Originally Posted by Wiki

He turned heel for the first time in TNA at Sacrifice by attacking Christian Cage and Rhino from behind with a steel chair.[86] Booker then competed in the King of the Mountain match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Slammiversary. He was seconds away from winning the match, when Kevin Nash stopped him and performed a Jackknife Powerbomb; Samoa Joe would later go on to win the match. On the next Impact, Booker challenged Joe to a title match at Victory Road, which Joe would later accept. Also around this time he reverted to a gimmick similar to his King Booker gimmick except he is now a supposed king of Africa. The match at Victory Road ended in a draw after Sharmell replaced the referee and counted after the match was already over. At Hard Justice, Samoa Joe defeated Booker after a guitar shot, thus reclaiming physical possession of the title belt, which Booker had kept after Victory Road.

On the October 23 live edition of iMPACT!, Booker T introduced a new title in TNA, calling it the TNA Legends Championship and named himself as the first champion. Later, he along with Sharmell, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, and Sting started a new stable of legends called the Main Event Mafia. At Turning Point he retained the TNA Legends Championship against Christian Cage for the first time since its inception. As part of a pre-match stipulation in the Christian Cage vs Booker T Legends title match, Christian had to join the Main Event Mafia. At his induction ceremony, Kurt Angle revealed Christian had been talking with his lawyers about going back to WWE. "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner joined the Main Event Mafia as the "Hitman" for the group. In the following weeks, the Main Event Mafia would feud with a group called the TNA Frontline, consisting of members such as Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Rhyno and other faces. They would continually attack members of the Frontline, so far as to put the newly acquired Brother Ray of Team 3D out of action, and attacking Samoa Joe inside the six sides of steel.

Originally Posted by Wiki

On the March 20 edition of Impact!, after a brawl between members of both Team Cage and Team Tomko, a promo aired at the end of the show indicating that Sting would return the next week on the first-ever live Impact! episode. Sting then made his official return on March 27, announcing that he would be a part of Team Cage for the Lethal Lockdown match at Lockdown. Later on the show, he teamed with members of Team Cage (Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Rhino, and Matt Morgan) and defeated Team Tomko (Tomko, A.J. Styles, James Storm, and Team 3D) in a 5-man tag team match. Morgan was added when James Storm attacked Sting with a glass bottle after the match. Sting, however, later gained revenge by defeating James Storm when Matt Morgan threw him his baseball bat. Morgan then ripped off his referee shirt and revealed a Team Cage shirt, thus becoming the fifth member. At Lockdown, Team Cage defeated Team Tomko when Rhino Gored Storm to get the pinfall.[10]

Sting made his in-ring return to TNA at on July 3 when his music interrupted a fight between Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash at the end of Impact and Sting was seen looking down from the rafters.


[edit] Heel Run (2008-present)
At Victory Road, Booker T faced Samoa Joe for the TNA World Title. During the match, he tried to talk sense into Joe, as he was brutally beating (kayfabe) Booker T, potentially towards a disqualification.[11] Joe rebuked him, and Sting struck him with his trademark black baseball bat.[11] Over the coming weeks, the feud between Joe and Booker intensified, with episodes ending with Booker T or Sharmell striking Samoa Joe with Sting's trademark bat as Impact! went off the air, leading to a question of whether Sting had turned on Samoa Joe and became a heel (although receiving a face reaction), Sting sided with Booker T. At Hard Justice, Sting attacked A.J Styles after he and Kurt Angle wrestled a Last Man Standing match.[12]

Sting later admitted to why he attacked Joe and Styles by saying that the younger generation needed to learn about respecting veterans like Angle, Booker, and himself. He declared that he wouldn't retire until he had accomplished this mission. This led to mixed fan reactions, and sparked a feud between him and TNA World Heavyweight Champion Samoa Joe, as well as Jeff Jarrett who arrived to aid Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles by giving them his guitar as Sting had done with his bat.

At Bound for Glory IV, Sting challenged Samoa Joe for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and was successful in claiming the title, after Kevin Nash returned and hit Joe with Sting's baseball bat. On October 23, Sting joined the Main Event Mafia (Kurt Angle, Booker T, Sharmell, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and himself) and by doing so, he fully turned heel for the first time in years since his three victories over Hulk Hogan, shortly after he dropped the "Hollywood Hogan" act in WCW. Even though he is associated with a heel stable, Sting is more accurately described as a tweener since he has not participated in any of the MEM's sneak attacks and beatdowns and still continues to slap high-fives with fans. He has, however, developed a bitter and self-righteous attitude towards younger wrestlers for not showing him or his "fellow legends" the respect that they deserve. He also began omitting his face paint when appearing in non-wrestling roles and wearing a suit and sunglasses. However, he continues to wear the facepaint when wrestling.

At Turning Point, he defeated A.J. Styles to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship after interference from the Main Event Mafia. Sting also retained his TNA World Championship in the main event at Final Resolution on December 7.

Originally Posted by Chris Jericho

Dammit if Gabe Sopolsky wasn't impressed, then what chance does the WWE have to survive even one more day??? Breadline, here I come...

Originally Posted by Michael Cole

THIS IS VINTAGE BRAGGING RIGHTS