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Main Event Mafia

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The Main Event Mafia was an American professional wrestling stable in the American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Beginning in 2008, the group included former WWF/E wrestler Kurt Angle as leader, four of the former World Championship Wrestling (WCW) alumni Sting (who was the second leader before being ousted), Kevin Nash (with Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca ), Booker T (with his real-life wife Sharmell ) and Scott Steiner as well as Samoa Joe . and Traci Brooks . All the male members of the stable were multiple-time world heavyweight champions of multiple companies (with the exception of Magnus , who would win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in December 2013), TNA included, with extensive experience in main event matches. The MEM at one time held all the male titles TNA had to offer.

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165-690: The group formed in October 2008 and had been largely successful, with Sting and Kurt Angle being TNA World Heavyweight Champions , Booker T introducing a new championship into TNA called the TNA Legends Championship and declaring himself the first official champion, with Kevin Nash going on to win the belt as well, and Booker T and Scott Steiner holding the TNA World Tag Team Championship . The group's formation

330-662: A Border City Wrestling (BCW) event. He lost the title to Rhino at Bound for Glory on October 23, but regained it on the November 3 episode of Impact! . Jarrett's reign lasted until Against All Odds on February 12, 2006, when he was defeated by Christian Cage . In the following months, Jarrett feuded with Sting, who had declared that Jarrett was a " cancer " in TNA. In the course of the feud, Scott Steiner debuted in TNA as an ally of Jarrett. At Slammiversary on June 18, 2006, Jarrett won his sixth NWA World Heavyweight Championship in

495-496: A Bunkhouse Brawl , then unsuccessfully challenged Benoit for the United States Heavyweight Championship in a ladder match . On the following episode of Nitro , Jarrett defeated Benoit in a rematch, winning the belt. In the same evening, Jarrett reformed the nWo with WCW World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart and the reigning WCW World Tag Team Champions , Kevin Nash and Scott Hall , with

660-401: A Lethal Lockdown match. The following episode of Impact! , he delivered his first promo in months, stating it's not all about Jeff Jarrett and he returned to give back to the wrestlers and fans, officially completing his face turn. He then entered into a feud with Robert Roode , losing a match to him at Sacrifice . Jarrett was then scheduled to take on Styles with the winner to earn a spot in

825-577: A Six-way elimination match on July 20, 2024, at Slammiversary in Montreal , Quebec , Canada to win the title. Jeff Jarrett Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett (born July 14, 1967) is an American professional wrestler and promoter . He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he also serves as Director of Business Development. Beginning his career in his father Jerry Jarrett 's Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) in 1986, Jarrett first came to prominence upon debuting with

990-560: A Tuxedo match , and Last Man Standing match . The Storm/Roode match was originally a Bull Rope match but Storm asked Carter to change it to a Florida Death match , which was not on the "Wheel of Dixie", which Carter agreed to. Also, the winner would be decided at TNA Final Resolution of 2013. To date, the championship has had seven belt designs, with the original title belt (which was unveiled in May 2007) having on its center plate an imprint of an eagle with its wings extended. The word "World"

1155-453: A baton , following interference from Gunner and Murphy , his security officers. On the following episode of Impact! , Jarrett assaulted Joe after he had defeated Gunner and Murphy in a handicap match, but was then chased away by the returning Kurt Angle. At Final Resolution , Jarrett faced Joe in a submission match; after a pre-match assault and later an interference by Gunner and Murphy, Jarrett forced Joe to submit with an ankle lock. On

1320-595: A country music star gimmick in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE ) in 1993. Over the next nine years, he alternated between the WWF and its main competitor, World Championship Wrestling (WCW). After WCW was purchased by the WWF in 2001, Jarrett joined the upstart World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) promotion. In 2002, Jarrett and his father together founded NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA-TNA now Total Nonstop Action Wrestling). After departing

1485-480: A rapper . There was little buildup for the match until Mabel tried to provoke Jarrett into a fight, but Jarrett simply exited. At SummerSlam , Jarrett won the match by pinfall. Around this time, Jarrett began a feud with the 1-2-3 Kid's friend, WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon . Jarrett would face both men at Survivor Series 1994 , Jarrett's team competed in another five vs. five tag team match, this time with elimination rules. Jarrett's team lost when all

1650-550: A referee in March 1986 and trained as a wrestler under his father and Tojo Yamamoto . Jarrett made his in-ring debut at the age of 18 on April 6, 1986, when jobber Tony Falk attempted to end his lengthy losing streak by challenging Jarrett, then a referee, to a match. Jarrett accepted the challenge, wrestling Falk to a 10-minute draw. Jarrett is a third-generation wrestler: his father wrestled, as did his maternal grandfather, Eddie Marlin , while his paternal grandmother, Christine,

1815-700: A triple threat match , which was originally to be for the Impact World Championship but reigning champion Tessa Blanchard missed the tapings due to the COVID-19 pandemic . While the title was not recognized as an official championship by Impact, Moose had several title defenses. On the February 23, 2021, episode of Impact! , Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore officially sanctioned Moose's self-proclaimed championship. At Sacrifice , Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated Moose to unify

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1980-452: A weekly pay-per-view event . The main event of the telecast was a twenty-man Gauntlet for the Gold match in which 20 men sought to throw each other over the top rope and down to the floor in order to eliminate others, until there were two men left who wrestle a standard singles match to become the first ever TNA-era NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Ken Shamrock defeated Malice to win

2145-624: A "fan's revenge" lumberjack match at No Surrender , with Joe winning the match. At the Bound for Glory pay-per-view on October 22, Sting defeated Jarrett for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship after Jarrett was forced to submit to Sting's signature finisher, the Scorpion Death Lock . On the following episode of Impact! , Jarrett announced in an interview that he was leaving TNA indefinitely. For

2310-503: A King of the Mountain match when referee Earl Hebner tipped over a ladder that Christian Cage and Sting were simultaneously climbing. He retained the title in a bout with Sting at Hard Justice after Cage turned on Sting, hitting him with one of Jarrett's guitars. After a polygraph proved that Jarrett had cheated to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Director of Authority Jim Cornette forced Jarrett to wrestle Samoa Joe in

2475-487: A baseball bat while the referee was not looking to allow Sting to take the advantage and pin Joe after a Scorpion Death Drop . Nash's actions were explained on the October 16 episode of TNA Impact! , when he said that Joe disrespected him and his long-time real-life friend Scott Hall in late 2007 when Joe insulted Hall for not showing up at TNA's December pay-per-view Turning Point . The group officially joined together on

2640-458: A clean pin and briefly held the belt, being stripped on the same card. The championship was returned to Jarrett and the change was not recorded as official by TNA or the NWA. Despite his efforts to hold on to the title, however, he lost it to long-time rival A.J. Styles at Hard Justice on May 15, 2005. Jarrett won his fourth NWA World Heavyweight Championship on September 15, 2005, defeating Raven at

2805-445: A controlling interest in TNA in 2002, although Jarrett remained a minority owner. On the inaugural TNA pay-per-view on June 19, 2002, Jarrett took part in a Gauntlet for the Gold with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on the line, but was eliminated by country singer Toby Keith. In the following months, Jarrett feuded with Scott Hall, Brian Lawler, and Brian Girard James. On November 20, 2002, Jarrett defeated Ron Killings to win

2970-449: A deal with WWF Chairman Vince McMahon for $ 200,000 in order to wrestle at No Mercy without a contract. In 2006, Jarrett asserted that he had been paid only what he was owed by the WWF. In a 2008 interview for a TNA special, Jarrett stated that not only were his negotiations cordial and in good faith, but that he also got stock options in WWF's initial public offering , which occurred two days after he left. Jarrett returned to WCW on

3135-517: A dominant stable known as Planet Jarrett with Monty Brown , Kip James , and, later, Rhino . Jarrett also used the phrase "Planet Jarrett" to refer to TNA as a whole, reflecting his real-life stake in the company and his prominent role within the promotion. On April 3, 2005, Jarrett defended the championship outside NWA territory, wrestling Ray González in the International Wrestling Association . González won with

