Mick Foley is one of the all-time best when it comes to cutting a strong promo to get an angle over. He did so for more than a decade in WWE and ECW, and last night on Impact he came through for TNA.

It wasn’t up there with some of his all-time classics, but Foley still did an effective job of hyping his return to the ring on Sunday at the Genesis pay-per-view. He acknowledged that age and injuries have taken a toll on him, but he also passionately reminded fans of just who he was. He capped off the promo with a great line: “I may not be as good as I once was, but for one night I’ll be as good as I ever was.”

Time will tell if the promo was enough to entice people to shell out $30 for yet another Foley comeback match (this time in a six-man tag). Then again, if the buy rate for Genesis does end up being above what TNA usually does (around 20,000 to 30,000 buys, according to The Wrestling Observer), it might be because of the Kurt Angle-Jeff Jarrett match more than Foley’s return.

Angle versus Jarrett has been booked as the real main event of the show, overshadowing the TNA world title match between Sting and Rhino. The question is whether viewers were turned off by the controversial referencing of Jarrett’s deceased wife and his three young daughters in the buildup. For me, it ruined what otherwise was a strong angle between two outstanding performers.

I think the angle would have been just as intense without the tasteless remarks. Rather than specifically bringing up Jarrett’s wife and talking about making his three daughters orphans, Angle could have said something like this: “When it comes to Jeff Jarrett, I don’t care about anything except destroying him and ruining his life. I have no sympathy for him whatsoever. I will show him no mercy and I will have no remorse.”

I think everyone would have been able to read between the lines.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

Angle continues to amaze me in the ring. It’s one thing to have good matches with other top workers, but Angle, despite all of his serious injuries over the years, is still able to get very good matches out of average workers. I didn’t expect a whole lot from his match with B.G. James, but Angle carried him to an entertaining main event match. …

Please tell me Robert Roode and James Storm are turning babyface. It’s not that I want them to turn; I think they are great heels. If they don’t, however, then the way they were booked last night makes absolutely no sense. Once again, the Rough Cuts segment made them come off as very likable guys. Roode, in particular, was totally out of character. I felt like I was watching the soft-spoken, humble guy who sat down for an interview with me at Universal Studios last year, not an obnoxiously rich, woman-abusing jerk.

In addition to the warm and fuzzy Rough Cuts spot, Roode and Storm were portrayed as gutsy and sympathetic when dropping the tag team title to Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed.

Speaking of the title change, the manner in which Lethal and Creed won the belts didn’t do them any favors as far as being credible champions. Not only did they basically wrestle a handicap match (Storm worked most of the way himself because Roode was selling a knee injury), but they still needed to KO Storm with a briefcase to gain the victory. …

Despite the gaps in logic, I have enjoyed the Sheik Abdul Bashir-Shane Sewell angle. Bashir has always played his character well, and Sewell has been a pleasant surprise in his role. TNA has done a great job of getting the fans to care about Sewell, a guy who has been around for years but never made a name for himself outside of Puerto Rico. …

It’s always good to see Jim Cornette on television. TNA booked him to look like a fool in the Bashir-Sewell story line, but Cornette is talented enough to make just about anything work. I wish TNA had more for him to do on camera since Mick Foley has basically replaced him as an authority figure. As I have said in the past, it would be awesome if Cornette joined the Main Event Mafia ala J.J. Dillon and the Four Horsemen. Even better, what about him managing The Motor City Machine Guns to give them a rub?…

I wish Alex Shelley and Eric Young would have been given more time instead of having to rush through their match. …

After having to sit through the Beautiful People/Sarah Palin skits week after week, there better be one heck of a payoff. At the very least I hope it results in Palin impersonator Shannon Spruill (formerly Daffney in WCW) getting a contract.