLL, you've got a point there" does leave you with more dignity than the above response. Saying "SLL, you don't have a point, but I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree" leaves you with more dignity than the above response. Simply ignoring my last post and walking away from this thread entirely leaves you with more dignity than the above response. When "the grossly mismanaged company ace is presented as higher profile than the grossly mismanaged upper midcarder, therefore he isn't grossly mismanaged" is the best comeback you've got, it means it's time to pack it in, because you've got nothing left. The fact that you went ahead and posted it anyway means that you're so pathetically desperate to have your opinions validated by others that I honestly start to feel sorry for you. I was having fun in this thread, shooting down dopey smark talking points while expanding upon some of my core philosophies of wrestling and their application to the business' current malaise. But this? This isn't fun. This is embarrassing.