In pro wrestling, one can expect the star wrestlers to headline a given pay-per-view event, since they’re generally considered the top draws of a given company. In Impact Wrestling’s 20-year history, there have been loads of guys frequenting the main event scene, including Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, and Sting in the 2000s, AJ Styles, Bully Ray, and Bobby Lashley in the 2010s, and Moose, Josh Alexander, and Eddie Edwards today.
However, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes Impact will feature something in the main event that isn’t a singles bout for the World Title, like a multi-man gimmick match or a “secondary” title. As a result, a number of surprising Impact stars have headlined PPV events for the company.
10 Elix Skipper
One of the most underrated Impact talents of the 2000s, “Primetime” Elix Skipper was a former staple of late period WCW’s cruiserweight division, and in Impact was in a stable called Triple X with Christopher Daniels and Low-Ki.
For 2004’s Turning Point pay-per-view, Skipper and Daniels main evented, taking on America’s Most Wanted in a Six Sides of Steel cage match that wasn’t for a title, but for the future of their respective teams. Chris Harris and James Storm would win, but Elix Skipper would steal the show thanks to a hurricanrana off the top of the cage that shows up in Impact highlight reels to this day.
9 Heath
Formerly known as WWE’s resident hapless comic relief Heath Slater, in Impact Heath not only found himself without a last name, but also without a ceiling. While he still pals around in the tag team division with his WWE tag team partner Rhino, Heath once managed to get himself a world title shot at Moose — in the main event the 2022 edition of Sacrifice, to boot.
However, Heath would come up short in his challenge, eating a Spear for the three-count.
8 Monty Brown
Ask any long-time Impact fans who the company dropped the ball on the hardest, and they’ll likely say Monty Brown. A former NFL linebacker, Brown proved to be charismatic on-screen and exciting in the ring, becoming popular with fans until he was randomly made one of Jeff Jarrett’s henchmen, killing all his momentum.
Because of that injustice, it’s easy to forget that he actually main evented some PPVs, too, including two World Title matches: one against Jarrett at Final Resolution 2005 and one against Christian Cage at Destination X 2006.
7 Sean Waltman
Formerly known as X-Pac, Syxx, 1-2-3 Kid, and myriad variations on those names, Sean Waltman was a veteran by the time he started showing up in Impact Wrestling. While he was a talented in-ring performer, Waltman was also never really a main event guy — fans were likely too sick of him — which makes it surprising that he headlined an Impact PPV.
It was at Slammiversary 2005 that the former X-Pac took part in the main event King of the Mountain match, vying for AJ Styles’ NWA World Heavyweight Title alongside Raven, Abyss, and the above-mentioned Monty Brown.
6 Ron Killings
A former two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Ron Killings — better known to modern fans as R-Truth in WWE — obviously headlined some shows during the weekly pay-per-view era of Impact. However, by the time Impact switched to the traditional model of weekly TV and monthly PPVs, Killings was a member of the midcard faction 3 Live Kru, and main evented two pay-per-views after that group had disbanded.
At Lockdown 2006, Killing took part in the Lethal Lockdown cage match alongside AJ Styles, Rhino, and Sting, and then two months later took part in the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary.
5 Diamond Dallas Page
Given that his heyday was in WCW followed by a run in WWE where he was criminally misused, it’s forgivable that fans likely don’t even remember Diamond Dallas Page making appearances in the Impact Zone, much less having a main event pay-per-view singles match. It was at Destination X 2005 that DDP got to headline, challenging Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Moreover, it was a “Ringside Revenge” match, meaning that there were a bunch of wrestlers on the floor to interfere in the proceedings, including Monty Brown who turned heel during this match to help Double-J get the win.
4 Cute Kip
Like Sean Waltman above, Kip James (a.k.a. Billy Gunn) was strictly a mid-card guy regardless of whether he was a singles or tag team competitor, which continued on in Impact Wrestling. By 2009, Kip was “Cute Kip,” enforcer/fashion consultant of The Beautiful People, an otherwise all-female group that certainly wasn’t going to headline any shows during this era of Impact.
Genesis 2009 main evented with a Frontline vs. Main Event Mafia hardcore tag match, but MEM member Kevin Nash wasn’t medically cleared to compete. As a result, Kip filled in as a fellow veteran despite not being a main eventer, and in the process got his first main event in Impact Wrestling.
3 Brother Runt
The former Spike Dudley first showed up in Impact in 2006, reuniting with Bubba Ray and D-Von, The Dudley Boyz, and going along with their necessary-by-trademark-law name change to Team 3D, Brother Ray and Brother Devon, by becoming Brother Runt.
While he had some big pay-per-view encounters with Abyss during his initial 2006 to 2007 run, he returned for a one-off appearance in 2013 for the appropriately named One Night Only: Hardcore Justice 2. There, he main-evented alongside Jeff Hardy in a tag team table match against his former Team 3D brothers, now known as Bully Ray and Devon of Aces & Eights.
2 The Great Muta
In 2014, Impact Wrestling was a bit on the decline as far as popularity and star power, and a working relationship with Japanese promotion WRESTLE-1 — founded by Keiji Mutoh, a.k.a. The Great Muta — led to the company co-promoting Bound For Glory, in Japan.
This led to a totally surprising main event for what had previously been Impact’s biggest show of the year: James Storm and The Great Sanada as Impact heel faction The Revolution taking on the team of The Great Muta and former ECW/WWE legend TAJIRI. Muta would headline one more show, taking on Mr. Anderson in the final match of One Night Only: Global Impact - USA vs. The World in 2015.
1 Frankie Kazarian
A five-time X Division Champion and three-time Impact Team Champion, Frankie Kazarian is one of those performers who will likely forever be associated with Impact Wrestling, despite not being a full-time member of the roster since 2014.
While he never made it to the main event in a one-on-one match, he did headline three shows during his run with the company, including a three-way match for the World Title with Samoa Joe and Scott Steiner at Sacrifice 2008 and the Fortune vs. Immortal Lethal Lockdown match at Lockdown 2011.