New TNA world champion Mick Foley was all over Thursday’s night’s episode of TNA Impact. He cut a promo to open the show, sat in on commentary and did a post-match run-in to close it, and was featured in a number of vignettes in between.

If you’re not a big Foley fan, you probably hated the show. Fortunately, I like Foley and found most of it entertaining.

Until Foley’s chair shot on Jeff Jarrett at the end of the program, all of his appearances were played for laughs. That’s not the approach I expected coming off his title win over Sting in a bloody cage match Sunday at the Lockdown pay-per-view. I figured that Cactus Jack would deliver an intense promo on the show, but instead we had Foley playing insincere heel and making jokes.

I think it worked, though. The idea behind Foley’s character is that he isn’t in his right mind and you never know which of his personas is going to show up. That air of unpredictability keeps things interesting. For example, after Foley repeatedly made jokes at Jarrett’s expense while doing commentary on Jarrett’s match with Scott Steiner, he inexplicably saved him from a post-match attack by Steiner and Kurt Angle. Then he proceeded to whack Jarrett with a chair.

Bang! Bang!

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

Foley carrying the championship belt with him everywhere he went in the vignettes was pretty funny. My favorite bit was when Foley tipped his blind masseuse a dollar and told her it was a twenty. When she knew he was lying, he gave her a hundred and said that he can afford it now that he’s a champion. I also laughed when Foley was signing autographs at the airport simply as “The Champ,” and when he ran away from a female autograph seeker. …

The Steiner-Jarrett weapons match was fun for what it was. Can you believe in the same night on TV we had Finlay singing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” to Hornswoggle, and Steiner jumping on a pogo stick? I loved Foley’s reference to Mr. Pogo, which probably went over a lot of people’s heads. …

They are teasing that Bobby Lashley is coming in as a heel, as Angle smiles when he shows up while Jarrett looks worried. I’m not buying it. Lashley has to be a babyface. Hopefully someone can teach him to cut a decent promo. …

Where was Sting? It’s possible that I missed it, but was it ever acknowledged that he wasn’t there? …

The Beer Money-Lethal Consequences match was good, but I would like to have seen it go a few more minutes. …

A long-standing problem with TNA story lines is that it seems as if there is dissension within every team and faction, thus the impact is lessened in each instance. In a lot of cases, partners or groups haven’t been established long enough for anyone to care when they tease breaking up.

I can’t even keep track of how many times A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe have gone back and forth between being friends and enemies (Joe told Styles Thursday that he has no friends). And I have no idea why Sharmell doesn’t like Jenna Morasca. Sharmell said she was “tired of this” after arguing with Morasca. Tired of what? At least let it build for a while before they start trying to attack each other. Plus, do we really need more in-fighting in The Main Event Mafia? …

I like the possibilities of a feud between new TNA women’s champion Angelina Love and Awesome Kong. TNA has been searching for months for someone to replace Gail Kim as the top women’s babyface, and it turns out that it’s their No. 1 heel. To go all the way with Kong as a babyface, TNA should have Raisha Saeed turn on her. Kong then responds by destroying Saeed, who is never seen again. A month or two later, Cheerleader Melissa joins TNA as a new character and it is never acknowledged that she was Saeed. …

Having Sojo Bolt and Taylor Wilde wrestle in a ladder match for a shot at Love seemed incredibly random. Bolt isn’t over at all, but, in all fairness to her, it’s hard to get the audience to care about you when no one knows from week to week whether you’re a face or a heel.