3300-587: A duo to Razor Ramon in a handicap match at In Your House 1 . On April 26, 1995, the Intercontinental Championship was declared vacant after a controversial ending to a match between Jarrett and Bob Holly . They had a rematch later that evening where Jarrett reclaimed the title. On May 19, Razor Ramon regained the title from Jarrett in Montreal, Quebec , but Jarrett won it back two nights later in Trois-Rivières, Quebec , making him

3465-515: A globe centered with TNA's logo at the top and bottom of each. At each end of the title belt there was a small plate that covered the championship belt snaps with TNA's logo engraved on each. At the November 8, 2010 tapings of the November 11 episode of Impact! , TNA introduced a new design for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt, which the champion Jeff Hardy dubbed the "Immortal Championship", as part of

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3630-540: A globe with "World" inscribed above the globes and "Champion" inscribed below them and the outer side plates featuring the Impact logo but without the owl design. Blue shading had filled the Impact logo, the owl design, and the globes and logos on the side plates, but in 2020, the belt was modified with red shading replacing the previous blue to reflect the new color of the Impact Wrestling logo introduced following

3795-489: A hair vs. hair match at SummerSlam . Jarrett's long hair was subsequently cut short by DX and Howard Finkel , who had himself been shaved bald by Jarrett and Southern Justice shortly before SummerSlam. Jarrett and Southern Justice were defeated by DX at Breakdown: In Your House in September, and the trio separated shortly thereafter. Jarrett briefly feuded with Al Snow before reuniting with Debra, who had left WCW for

3960-468: A match the next time that the WWF came to Memphis. Beginning in October, Jarrett himself began making appearances on WWF house show events, defeating Mondo Kleen (who would later debut as Damian Demento ) and Barry Horowitz . At a WWF Wrestling Challenge taping in Louisville, Kentucky , on October 28, Jarrett scored his biggest victory of his nascent WWF career by upsetting Rick Martel . However,

4125-609: A member of the MEM. Sting agreed to a match at Slammiversary against Morgan where, if Morgan won, he could join the group. Sting went on to defeat Morgan at the pay-per-view. In the final match of the pay-per-view, Angle won the King of the Mountain match to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship after Samoa Joe turned heel and joined the MEM by handing him the World Heavyweight Championship belt, backstabbing

4290-533: A new enemy in Kevin Nash, who claimed that Jarrett himself, and not Sting, was what was wrong with TNA. Sting returned from his suspension on the August 5 episode of Impact! , wearing a new red face paint, and, together with Nash, beat down Jarrett, Bischoff and Hogan. On the August 26 episode of Impact! , Jarrett attempted to recruit Samoa Joe to help him against Nash and Sting, but was turned down. Thus Jarrett

4455-480: A pinfall in seconds over his bloodied opponent. Jarrett was sidelined for a month before making his return at Slammiversary VIII , where he cost Sting his TNA World Heavyweight Championship match against Rob Van Dam. On the June 24 episode of Impact! , Sting assaulted Jarrett to the point that TNA president Dixie Carter suspended him for 30 days without pay the following week. During Sting's suspension, Jarrett found

4620-462: A result. Bischoff and Russo also created The New Blood , a stable of younger wrestlers who feuded with The Millionaire's Club , made up of the older members of the WCW roster. Jarrett joined The New Blood, and at Spring Stampede on April 16, he defeated Millionaires Club member Diamond Dallas Page to win the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Page regained the title on April 24, and on April 25,

4785-464: A singles match and as a result Angle was forced to walk Karen down the aisle, when she and Jarrett renewed their wedding vows on the March 3 edition of Impact! . On March 3, Angle proceeded to destroy the wedding set with an axe and forced wedding guest, New York Jet Bart Scott to tap out with the ankle lock. On April 17 at Lockdown , Jarrett defeated Angle in an "Ultra Male Rules" two-out-of-three Falls steel cage match, with help from Karen. It

4950-668: A stable consisting of Eric Young , Sheik Abdul Bashir , Kiyoshi , Brutus Magnus , Doug Williams and Rob Terry to form a super-stable known as The Elite Mafia . At Hard Justice , the MEM further solidified their dominance with Kevin Nash regaining the TNA Legends Championship, Samoa Joe winning the TNA X Division Championship , and Booker T, Scott Steiner and Kurt Angle retaining the TNA World Tag Team and TNA World Heavyweight Championships. By Hard Justice,

5115-465: A steel cage after Russo—who had returned as the new TNA Director of Authority —chose Styles to replace the injured Chris Harris . Jarrett would get revenge on May 19, however, by hitting Styles with a guitar during a title match, which enabled Ron Killings to win the title. Jarrett then defeated Killings, Styles, Raven and Harris in a King of the Mountain match on June 2 to win his third NWA World Heavyweight Championship. In early 2005, Jarrett formed

Main Event Mafia - Misplaced Pages Continue

5280-537: A storyline injury. The title was put up in a tournament featuring the top eight ranked wrestlers in the TNA Championship Committee rankings . The finals of the tournament would take place at Bound for Glory on October 10. * Angle and Hardy wrestled another draw on the September 16 edition of Impact! , which led to Eric Bischoff making the final match at Bound for Glory a three–way. On October 29, 2013, TNA President Dixie Carter vacated

5445-537: A suitable replacement in Cute Kip James . Kip was not intended to be a long-term addition to the team, as he quickly disappeared from the main event scene as the original five members of the Main Event Mafia resumed their positions. At Destination X , Booker T lost the TNA Legends Championship to A.J. Styles while Sting retained the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Angle with Jeff Jarrett as

5610-520: A three-time Intercontinental Champion. At In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks on July 23, 1995, Jarrett performed the song "With My Baby Tonight". Later that evening, Jarrett lost the Intercontinental Championship to Shawn Michaels . Following the event, Jarrett left the WWF for five months and returned to the USWA. Jarrett returned to the WWF at In Your House 5 on December 17, 1995, feuding with Ahmed Johnson . Jarrett lost to Johnson by disqualification at

5775-551: A three-way triple cage match to win his second WCW World Heavyweight Championship after Arquette turned on Page. In May, Jarrett won and lost the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on two further occasions, regaining the title from Ric Flair both times. Jarrett feuded with Nash and Hulk Hogan throughout June 2000, and on July 9 at Bash at the Beach , he faced Hogan with the world championship on

5940-486: A title match between the two with the added stipulation that, if Sting lost, his contract would be rendered null and void. Magnus would retain the championship with help from Dixieland, thereby forcing Sting to leave TNA forever. Magnus would then enter a feud with Joe for the title after Joe made him submit in a tag team match, with the match happening at Lockdown . Magnus retained the championship at Lockdown with help from Abyss , but would ultimately lose it to Eric Young on

6105-649: A titular contest to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. However, his reign was short, being stripped on the same event and at the time the title change was unrecognized by the NWA, with Jarrett returning to TNA with the belt. Starting in 2015, the NWA recognizes Gonzalez's championship reign. In February 2010, TNA restarted their working relationship with AAA and in early May 2011, Jarrett made his return to AAA television, announcing his and TNA's alignment with Dorian Roldán and his heel stable La Sociedad and their participation in Triplemanía XIX . Konnan,

6270-422: A two-on-three handicap match after Hulk Hogan, who was scheduled to team with Joe and Jarrett, was forced to pull out due to a back surgery; at the end of the match, Jarrett abandoned Joe and left Joe behind to be pinned by Nash, thus Jarrett turned heel for the first time since 2007. At the end of the event, Jarrett aligned himself with Hulk Hogan, who ended up making a surprise appearance, Eric Bischoff, Abyss and

6435-479: A very long string of matches with Doink ( Ray Apollo ) during house shows in which he usually won the match. Despite getting past Lex Luger by countout in the first round, Jarrett lost in the second round of the 1994 King of the Ring tournament, being pinned by the 1-2-3 Kid. Only weeks before SummerSlam, the WWF promoted a match as part of a "rap versus country" rivalry that pitted Jarrett against Mabel who portrayed

6600-399: A wrestler. Jarrett's character would strut to the ring wearing flashing "Double J" hats and ring attire, while he punctuated his promos with the phrase "Ain't I great?". He ended his interviews by distinctly spelling out his name ("That's J-E-Double-F, J-A-Double-R, E-Double-T!"). He would often win matches by smashing opponents with an acoustic guitar , which was nicknamed "El Kabong" after

