Foley, making his first appearance on the show in a couple months, came out to confront Eric Bischoff and Flair over the fact that they are jeopardizing Mr. Anderson’s health by forcing him to wrestle before he is fully recovered from a concussion.

Flair became enraged. He said that it was Foley who raised the bar in wrestling by jumping off a roof, and that because of him, kids ended up in hospitals and every wrestling company had to take the heat. Foley admitted that he was part of the problem, but now he wants to be part of the solution.

The exchange was every bit as intense as the prior one with Foley and Flair, but the big difference is that this one was much more realistic. It came across as two adversaries legitimately having an argument, rather than a sideshow with guys punching themselves in the face.

Flair still got bug-eyed and red-faced, but he did not go so far over the top that he became a parody of himself. The best part of the segment was Foley knocking the microphone out of Flair’s hand because Flair kept interrupting him when he was trying to make a point.

What also helped make this segment better than the earlier Foley-Flair confrontation is that the topic of concussions and the role that hardcore wrestling plays in them is a lot more compelling than Foley and Flair rehashing their well-publicized strained relationship.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

TNA Television champion Douglas Williams and A.J. Styles had a very good match, although the booking wasn’t the greatest. A 15-minute Iron Man match? Who does that? Each man had won one fall when the time limit expired, and there were no falls during the five-minute overtime period, so the match was declared a draw. That sets up a rematch between the two at the Genesis pay-per-view on Jan. 9. I understand the logic behind booking an inconclusive finish to build up the pay-per-view match, but calling a 15-minute bout an Iron Man match just looks silly. If TNA didn’t want to devote the TV time to a 30-minute match between Williams and Styles, then just have them wrestle a regular, 20-minute time limit match that ends in a draw. …

I did like the post-match angle after the Williams-Styles match. When Styles asked for another title shot at Genesis, Williams turned him down, saying that he had nothing left to prove against him. Williams refusing to accept the challenge might not be what one would expect from a babyface, but I thought it made Williams look pretty smart. He wouldn’t agree to the match unless Styles also put something on the line – his membership in Fortune. When Styles balked, Bischoff – who has been riding Styles as of late – made the stipulation anyway. …

The main event, an eight-man tag team match that saw The Motor City Machine Guns, Matt Morgan and Rob Van Dam defeat Beer Money, Jeff Hardy and Abyss, was decent. The stipulation, however, was a bit nonsensical, as the Guns’ TNA world tag team title was on the line for some reason. …

One of the stories of the main event match was that RVD was finally in the ring against his archrival Hardy but was unable to get his hands on him. TNA is doing all the right things as far as keeping RVD and Hardy apart for as long as possible so that their inevitable meeting feels like a huge deal. However, I don’t get the sense that fans are as excited about RVD versus Hardy as one might expect. Since RVD returned from being “injured” by Abyss, I don’t think he has been over nearly as much as he was before that. …

While I can always appreciate an intense backstage brawl, I think Sarita screaming, “I swear I’ll kill you,” as she choked Velvet Sky with a leather strap was a bit much. For one thing, I still have no idea why Sarita hates Sky so much. For that level of violence, you’d have thought that Sky stole Sarita’s man or something along those lines. …

With Sky unable to compete due to the attack by Sarita, Angelina Love had to go it alone against Madison Rayne and Tara in the finals of the TNA Knockouts tag team title tournament. I thought for sure that meant that Love would put up a valiant effort before ultimately succumbing to the numbers disadvantage. Instead, Winter came out during the match and inserted herself into the contest as Love’s partner. Winter went on to score the winning pin, so she and Love are the new tag champs. I’ll give TNA credit for not being predictable – and I understand how this development sets up some interesting scenarios involving Winter, Love and Sky – but it doesn’t make sense that Winter was allowed to join the match in progress when she was not Love’s original partner. Perhaps TNA will explain it to us on the next Impact. …

I’m not sure who was at fault, but Winter’s finisher – which appeared to be a variation of the Black Hole Slam – on Rayne was badly botched. Since the show was taped and not airing live, an audible should have been called and either the move should have been done again (and thus the botch could have been edited out) or Winter should have hit another move to finish off Rayne. …

After the women’s match was over, Tara glared at Winter and kept asking Rayne, “Who is that?” I guess Tara doesn’t watch Impact. …

It was certainly no surprise that Kazarian won the fourway match over Generation Me and Robbie E. to become the No. 1 contender for Jay Lethal’s X Division title. It’s been obvious the past couple weeks that all of the members of Fortune are going to be getting title shots. …

Once again I was entertained by Jeff Jarrett’s “Double-J Double M-A” segment. This time, Jarrett opened up the challenge to the TNA locker room, but of course he still handpicked his opponent. Not only did he choose the smallest guy on the roster (Amazing Red), but Jarrett gained an advantage right off the bat when his trainer “accidentally” smeared Vaseline in Red’s eyes before the start of the match. …

What in the world was the point of the scene in which Brian Kendrick asked a woman working in catering for a cookie?