With that being said, however, it was refreshing to see a heel go over clean. I’ve been saying pretty much since the inception of this blog more than three years ago that Roode should get a big singles push, and this match was just another example of why I believe that.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The angle with Jeff Jarrett and Amazing Red was predictable but I still thought it went over well. The huge guy playing Red’s “baby brother” is named Tommy Mercer, an Ohio-based wrestler who recently signed with TNA. It was quite a debut, as he had Jarrett in an ankle lock and about to tap out before Jarrett’s goons made the save and Jarrett ran away. ...

I liked the concussion angle with Mr. Anderson when it first began, but having Matt Morgan, Mick Foley and the announcers constantly telling Anderson that he shouldn’t wrestle is getting a little old. ...

I didn’t care for Bully Ray and Brother Devon being the mystery tag team partners for Anderson and Morgan, respectively. TNA had been doing a really good job of building anticipation for the Ray-Devon match at the Genesis pay-per-view on Jan. 9 by teasing physical confrontations between the two but always keeping them apart. Even though they didn’t have a whole lot of physical contact in this match, I would not have had them touch until Genesis. ...

The ending to the Morgan/Devon versus Anderson/Ray match made sense from a story line standpoint – Morgan went to deliver a discus clothesline to Ray, but he ducked and Morgan nailed Anderson and pinned him – but the way the announcers played it up didn’t make sense. They kept asking if Morgan did it on purpose or if it was a mistake? It looked pretty obvious that he was trying to hit Ray, but what difference does it really make? Morgan and Anderson were on opposite sides, and Morgan has already said that when the bell rings he’s going to do what he has to do. ...

Foley being taken out in handcuffs while he still had Mr. Socko on his hand was unintentionally funny – or perhaps it was intentional. ...

I know a lot of fans don’t care at all for “sports entertainment” segments, but I can appreciate them. Like anything, there are good ones and bad ones. The New Year’s Eve party with Eric Young, Orlando Jordan, Shark Boy and Brian Kendrick was one of the truly awful, groan-inducing, waste-of-time ones. ...

Speaking of awful, the person responsible for writing Kazarian’s promo should be seeking employment in something that they might actually be good at. ...

I know it’s a story line, but seeing Ric Flair with his arm around Eric Bischoff (as opposed to having his hands around his throat) is surreal. ...

I liked that A.J. Styles used Douglas Williams’ Rolling Chaos finisher to win the tag team match that pitted Styles and Rob Terry against Williams and Magnus, although Styles wasn’t real smooth in executing it. ...

One would think that Magnus teaming with former fellow British Invasion member Williams isn’t going to sit well with Magnus’ regular tag team partner, Desmond Wolfe, when he returns. ...

The Sarita-Velvet Sky strap match had problems. The strap slipped off twice, including when Sarita touched the fourth turnbuckle for the win. Shouldn’t the strap coming off have voided Sarita’s victory and forced the match to continue? Also, the ending to the match – Sky dragged Sarita to three corners, but unbeknownst to her, Sarita also was slapping the turnbuckles – is so overdone. Is it written somewhere that every strap match has to have that finish? ...

Madison Rayne was channeling her inner Vickie Guerrero with her over-the-top screeching, but she isn’t nearly as entertaining as Guerrero. ...

Why was Rayne so embarrassed and frantically trying to cover herself up when Mickie James stripped her down to her bra and panties? It wasn’t much more revealing than what she usually wears to the ring.