6765-425: A wrestling ring, and should be cooking, cleaning and making babies". He would attack Chyna with frying pans and even dump her in a laundry basket . Jarrett eventually abandoned Debra in favor of Miss Kitty after he and Debra were defeated by Stephanie McMahon and Test in a mixed tag team match. He later also turned on Miss Kitty after she lost a match that Jarrett had inserted her into in his place. Jarrett left

Main Event Mafia - Misplaced Pages Continue

6930-491: A wrestling role or to explain his actions at the event. Instead, he was only seen standing in the rafters on each episode. As a result of Sting's actions at the event, a storyline within the company began that saw a possible alliance between Booker T and Sting. On the July 31 episode of TNA Impact! , Samoa Joe was brawling with Booker T, a baseball bat fell from the ceiling hanging by a wire; Booker T grabbed it and smashed Joe over

7095-634: Is in his first reign. Before the championship was created, TNA controlled the NWA World Heavyweight Championship via an agreement with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In 2007, the agreement between TNA and the NWA ended, leading to the creation of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The championship was unveiled on May 14, 2007, at the taping of TNA's primary television program, Impact! , which aired on May 17, 2007. The inaugural champion

7260-624: The 1996 Royal Rumble and left the WWF shortly thereafter due to a contract dispute. Later that year, The Roadie revealed that he had in fact sung "With My Baby Tonight" and that Jarrett had been lip synching . After leaving WWF in January 1996, Jarrett returned to USWA in Memphis. He won the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship for the third time defeating Jerry Lawler on April 20. He dropped

7425-458: The Immortal storyline. The new design consisted of a purple strap with a silver center plate depicting a masked head (designed to resemble Hardy's face with face paint), the TNA logo on the forehead and blue lines along the mask. There were four irregular dodecagonal side plates on the title belt, shaped like stars with rounded edges on two of the sides of these plates. The Immortal title belt

7590-619: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship ( six times ), WCW World Heavyweight Championship ( four times ), and AAA Mega Championship (twice). He was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2015 and the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018. Born in Hendersonville, Tennessee , Jarrett became involved with basketball while attending Goodpasture Christian School, but he worked for his father Jerry Jarrett 's Continental Wrestling Association as

7755-554: The No Surrender episode of Impact Wrestling , Hulk Hogan announced that Bellator MMA had pulled Rampage Jackson and Aces & Eights member Tito Ortiz from TNA programming due to their upcoming PPV fight, thus removing Jackson from the MEM. In the main event of the night, Magnus lost the BFG Series finals to A.J. Styles. During his match, EGO interfered. Due to this, Magnus started a feud with EGO. After losing to EGO,

7920-537: The Royal Rumble pay-per-view, forcing TNA to change their plans and abandon the storyline. On the June 13, 2013 episode of Impact Wrestling , Sting announced the return of the Main Event Mafia to combat Bully Ray 's Aces & Eights stable, who had been running rampant throughout the entire TNA roster. On June 20, 2013, the second member of the new Main Event Mafia was revealed to be Kurt Angle . On

8085-550: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship after the previous champion A.J. Styles . Carter scheduled an eight-man tournament to determine a new champion, that would begin on November 7. Seven of the eight men were former TNA World Heavyweight Champions including Jeff Hardy , Chris Sabin , Bobby Roode , James Storm , Kurt Angle , Austin Aries , and Samoa Joe . The eighth would be determined later in

8250-427: The TNA World Tag Team Championship . In October, Jarrett began feuding with the returning Jeff Hardy. On November 13 at Turning Point , Jarrett lost to Hardy three times in a row, first in six seconds, then in six minutes and finally in ten seconds. On December 11 at Final Resolution , Jarrett was defeated by Hardy in a steel cage match. As per stipulation of the match, Jarrett was, in storyline, fired from TNA on

8415-633: The WWF Intercontinental Championship thanks to interference by his assistant, The Roadie . In an effort to become a dual champion, Jarrett challenged Diesel for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of the February 20 episode of Raw , but lost the match. Razor Ramon received a rematch at WrestleMania XI which Jarrett lost by disqualification , but retained the Intercontinental Championship. Jarrett and The Roadie lost as

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8580-537: The vacant championship with Ricky Steamboat as the guest referee at the event. The NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships were contested for in TNA until May 13, 2007, when NWA ended their five-year agreement with TNA, which had allowed the latter full control over both titles. NWA Executive Director Robert Trobich also stripped then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage and then-NWA World Tag Team Champions Team 3D of their respective championships, ostensibly because Cage refused to defend

8745-454: The "final battle" between the two. However, on the following episode of Impact Wrestling , Jarrett challenged Angle to a Parking Lot Brawl and agreed to sign a contract that would force him to move to Mexico without Angle's children; Angle ended up winning the fight after choking Jarrett with a shirt, forcing him to say "adiós", thus ending the long feud in the process. The following week on Impact Wrestling , Bischoff forced Jarrett to obey

8910-544: The "undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion". In early 2017 After TNA rebranded as Impact Wrestling, the name of its flagship show, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship changed its name to the Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship to reflect the name changes of the company. At Slammiversary XV , GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron defeated Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley to unify

9075-467: The April 10 episode of Impact Wrestling . TNA World Heavyweight Championship The TNA World Championship is a professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It is the promotion's principal championship. Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via pinfall or submission. The current champion is Nic Nemeth , who

9240-499: The December 11, 2008, episode of Impact! . Angle said that they would become orphans after Genesis and that "Uncle Kurt" may find it in his heart to adopt them and make them his. Jarrett came out to confront him but was held back by his longtime friend, BG James, TNA Personnel Terry Taylor , referee Earl Hebner, and Scott D'Amore . On January 11 at Genesis, Jarrett lost to Angle. Jarrett suffered some injuries, but able to compete on

9405-450: The Edge , Jarrett defeated The Godfather , who Owen was scheduled to face at the pay-per-view, for the Intercontinental Championship. As he was handed the title belt, he yelled Hart's name in tribute to his friend. In mid-1999, Jarrett exchanged the Intercontinental Championship with Edge and D'Lo Brown on two more occasions. His fifth reign broke Razor Ramon 's record from 1995. He held

9570-483: The February 1, 2018, episode of Impact! , the title became known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018, the title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship and on March 13, 2021, it was unified with the TNA World Heavyweight Championship , which was briefly sanctioned in 2021 as a separate title from the Impact World Championship. In January 2024, Impact Wrestling reverted back to

9735-544: The Harris Brothers once more, with the trio defeating The Filthy Animals at Starrcade on December 17. In the same evening, Jarrett aligned himself with WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner by helping Steiner defeat Sid Vicious. In 2001, Jarrett and Steiner became members of The Magnificent Seven , a large stable headed by Flair. Flair and Jarrett feuded with Dusty and Dustin Rhodes until March, when WCW

9900-446: The Impact World Championship, though still represented by both belts (with the white strap TNA belt being swapped out for the original black strap version shortly thereafter). In August 2021, after Christian Cage won the title, the TNA belt was retired once again. Prior to Hard to Kill (2024) in January 2024, the company reverted back to the TNA name. To reflect the change, TNA President Scott D’Amore presented Alex Shelley , who

10065-403: The Impact! Zone, such as flipping burgers and cleaning restrooms, while also booking him in unfavorable matches, such as surprise Falls Count Anywhere and handicap matches. On the March 22 episode of Impact! , after Jarrett broke a guitar over Bischoff's head, Bischoff placed him and Mick Foley, another wrestler he had had problems with, against each other in a No Disqualification match, where

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10230-508: The January 6, 2011, episode of Impact! , Angle interrupted Jarrett's $ 100,000 mixed martial arts (MMA) challenge and signed a contract to face him at Genesis in an MMA exhibition match, since he had promised not to wrestle again. The match was thrown out in the third round after Jarrett blinded Angle; after the match, Jarrett bloodied Angle, before announcing that he was ending his mixed martial arts career and promised that his current (and Angle's former) wife, Karen Jarrett , would be joining

10395-451: The July 11 episode of Impact Wrestling' , Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was announced as the fifth member. On the August 22 episode of Impact Wrestling , due to Kurt Angle taking a hiatus on August 2 to go into rehab for ( legit ) alcohol use, A.J. Styles took his place as the fifth member of the team and helped pin Devon in the 5-on-5 tag match, forcing Devon to leave TNA. On September 12, on

