Since the Four Horsemen became a staple of WCW television in the mid-1980s, pro wrestling has experienced many dominant heel factions over the years, including WWE’s Evolution and WCW’s own New World Order. Since its founding in 2002, Impact Wrestling (formerly known as TNA) had a few of its own including an all-star group of veterans called the Main Event Mafia.
Featuring big names like Sting, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Kevin Nash, and Scott Steiner, Main Event Mafia sought to beat respect into the younger members of the Impact roster during its initial run from 2008 to 2009. Let’s check out everything fans should know about MEM, including their surprising reformation as heroes.
10 Formed In Response To Younger Talent
The earliest shots fired in the formation of the Main Event Mafia involved Kurt Angle turning on AJ Styles and Sting turning heel on Samoa Joe and aligning with Booker T. This would lead to a match between Sting and Samoa Joe at Bound for Glory 2008 for Joe’s Impact World Title, during which Kevin Nash — also turning heel — helped Sting defeat Joe for the belt.
Following that event, MEM would officially form during a promo on Impact’s weekly show, with the initial lineup being Booker T, Kevin Nash, Sting and Kurt Angle as the group’s leader.
9 Opposed By The Front Line
In response to the newly created Main Event Mafia, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe formed an alliance of their own, asking other younger roster members to join up.
Initially called the TNA Originals and later The Front Line, the group included Christopher Daniels, Jay Lethal, and the Motor City Machine Guns. But they also got a few veterans on their side like Team 3D and Rhyno, all of whom had a bone to pick with the Main Event Mafia.
8 Legends Championship
The Main Event Mafia storyline involved the creation of a new championship that would stick around for eight years. For several weeks, Booker T carried around a mysterious briefcase, eventually revealing that it contained a new title called the Legends Championship. Awarding it to himself, Booker T would defend the title only on his terms.
Initially an unsanctioned vanity Championship, the Legends Title ended up becoming an official part of Impact after Booker T lost the belt to AJ Styles. Until its deactivation in 2016, the title changed names a few times, becoming known as the Television Championship and the King of the Mountain Championship.
7 Kurt Angle Lost Leadership
While MEM initially formed in helping Sting win the World Championship, eventually the belt ended up in the hands of Mick Foley. At Sacrifice 2009, both Sting and Kurt Angle challenged for the belt in the main event four-way Ultimate Sacrifice match, with Angle putting his MEM leadership on the line while Sting put his whole career on the line.
The high risk paid off, with Sting becoming World Champion and the new leader of Main Event Mafia, but Angle would re-assume control after the rest of the group ousted Sting, unhappy with his leadership.
6 Controlled All The Belts
The Main Event Mafia dominance over Impact hit new levels by the end of 2009’s Hard Justice pay-per-view, during which the group would come out holding every men's title in the company, with Booker T and Scott Steiner as Tag Team Champions, Kevin Nash as Legends Champion, the treacherous Samoa Joe as X Division Champion, and Kurt Angle as World Champion.
This impressive reign over a majority of Impact would only last about a month with Angle’s loss of the World Title to rival AJ Styles.
5 Scott Steiner Was The Last Man Standing
By the end of 2009’s Bound For Glory, the Main Event Mafia held no championships, and further developments signaled the end of the group as Kurt Angle and Kevin Nash both turned face, while Booker T left the company to return to WWE.
The last man standing would be Scott Steiner, who maintained the anti-youth ethos of the group and continued to rep MEM in his outfits until his own departure from the company in early 2010.
4 Reunited To Fight Aces & Eights
After an abortive attempt to bring the group back to combat Immortal, Main Event Mafia reunited in 2013 to oppose a different dominant heel faction. Since mid-2012, the Impact Zone was plagued by the presence of the biker gang Aces & Eights, composed of Bully Ray, Devon, D-Low Brown, D.O.C. (a.k.a. Doc Gallows), Taz, and Mr. Anderson.
When Bully Ray defeated Sting for the World Title at Slammiversary 10 in a bout where Sting’s ability to challenge for the belt ever again was on the line, the Stinger responded by bringing back the Main Event Mafia as a heroic group. Sting would announce a new member of the group every week, with the initial lineup being himself, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, and Magnus (a.k.a. Nick Aldis).
3 Added Rampage Jackson To The Group
At the time of the Aces & Eights storyline, Impact had a bit of cross-promotion going on with Bellator MMA, which ran its events on Spike TV in the US. As part of that relationship, Impact brought in fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson to join the Main Event Mafia, with real-life rival Tito Ortiz as his counterpart in Aces & Eights.
Jackson even stepped into the ring, joining MEM in a ten-man tag match on an episode of Impact. However, after a couple of months, Bellator pulled both fighters from Impact to not affect Jackson and Ortiz’s actual PPV MMA fight.
2 Sting Dissolved The Group
After numerous clashes with Aces & Eights, including a five-on-five tag team match where the wrestler pinned would have to leave Impact (Devon took the pin) MEM would move on to a feud with another faction. After a brief feud with the Extraordinary Gentleman’s Organization — Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Bobby Roode — members of MEM wanted to take part in a World Title tournament.
Seeing the writing on the wall, Sting announced the dissolution of the Main Event Mafia, as the group had accomplished its goals in opposing Aces & Eights.
1 Attended A Funeral For Aces & Eights
Eventually, Aces & Eights ended due to its own in-fighting, with former member Mr. Anderson defeating leader Bully Ray in a No DQ match that ended the group for good. As an epilogue to the storyline, Anderson held a half-hearted funeral for the group, which was attended by the non-MMA members of MEM as well as Eric Young and commentator Mike Tenay.
This underrated funny segment involved moments like Young crying over the turkey suit he was burying with the casket and Samoa Joe divvying up a six-pack of beer among the attendees.