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.

The group's formation 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 the Main Event Mafia, now as a heroic stable, in response to a year-long war between the TNA roster and the Aces & Eights.

[3] 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 the events.

[5] Jarrett went on to Bound for Glory to defeat Angle in a standard match with Mick Foley as the Special Guest Ringside Enforcer.

The following week, they added Scott Steiner to the Main Event Mafia as he made his return from an injury and attacked Joe, Styles and their allies.

The Main Event Mafia 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.

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 a suitable replacement in Cute Kip James.

On the June 25 edition of TNA Impact!, it was explained that Joe had been paid off by the Main Event Mafia due to them being unable to defeat him.

Styles from a beat down from his former stablemates, attacking each member of the Main Event Mafia with his baseball bat and stealing Angle's TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt.

Joe then took back the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, returning it to Angle during the beatdown on Mick Foley at the end of the show.

At the same event, Booker T and Steiner defeated Beer Money, Inc. for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, Angle defeated Foley to retain 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 Main Event Mafia.

[7] The following week, Joe lost the TNA X Division Championship to Amazing Red after Bobby Lashley interfered.

[11] 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.

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 the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, forcing TNA to change their plans and abandon the storyline.

[14][15][16] 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 September 12, on 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 Main Event Mafia.

After losing to EGO, the Main Event Mafia trio of Sting, Magnus and Joe engaged in different storylines.

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, the Main Event Mafia announced that their mission was accomplished and they parted ways, with Sting saying he 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 retained the championship at Lockdown with help from Abyss, but would ultimately lose it to Eric Young on the April 10 episode of Impact Wrestling.