10560-520: The June 1, 1998, edition of Raw , Tennessee Lee introduced Southern Justice (formerly known as the Godwinns ) as Jarrett's new bodyguards. Jarrett grew a goatee at that time. On the August 9, 1998, edition of Sunday Night Heat , Jarrett fired Tennessee Lee after he had inadvertently cost Jarrett multiple matches in the preceding weeks. Jarrett and Southern Justice then began feuding with D-Generation X (DX), with Jarrett losing to DX member X-Pac in

10725-413: The June 7 episode Impact! , which ended in a double disqualification , therefore neither man advanced to the King of the Mountain match. The final qualification match was won by Christian Cage over Abyss on the June 14 episode of Impact! . Angle ended up winning the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary over Joe, Cage, Styles and Harris, who was a mystery participant chosen by Cornette, to become

10890-540: The King of the Mountain match but could not compete due to "personal issues". In 2008, Jarrett was featured in the promotion of TNA's "Maximum Impact!" tour of the United Kingdom. At Hard Justice , Samoa Joe defeated Booker T using the Acoustic Equalizer, the trademark move of Jarrett, setting up for his return to in-ring action, as quoted by the website, "Obviously, we all know who used a guitar in

11055-528: The King of the Mountain match were determined in a series of standard wrestling matches that took place on Impact! leading up to the event, with Angle defeating Rhino in the first bout to gain entry on the May 17 episode of Impact! . On the May 24 episode of Impact! , Samoa Joe defeated Sting to become the second participant. The third qualification match was held on the May 31 episode of Impact! between A.J. Styles and Tomko , which Styles won. The next bout pitted Chris Harris against James Storm on

11220-409: The MEM as he made his return from an injury and attacked Joe, Styles and their allies. Steiner notably spared using his lead pipe on his protégé , Petey Williams , who backed off as soon as he saw him. At Turning Point , Booker T defeated Christian Cage to retain the TNA Legends Championship. As per the stipulation, Cage was forced to join the MEM, however, the MEM attacked Cage and kicked him out of

11385-519: The MEM trio of Sting, Magnus and Joe engaged in different storylines. At Bound for Glory , Magnus defeated Sting. On the October 31 edition of Impact Wrestling Magnus won a gauntlet match by eliminating Sting to be in the TNA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament . On the following edition of Impact Wrestling , MEM announced that their mission was accomplished and they parted ways, with Sting saying he

11550-523: The MEM with his baseball bat and stealing Angle's TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt. The following week, Sting confronted Samoa Joe, claiming to unveil Joe's mystery adviser before Victory Road , where he would be facing Samoa Joe. Later on in the show, Sting disguised himself as Joe and nearly dragged out Joe's adviser from his car, before Joe stopped him, choking him out with the Coquina Clutch and his signature tribal knife. Joe then took back

11715-513: The Mafia. This would lead to Angle facing Morgan in a singles match on TNA Impact! which Angle would win. After the match, Angle shook Morgan's hand, showing that he would want him in the MEM. On the following week's TNA Impact! , during a King of the Mountain qualification match between Angle and Sting, Morgan interfered and helped Angle win. After the match, Angle thanked Morgan for helping him win. Morgan would go on and ask Sting to let him become

11880-503: The Main Event Mafia controlled every male championship in TNA. At No Surrender , Angle lost the TNA World Heavyweight Championship to A.J. Styles. On the October 1 edition of TNA Impact! the alliance between MEM and World Elite crumbled after an all-out brawl between the two factions. The following week, Joe lost the TNA X Division Championship to Amazing Red after Bobby Lashley interfered. The Main Event Mafia's championship match losing streak continued at Bound for Glory , where Nash lost

12045-539: The Main Event Mafia, now as a heroic stable, in response to a year-long war between the TNA roster and the Aces & Eights . The group included past members of the original Mafia (Sting, Kurt Angle, and Samoa Joe) and new members Magnus and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson . In the summer of 2008, A.J. Styles was being attacked by the villainous alliance of Booker T , Team 3D and Tomko until Karen Angle got then husband Kurt Angle to help AJ. However, Kurt then joined in on

12210-409: The Mountain match for the championship at TNA's Slammiversary on June 17, 2007. This match type involves five participants racing to gain a pinfall or submission to become eligible to hang a championship belt to win. On May 15, 2007, Jeremy Borash unveiled the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt on that day's edition of TNA's online video podcast TNA Today . The five participants for

12375-572: The NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Robert Roode , Konnan and Shawn Hernandez to compete on its behalf. At Golpe de Estado , Jarrett defeated Shane Sewell to retain the NWA title and help the heels gain an advantage in the series. However, González lost with Capitol and IWA tied, ending the angle. Following a face turn, González's association with Jarrett soon concluded, leading to a feud between them. This angle concluded on April 3, 2005, when González defeated Jarrett in

12540-427: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from other NWA territories. That same day, TNA were scheduled to produce their Sacrifice event, in which both Cage and Team 3D were to defend their respective championships. On the card , Cage was scheduled to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle and Sting in a three-way match . That night, the onscreen graphic used to refer to

12705-485: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship with the assistance of Vince Russo. After Jarrett refused to join Russo's Sports Entertainment Xtreme stable, Russo turned the members of SEX, including the debuting Raven , against Jarrett. The rivalry continued until February 2003, when Russo parted ways with SEX. In the following months, Jarrett feuded with the remaining members of SEX, then began feuding with Raven and Raven's Nest ,

12870-579: The North American Heavyweight Championship on WWF television. In March, Jarrett left Cornette's stable, and Cornette stripped him of the title and awarded it to Windham. Jarrett went on to reprise his country music singer gimmick on the March 2, 1998, edition of Monday Night Raw , introducing Tennessee Lee as his new manager . At Unforgiven: In Your House on April 26, 1998, Jarrett once again sang alongside Sawyer Brown with their hit single, "Some Girls Do". On

13035-481: The October 18, 1999, episode of WCW Monday Nitro , attacking Buff Bagwell and proclaiming himself the "Chosen One" of WCW. Jarrett took part in a tournament for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship , winning his first three matches with the assistance of Creative Control . At Mayhem , he was eliminated from the tournament after losing his semi-final match to Chris Benoit following interference from Dustin Rhodes . At Starrcade , Jarrett defeated Rhodes in

13200-473: The October 23 episode of TNA Impact! In a segment between Nash, Booker T, Angle, Sting, and Jeremy Borash , Angle announced that the four had joined together to form a group of legends called The Main Event Mafia. Team 3D were offered a spot in the group, seemingly accepting before attacking them, turning face. The goal of the group was to start a "war" against the younger talent to take what they deserved: respect. The following week, they added Scott Steiner to

13365-596: The Royal Rumble, Jarrett participated in attacking The Undertaker and forcing him into the casket , an incident that would be a focal point in Undertaker's rematch later that year. Jarrett was scheduled to wrestle in a five vs. five tag match at WrestleMania X , but the match did not take place due to time constraints. However, the match did take place on the April 4 episode of Raw , with Jarrett's team winning. During this time, Jarrett started having what would be

13530-494: The TNA Front Line in the process. On the June 25 edition of TNA Impact! , it was explained that Joe had been paid off by the MEM due to them being unable to defeat him. The MEM, as well as Morgan, attacked Sting in disapproval of his leadership, with Angle announcing that he had regained leadership of the group. The following week, Sting saved A.J. Styles from a beat down from his former stablemates, attacking each member of

13695-567: The TNA Legends Championship to World Elite leader Eric Young, while Booker T and Steiner lost the TNA World Tag Team Championship to Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus, also of the World Elite. At the same PPV Angle narrowly defeated long-time foe Matt Morgan and afterwards shook his hand. On the following edition of TNA Impact! , the stable's future was thrown into question, when Booker T was announced as having left

13860-521: The TNA Maximum Impact Tour, by facing against Angle in two singles and a few tag team matches with A.J. Styles against Angle and Scott Steiner. Then on February 12, 2009, Jarrett returned to Impact! to stop Angle from forcing Sting to lay down and gain an easy championship victory. The next week, Jarrett allowed Angle to have another match against Sting, and on February 26, 2009, Jarrett announced Angle versus Sting at Destination X for

