On October 12 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, although Sting did not participate in sneak attacks and was cheered by the crowd, making him more a tweener (neutral character). Sting went on to successfully defend the title against AJ Styles on November 9 at Turning Point, The TNA Front Line in an eight-man tag team match with the Main Event Mafia on December 7 at Final Resolution, Rhino on January 11 Genesis, Kurt Angle and both members of Team 3D in a four-way match on February 8 at Against All Odds, and against Angle on March 15 at Destination X. At Lockdown 2009, Sting lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Mick Foley inside the Six Sides of Steel, ending his reign at 189 days (his longest world title reign for any organization). On May 24 at Sacrifice, Sting defeated Kurt Angle to become the new Godfather of the Main Event Mafia. On June 21 at Slammiversary, Sting defeated Matt Morgan in a singles match, thus preventing Morgan from joining the Main Event Mafia. On the following episode of Impact!, Sting's fellow Main Event Mafia members attacked him, removed him from the group, and Kurt Angle reclaimed his role as Godfather. The following week, Sting took his revenge upon the Mafia, when he attacked every member of the group and stole Angle's world heavyweight championship belt, becoming a fully fledged face as a result. On July 19 at Victory Road, Sting was defeated by new Main Event Mafia member Samoa Joe in a singles match after the debuting Taz interfered on Joe's behalf. On August 16 at Hard Justice, Sting unsuccessfully challenged Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a triple threat match, which also included Matt Morgan. On September 20 at No Surrender, Sting lost a five-way match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship that also included A.J. Styles, Hernandez, Kurt Angle, and Matt Morgan. Instead of pinning Angle, he opted to attack Morgan, to allow Styles to pin Angle and become the new World Heavyweight Champion. As a token of gratitude, Styles offered to give him a title shot at the following month's PPV Bound for Glory in a match billed as possibly being Sting's retirement match. At the PPV, Styles defeated Sting to retain his title, ending Sting's undefeated streak at Bound for Glory. After the match he announced that he didn't know whether he would continue his career or not, Saying that "the way you fans are reacting right now, makes me wanna stay forever!" At the end of the year the match was voted the match of the year by the fans of TNA.