14025-450: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship and Taz was also revealed to be Joe's adviser; Taz would later state that he was just an associate of the MEM. On the July 30 episode of TNA Impact! , Kevin Nash lost the TNA Legends Championship to Mick Foley in a tag team match with Kurt Angle against Bobby Lashley and Mick Foley. On the August 6 episode of TNA Impact! it was revealed that the Main Event Mafia would join forces with World Elite ,

14190-426: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship, returning it to Angle during the beatdown on Mick Foley at the end of the show. At Victory Road, the MEM gained full control of TNA's championship scene as Nash won the TNA Legends Championship from A.J. Styles to bring the title back to the MEM. At the same event, Booker and Steiner defeated Beer Money, Inc. for the TNA World Tag Team Championship , Angle defeated Foley to retain

14355-617: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship. At Lockdown Jarrett captain a team against Angle's team in Lethal Lockdown which his team won. Jarrett would then enter a feud with Mick Foley, who attacked him while shooting his DVD at the TNA Asylum . The two would meet in a four-way match at Sacrifice involving Kurt Angle and Sting with Jarrett putting his voting shares in TNA on the line, Angle putting his leadership of The Main Event Mafia , Sting putting his career, and Foley putting

14520-737: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship; Sting would go on to pin Angle for the victory and leadership of the Main Event Mafia. Jarrett later pinned Eric Young in order to qualify for the King of the Mountain match, however, Young attacked Jarrett after the match in the storyline. The following week, Jarrett called out Young and offered to turn the other cheek, but instead Young provoked him by saying that he pays more attention to wrestling than his own daughters just like his father Jerry which resulted in Jarrett slapping Young and assaulting him. Jarrett also would accidentally punch referee Earl Hebner while Hebner

14685-608: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship; later in the event during a match between Christian Cage , Angle, and Joe, Jeff Jarrett made his on-screen return to the promotion after not being seen in TNA since late May 2007, by helping Joe retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Jarrett went on to Bound for Glory to defeat Angle in a standard match with Mick Foley as the Special Guest Ringside Enforcer . Also at Bound for Glory, Sting defeated Joe after Kevin Nash turned heel by striking his friend Joe with

14850-523: The TNA and original GFW Global Championship belts were used in tandem to represent the unification of both titles. At Destination X 2017 , the GFW Global Championship belt, with an updated color scheme and Impact logos on the side plates, became the sole belt used. Following the departure of Jeff Jarrett from the promotion, the company reverted to the Impact Wrestling name and the title belt was updated with an Impact name plate to reflect

15015-567: The TNA name, thus renaming the title as TNA World Championship. TNA Wrestling was formed as NWA: Total Nonstop Action in May 2002. Later that same year, TNA was granted control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body; subsequently becoming an official NWA territory as NWA-TNA. On June 19, 2002, NWA-TNA held its first show;

15180-496: The WWF in October 1999, right after WWF head writer Vince Russo resigned from the WWF in order to join WCW. Jarrett's contract expired on October 16, 1999, one day before his scheduled match with Chyna at No Mercy . Jarrett wrestled at No Mercy nonetheless, losing the Intercontinental Championship to Chyna. Chyna later alleged that Jarrett and Russo had colluded in order to delay Jarrett's title defense until after Jarrett's contract had expired, and that Jarrett had subsequently made

15345-711: The WWF now ruled out as employment options, Jarrett resurfaced in World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) in late 2001, wrestling throughout Australia and Europe. Jarrett won the WWA World Heavyweight Championship , but was later stripped of the title. Jarrett returned to the WWA during his first NWA World Heavyweight Championship reign; he defeated Sting for the WWA World Heavyweight Championship at

15510-504: The WWF, and forming a tag team with Owen Hart . Hart and Jarrett were close friends and travel partners for years, so the team jelled almost immediately. Jarrett and Hart won the WWF Tag Team Championship from Ken Shamrock and Big Boss Man , successfully defending the titles at WrestleMania XV before losing to Kane and X-Pac on an episode of Raw . Eight days after Hart died in a stunt that went wrong at Over

15675-576: The WWF, despite the dominance of WCW in the ongoing " Monday Night War ". Jarrett returned to the WWF on the October 20, 1997, episode of Raw is War , delivering a worked shoot speech in which he criticized both WCW President Eric Bischoff and WWF Chairman Vince McMahon . After briefly feuding with The Undertaker , Jarrett defeated Barry Windham to win the vacant NWA North American Heavyweight Championship . In early 1998, Jarrett joined forces with Jim Cornette and his stable of "invading" National Wrestling Alliance wrestlers, and began defending

15840-409: The assault on A.J. Styles, planting the seeds for the Main Event Mafia. Tomko left the group after taking a year-long hiatus from TNA. At TNA's July pay-per-view Victory Road during a bout between the face Samoa Joe and heel Booker T for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship , Joe went on a storyline rampage and attacked referees , security and Booker T without on-screen mercy. Sting, who

16005-451: The back with it. At TNA's August pay-per-view Hard Justice , Sting attacked A.J. Styles, an on-screen ally of Joe's, after Styles had defeated Kurt Angle in a Last Man Standing match . The reasons for Sting's actions were eventually revealed on the August 14 episode of TNA Impact! , in which he stated that he attacked Joe and Styles because they were not showing enough respect for veterans such as Angle and Booker T by doing what they did at

16170-498: The career of Kurt Angle, who had proclaimed that he would retire from professional wrestling if he failed to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Bound for Glory. Jarrett then attacked Angle, when he was being restrained by TNA's security officers. The following week, Samoa Joe attempted to avenge what had happened at Bound for Glory, but was restrained by the security officers, before being beat down by Jarrett. At Turning Point , Jarrett defeated Joe after choking him out with

16335-448: The cartoon character Quick Draw McGraw . The "Double J" character was a country music version of The Honky Tonk Man . Jarrett had his first televised match with the WWF on the December 20, 1993, episode of Raw , defeating PJ Walker . Jarrett made his pay-per-view debut in January 1994 at the Royal Rumble , entering the Royal Rumble match as the 12th participant and was eliminated less than 90 seconds later by Randy Savage . Also at

16500-464: The center. The second side plate on each side is gold with TNA logo in the center. The third side plate on the right side features the Anthem logo in gold and red. Overall, there have been 59 reigns shared among 34 wrestlers. The inaugural champion was Kurt Angle, who won the championship by defeating Christian Cage and Sting in a three-way match on May 13, 2007, at TNA's Sacrifice event. Angle also holds

16665-469: The champions and their respective championships credited both Cage and Team 3D as still being NWA champions. Angle defeated Cage and Sting to win the World Heavyweight Championship. During subsequent TV tapings for the next two episodes of Impact! , TNA did not acknowledge the NWA ending their agreement with TNA but gave a storyline explanation as to why a new championship was created. Management Director Jim Cornette , TNA's on-screen authority figure at

16830-626: The championship to Jerry Lawler on December 20, 1993, but return sporadically for future dates. Jarrett's first involvement with World Wrestling Federation (WWF) came on August 9, 1992, when he participated in the kick-off to the first cross-promotional angle between the WWF and the USWA. Sitting at ringside along with Jerry Lawler at the WWF house show that was being held at the Memphis Pyramid , he issued an open challenge to any WWF wrestler. After defeating Kamala by disqualification that night, Bret Hart accepted Jarrett's challenge for

16995-507: The championships. The TNA title was deactivated, and the Impact World Championship was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship. As Impact Wrestling returned to its original name, TNA Wrestling, the world title also reverted back to its original name. On the August 19, 2010, edition of TNA Impact! , the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was vacated, after champion Rob Van Dam suffered

17160-441: The change. A new title design was introduced at Impact Wrestling's Redemption on April 22, 2018. The gold center plate has the Impact logo with "World Champion" inscribed below the logo. An owl sits above the Impact logo, representing Impact's parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment . On each side of the center plate is a group of four smaller gold plates, with the inner side plates featuring separate corresponding halves of

17325-592: The co-leader of La Sociedad and former TNA worker, however, was against the idea of his former employer coming to AAA and believed that Roldán had made a mistake by inviting him to the promotion. Jarrett and Abyss arrived to AAA on May 18 for a confrontation with Konnan and La Sociedad . In the end, Jarrett and Konnan revealed that they were in fact on the same page with each other and turned on AAA Mega Champion El Zorro with Konnan announcing that Jarrett would be challenging for his title at Triplemanía XIX. On June 18 at Triplemanía XIX, Jarrett defeated El Zorro to become

17490-430: The company and Angle admitted that he had been wrong all along about the younger talent of the company and praised the likes of A.J. Styles and Matt Morgan, thus becoming a face. However, Scott Steiner still wore Main Event Mafia clothing and said that the group was still alive as long as he was involved and that he did not take orders from Kurt Angle . He still maintained that the young talent did not show enough respect to

17655-541: The company as on-screen President. Jarrett and Keith decided to create their own company. On December 22, 2013, Jarrett resigned from TNA Entertainment. Jarrett remained an investor in TNA Wrestling after his resignation came in effect on January 6, 2014. Jarrett made his debut for Mexican promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide on March 21, 2004, defeating Latin Lover to win the 2004 Rey de Reyes tournament. Over

17820-509: The company. The following week, Jarrett started showing signs of a heel turn as he threatened Hogan with legal actions; however, on the January 28 episode of Impact! , he changed his mind and agreed to fight for his spot. In the main event of the show, he came out to no entrance music or pyrotechnics and was defeated by Mr. Anderson after a low blow. This started an angle of Hogan's business partner Eric Bischoff, acting on his own without Hogan, having Jarrett work humiliating jobs backstage at

17985-469: The current respect angle that Sting was involved in was actually a matter of the veterans refusing to pass the torch to the young guys. Angle came out and challenged Jarrett to a match at Bound for Glory IV , but Jarrett refused, saying he had nothing left to prove, and instead pointed to the screen to reveal the debuting Mick Foley . On the next episode of Impact! , Jarrett relented to verbal cheap shots taken by Angle regarding Jarrett's children and accepted

18150-505: The events. Sting, being a veteran of the sport himself, went on to say when he was Styles' and Joe's age, if he had a match with a veteran, he pinned them and walked away, not adding insult to injury by trying to end their careers, like Styles and Joe were trying to do. This sparked a rivalry between the three, which later involved Angle and Booker T. At TNA's September pay-per-view No Surrender , Sting announced that, at TNA's October pay-per-view Bound for Glory IV , he would challenge Joe for

18315-550: The following episode of Impact Wrestling . In reality, he was written off television to oversee Ring Ka King , a new promotion based in India that is a subsidiary of TNA. After Ring Ka King, Jarrett wrestled for AAA without work in TNA. In 2013, Jarrett assumed the backstage role of Executive Vice President of Development/Original Programming. In 2013, Jarrett and Country star Toby Keith tried to buy TNA; however, when both met Bob Carter, he demanded that his daughter Dixie remain in

18480-446: The following six months, Jarrett did not appear on TNA television, instead focusing on his role as Vice President of TNA Entertainment. Jarrett, however, temporarily returned to TNA television on the April 12, 2007, episode of Impact! , and aligned himself with Samoa Joe, by helping him defeat A.J. Styles, turning face. On April 15, 2007, at Lockdown , Jarrett, making his in-ring return, and the rest of Team Angle defeated Team Cage in

18645-637: The following years, Jarrett won the USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship on 10 occasions and the USWA World Tag Team Championship on 15 occasions. Jarrett also wrestled on the independent circuit for seven years, appearing in Japan and Puerto Rico . In 1990, he wrestled his first tour of Japan for Super World Sports (SWS). Jarrett would continue wrestling for USWA full-time until losing

18810-453: The foursome calling themselves "nWo 2000". In early 2000, Jarrett feuded with WCW Commissioner Terry Funk , who forced him to wrestle three veterans – George Steele , Tito Santana , and Jimmy Snuka – in one night. Jarrett was stripped of the United States Heavyweight Championship after suffering a concussion during his bout with Snuka, but the title was returned to him by Nash after he became WCW Commissioner. In order to help him retain

18975-527: The group because they believed he was leaving TNA for WWE (later proven to be true). The MEM proceeded to go on a rampage, assaulting Brother Ray , Samoa Joe , Petey Williams (Steiner doing the deed, finally severing the ties between the two), B.G. James , Rhino , Jeff Jarrett and A.J. Styles, injuring all in their "hits". At Genesis , Kevin Nash could not make it to the event due to a legitimate staph infection in his left elbow. When it came time for his tag team match, Booker T announced that they had found

19140-414: The group of wrestlers that Raven controlled. On June 11, 2003, Jarrett faced Raven and A.J. Styles in a 3-way match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Styles pinned Jarrett to win the title after the returning Russo struck Jarrett with a guitar. Jarrett regained the title from Styles on October 22, 2003, turning heel. Jarrett was unable to escape Styles, losing the title to him on April 21, 2004, in

19305-621: The last WWA event on May 25, 2003, unifying the two titles. In June 2002, Jarrett and his father created a limited-liability company , J Sports and Entertainment and opened a new pro wrestling promotion, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). TNA aired in a weekly pay-per-view format until May 2004, when the promotion negotiated a television deal with Fox Sports Net and began broadcasting Impact! . In November 2004, TNA began airing monthly pay-per-views instead of weekly pay-per-views, and in October 2005 Impact! moved to Spike TV . Panda Energy and its chairman and CEO, Robert Carter, acquired

19470-488: The line; the match ended swiftly after Jarrett immediately lay down, allowing Hogan to rest a boot on his chest and win the title, with Hogan commenting, "That's why this company is in the damn shape it's in—because of bullshit like this!". Vince Russo subsequently came to the ring and delivered a profanity -laced statement, in which he accused Hogan of politicking and claimed that Hogan had used his creative control to refuse to lose to Jarrett. Russo then stated that, while Hogan

19635-414: The loser would get fired from the company. Jarrett won the match, refereed by Beer Money, Inc. , and with Foley fired from the company, Hogan ordered Bischoff to lay off of Jarrett. The following week, Hogan, prior to leaving on a business trip, apologized to Jarrett for Bischoff's behavior and gave him a chance to earn the number one contendership to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a match against

19800-466: The match at Bound for Glory. The feud got more personal due to Angle mentioning Jarrett's wife, which led to Foley being named the special enforcer for their match. At Bound For Glory Jarrett returned to the ring after a 17-month absence, and defeated Angle using his Acoustic Equalizer. On the November 20, 2008, episode of Impact! , Kurt Angle threatened Mick Foley and wanted another match against Jarrett at Final Resolution after Foley announced that it

19965-630: The match stipulations and exiled him to Mexico. Jarrett returned to TNA on the July 14 episode of Impact Wrestling , showing off the "Mexican Heavyweight Championship" belt, playing off the AAA Mega Championship he had won during his stay in Mexico. On the August 18 episode of Impact Wrestling , Jarrett aligned himself with the Mexican America stable by helping its members Anarquia and Hernandez defeat Beer Money, Inc. for

20130-454: The members of the team including himself were counted out. Later during the event, Jarrett once again tried to illegally attack The Undertaker, but this time was stopped by Chuck Norris . In January 1995, Jarrett would once again feud with Bret Hart, ultimately losing to Hart on the January 23 episode of Raw . At the 1995 Royal Rumble in Tampa, Florida , Jarrett defeated Razor Ramon to win

20295-425: The move to AXS TV. At Sacrifice on March 13, 2021, Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose to unify the two championships. Following this, the 2020 red shaded Impact belt and the white strapped TNA belt were used jointly to represent the unified world championship; the unified title was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship before reverting to being called

20460-577: The new AAA Mega Champion. On July 31 at Verano de Escándalo , Jarrett successfully defended the title in a three-way elimination match against Dr. Wagner, Jr. and L.A. Park , when someone wearing El Zorro's old mask interfered and hit Park with a guitar . This person was later revealed as La Sociedad member Chessman , whom Konnan had sent to interfere in the match in order to have Park go after El Zorro instead of continuing to chase his stablemate's title. The storyline continued on October 9 at Héroes Inmortales , where both Jarrett and Park took part in

20625-443: The new Godfather of the Main Event Mafia. Sting immediately made his new leadership felt, as on the May 28, 2009, edition of TNA Impact! , he dismissed Sharmell , Jenna Morasca and Angle's security men Big Rocco and Sally Boy from the alliance as part of his new leadership. Rocco and Sally promptly signed on to be Mick Foley 's security the following week. Heading into Slammiversary , Matt Morgan expressed his wishes to join

20790-420: The new TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy , all of whom made heel turns with the exception of the already heel Abyss, in the process revealing themselves as the "they" Abyss had referred to. On the following episode of Impact! , Jarrett explained that he had joined the stable, now known as Immortal , in order to get back at Dixie Carter for taking away his backstage power in TNA, while also wanting to end

20955-684: The next two years, Jarrett would make several sporadic appearances for AAA as a member of the heel stable La Legión Extranjera , before the working relationship between AAA and TNA was ended. In 2004, the International Wrestling Association (IWA) ran an angle that satirized its main competition, the World Wrestling Council (WWC), by having a heel stable led by Ray González adopt its former name of "Capitol Sports" during an invasion angle. On October 9, 2004, González announced that Capitol had formed an alliance with TNA for Golpe de Estado and that this move would bring in Jarrett, then

21120-403: The night in a gauntlet match, which was eventually won by Magnus last eliminating Kazarian and Sting . Match stipulations for the tournament were determined by spinning the "Wheel of Dixie"; options included a Falls Count Anywhere match , a Bull Rope match , a Submission match , a Ladder match , a Full Metal Mayhem match , a Coalminer's Glove match , a Tables match , a Dixieland match ,

21285-485: The past!" referring indirectly to Jarrett. After numerous weeks of Jarrett's theme song playing and his guitar appearing on TNA programming, Jarrett returned to Impact! on September 11, 2008. At No Surrender , he would help Joe defeat Kurt Angle and Cage and assist Joe in retaining the TNA World Heavyweight Championship by hitting Angle with a guitar, keeping him a face . The following Thursday on Impact! , Jarrett cut his first promo since Slammiversary, claiming that

21450-493: The promotion in 2014, Jarrett founded another new promotion, Global Force Wrestling (GFW). After a failed merger of TNA and GFW, he cut ties with Impact. Jarrett then wrestled in Mexico for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide before returning to WWE in January 2019 as an on-screen talent and producer . He departed WWE once more in August 2022, making his debut with AEW that November. A third-generation wrestler, Jarrett has had over 80 championship reigns throughout his career, among them

21615-442: The record for the most reigns, at six. Josh Alexander 's first reign is the shortest at three minutes while his second reign is the longest at 335 days. Tessa Blanchard is the only woman to ever win the world title. The title has been vacated seven different times. Nic Nemeth is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated defending champion Moose , Josh Alexander , Steve Maclin , Frankie Kazarian , and Joe Hendry in

21780-510: The record until Chris Jericho 's seventh reign in 2004. In the months that followed, Jarrett became increasingly abusive towards Debra. At SummerSlam , Jarrett challenged D'Lo Brown for both the WWF European Championship and WWF Intercontinental Championships, with Debra accompanying Brown to the ring following an argument with Jarrett. Brown lost the match after both Mark Henry and Debra turned on him, making Jarrett

21945-688: The referee was distracted, Jarrett was reluctantly inducted into the Four Horsemen. On June 9, 1997, Jarrett defeated Dean Malenko to win the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship . In mid-1997, Jarrett was kicked out of the Four Horsemen and began feuding with Horsemen member Steve McMichael. Despite aligning himself with McMichael's then-wife, Debra McMichael , Jarrett lost the United States Heavyweight Championship to McMichael on August 21. In October, Jarrett's contract expired and he opted to return to

22110-450: The retirement party. On the January 13 episode of Impact! , Karen made her return and stopped Angle just as he was about to attack Jarrett, telling him that she would not allow him to ruin their personal lives and promised to tell all about their divorce the following week. The following week, Karen slapped Angle, providing a distraction which allowed Jarrett to beat him down. On February 13 at Against All Odds , Jarrett defeated Angle in

22275-473: The scheduled match between Bret Hart and Jarrett on October 31 in Memphis was cancelled due to poor weather. Following the cancelled Memphis show, he returned to the USWA. Nearly a year later, Jarrett returned to the World Wrestling Federation. He made his televised return on October 23, 1993, on WWF Superstars as a heel under the gimmick of "Double J" Jeff Jarrett, a country music singer who intended to elevate his singing career through his exposure as

22440-587: The second ever "Euro-Continental Champion". On the following episode of Raw , Jarrett rewarded Debra and Henry by giving Debra an assistant, Miss Kitty , and Henry the European Championship. In late 1999, Jarrett began feuding with Chyna over the Intercontinental Championship. Over the course of the feud, Jarrett would develop a misogynistic character, attacking numerous women such as Jacqueline , Stephanie McMahon and Cindy Margolis , while insinuating women like Chyna "had no business being in

22605-450: The special guest referee and Mick Foley was the special guest enforcer. At Lockdown , Sting lost the TNA World Heavyweight Championship to Mick Foley and the rest of the Main Event Mafia (Nash, Steiner, Booker T and Angle) lost to Team Jarrett, which consisted of Jeff Jarrett, Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels . At Sacrifice , Sting pinned Angle in an Ultimate Sacrifice match also involving Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett to become

22770-466: The tapings of the June 27 episode of Impact Wrestling , Samoa Joe was revealed as the third member, as he aided Sting and Angle after they attacked the Aces & Eights to help Samoa Joe defeat Mr. Anderson in a submission victory in his second Bound for Glory Series bout. On the July 4 episode of Impact Wrestling , Magnus was revealed to be the fourth member, as nominated by Samoa Joe because, as of

22935-475: The time of the announcement, Magnus was leading the Bound for Glory Series, but also the fact that they had fought alongside and against each other many times. In the main event between Chris Sabin , Austin Aries and Manik , the MEM was stationed at ringside to prevent the Aces & Eights from getting involved. After Chris Sabin won the match, the MEM congratulated Sabin on the win and appeared to back him up. On

23100-399: The time, decided that "that due to TNA's growing worldwide exposure, the company needed to have its own TNA title belts". At the first episode, broadcast on tape delay on May 17 Angle introduced himself as the "new TNA World Heavyweight Champion". but later on, Cornette stripped Angle of the TNA championship due to the controversial finish of the match at Sacrifice. and scheduled a King of

23265-486: The title back to Lawler in August and left USWA before the promotion folded in November 1997. In October 1996, Jarrett was hired by World Championship Wrestling (WCW), signing a one-year contract. Upon debuting in WCW, Jarrett became a "free agent" in the rivalry between The Four Horsemen and the New World Order (nWo) . After defeating Chris Benoit at Starrcade , and Steve McMichael , both by cheating when

23430-454: The title has been known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018, the title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship , with the latter title being officially retired. At Rebellion , Moose appeared with the old TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt (its 3rd design from 2011 to 2017, later modified with a white strap) and declared himself the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion after defeating Hernandez and Michael Elgin in

23595-611: The title took the GFW Global Championship name and kept the former TNA lineage. On October 23, 2017, the GFW name was dropped, and the company name reverted to Impact Wrestling when the company severed ties with Jeff Jarrett , and he took the GFW name with him. However, Impact Wrestling kept the Global Championship name for their championship and the title was then called the Impact Global Championship. On

23760-447: The title was contested in a tag team match pitting Jarrett and Bischoff against Page and actor David Arquette . Arquette won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship after pinning Bischoff. Jarrett hit Page with the championship belt while special referee Kimberly Page 's back was turned; WCW official Mickie Jay counted Bischoff out while Jarrett had Page pinned, who kicked out. At Slamboree on May 7, Jarrett defeated Page and Arquette in

23925-440: The title, Jarrett drafted the Harris Brothers (formerly Creative Control) into nWo 2000. In the following months, Jarrett repeatedly challenged Sid Vicious for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, in the process clashing with Nash and winning the position of WCW Commissioner for himself. Following Bret Hart's retirement, the nWo disbanded. In April, WCW was rebooted by Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, with all titles vacated as

24090-664: The titles, with the GFW Global Championship being dropped and the Impact World Heavyweight Championship changing its name to the Unified GFW World Championship as Impact Wrestling began rebranding once again as GFW. In September 2017, GFW reverted their branding to Impact Wrestling, the championship then became known as the Impact Global Championship. Since the February 1, 2018 episode of Impact! ,

24255-562: The veterans of the professional wrestling business. However, in February 2010, Steiner left TNA, effectively ending the Main Event Mafia. In January 2011, TNA started a storyline aiming to bring back the Main Event Mafia as a face group on the February 3, 2011, edition of TNA Impact! to feud with Immortal . Scott Steiner returned to the promotion on the January 27 edition of TNA Impact! and aligned himself with Kurt Angle, but on January 30, Booker T and Kevin Nash instead made surprise returns to World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ) to compete at

24420-400: The victory, effectively ending his feud with Jarrett. Just before Lockdown, Jarrett said that he was going to find out the answers to Sting's behavior, which led into a brawl on Impact! , with Sting leaving a beaten Jarrett in the ring, which in turn led to their match at Sacrifice . At Sacrifice, Sting assaulted Jarrett prior to their match and then dragged him in to the ring, where he scored

24585-768: The words "Heavyweight Champion" engraved in silver. On each side of the center plate was a group of three smaller plates, one with a TNA logo engraved while the other two featured separate corresponding halves of a globe, on either side of the TNA logo side plate. This belt—modified with a white strap—returned in April 2020 after Moose declared himself as " TNA World Heavyweight Champion " following defeating several past TNA wrestlers, and with then-reigning Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard being absent due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. Moose's title would remain unrecognized until February 2021, when it became officially sanctioned and recognized by Impact executive vice president Scott D'Amore . Following Slammiversary XV , both

24750-556: The world champion A.J. Styles. With Hogan out of the building, Bischoff and Styles' manager Ric Flair interfered in the match and cost Jarrett the number one contendership. Later in the evening, Jarrett was announced as the second member of Abyss ' Team Hogan in the annual Lethal Lockdown match , where they would meet Team Flair, led by Sting. At Lockdown , Team Hogan (Abyss, Jarrett, Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy ) defeated Team Flair (Sting, Desmond Wolfe , Robert Roode and James Storm), when Bischoff turned face and helped Team Hogan pick up

24915-559: Was Kurt Angle , who also holds the record for the most reigns at six. When TNA changed its name and became Impact Wrestling in March 2017, the title was renamed soon after to reflect the change. After Impact Wrestling rebranded to Global Force Wrestling (GFW) later that year, the title was unified with the original GFW Global Championship at Slammiversary XV and became the Unified GFW World Heavyweight Championship. Following Destination X ,

25080-682: Was Angle versus Rhino at Final Resolution. Angle continued to demand a match with Jarrett and he said if he could not get him at Final Resolution, he would wrestle Foley. Angle then slapped Foley causing Jarrett to come out and talk about what Angle wanted and then what Jarrett wanted (Angle to be fired). Because of Angle's contract clause, Jarrett could not fire him, so he made this stipulation: if Angle lost to Rhino, he would be fired from TNA; if Angle beat Rhino, he would get Jarrett at Genesis . Angle defeated Rhino at Final Resolution, allowing him to face Jarrett at Genesis. The feud got even more personal when it started involving Jarrett's three daughters during

25245-444: Was also a face, then entered the arena and stopped Joe's assault. However, Joe gave Sting the middle finger and continued his assault on Booker T. This angered Sting to a point in which he grabbed Joe and hit him with a baseball bat, thus turning heel in the process, allowing Booker T to steal the World Heavyweight Championship belt from Joe. Following the event, Sting did not appear on TNA's primary television program TNA Impact! in

25410-781: Was employed by Nashville-based wrestling promoters Nick Gulas and Roy Welch . He also wrestled with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and the Continental Wrestling Federation (CWF) in the late 1980s. In 1989, his father Jerry purchased the Texas -based World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) promotion and merged it with the CWA to create the United States Wrestling Association (USWA). Over

25575-496: Was free to keep the title belt he had just won (the "Hulk Hogan Memorial Belt"), Jarrett would wrestle Booker T for the official WCW World Heavyweight Championship later that night. Booker T won the match and Hogan did not appear in WCW again. It is disputed whether the situation was a shoot , a work , or some combination of the two. In the following months, Jarrett briefly feuded with Booker T, Mike Awesome , Sting , Buff Bagwell , and Flair. In late 2000, he joined forces with

25740-437: Was going to teach the wrestlers who think that the business owes them something a lesson and Joe, Magnus, and Angle wanting to become TNA World Heavyweight Champion. Magnus ended up winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship defeating Joe in the first round, Angle in the second round, and Jeff Hardy in the finals, but aligned himself with Dixieland and turned heel. Sting would then question Magnus why he did it, which set up

25905-466: Was later reported that Jarrett had severely bruised his ribs in the match. On the May 12 episode of Impact Wrestling , Angle revealed a name from Jarrett's past, Chyna, as his backup in taking care of him and Karen. At Sacrifice , Angle and Chyna defeated the Jarretts in a mixed tag team match. With Karen out of the picture, Angle defeated Jarrett on June 12 at Slammiversary IX in what was billed as

26070-502: Was left alone for a match, where he was defeated by Nash, after an interference from Sting. The following week, Sting defeated Jarrett in a singles match, after an interference from Kevin Nash. After the match, Samoa Joe joined Jarrett and drove Sting and Nash away. At No Surrender , Jarrett and Joe defeated Sting and Nash in a tag team match, after Jarrett hit Sting with his own baseball bat. At Bound for Glory , Jarrett and Joe faced Sting, Nash and their newest ally D'Angelo Dinero in

26235-414: Was placed above the eagle's head on a ribbon. The ribbon was wrapped around the bird's wings and body. Five stars were engraved on the ribbon when it passed over each of the bird's wings and the word "Champion" as it passed over the bird's talons. The words "Heavyweight Wrestling" were printed across the bird's chest. At the top of the center plate there was TNA logo. Four smaller side plates had an imprint of

26400-501: Was purchased by the WWF. Uninterested in Jarrett, the WWF neglected to acquire his contract, leaving him without a job. On the March 26 episode of the WWF's Raw program (which coincided with the final episode of Nitro ), company owner Vince McMahon was seen watching Jarrett within the WCW venue on a television set. Mocking Jarrett's trademark of distinctly spelling out his name, McMahon stated that Jarrett would be "Capital G, Double-O, Double-N, Double-E – GOONNEE!" With both WCW and

26565-494: Was replaced by the third design of the championship belt at the March 14, 2011 tapings of the March 17 episode of Impact! , introduced by the reigning champion at the time, Sting. The design featured seven gold plates over a black leather strap. The center plate had faux diamonds aligned along its multiple rounded edges, similar to that of the Big Gold Belt . Over the center plate was a large TNA Wrestling logo and below it

26730-563: Was reported that Jarrett had lost all of his backstage power in TNA and would return only as a wrestler. On the December 3 episode of Impact! , Jarrett made his first appearance in months via telephone, refusing to help Mick Foley regain control over TNA after Dixie Carter had announced that Hulk Hogan was coming to TNA. On the December 10 episode of Impact! , Foley met with Jarrett, who agreed to return and help him deal with Carter and Hogan. On January 4, 2010, Hogan made his debut, confronted Jarrett and claimed that he had to earn his spot in

26895-445: Was the last champion under the Impact name with a new belt. The new belt has 5 gold plates. The center plate added more height with the top and bottom each pointed like a V-shape with the sides having various shapes. In the center plate, features World on top, the TNA logo over a gold and red globe in center and Champion at the bottom. The first side plate next to the center on each side features World Champion in smaller print and globe in

27060-455: Was the result of TNA introducing a new storyline in which the veterans began a rivalry with younger talent within the company who called themselves The TNA Front Line ; with the MEM being the villains of the storyline as the veterans modelling themselves after the Mafia , portrayed as being upset at the disrespect being shown by the younger wrestlers. In June 2013, Sting announced the return of

27225-556: Was trying to separate the two. On the June 11 episode of Impact! , Mick Foley kayfabe fined and suspended Jarrett and threw him out of the arena as a punishment. The following week, Foley threw a party for Jarrett and welcomed his return to TNA in order to have him on his side at Slammiversary . At Slammiversary, Jarrett refused to give Foley the belt in the King of the Mountain match, which was won by Kurt Angle after assistance from Samoa Joe. Shortly after Slammiversary, Jarrett once again disappeared from TNA programming. During his hiatus, it

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