15 MORE Wrestling Gimmicks That Got Weird Rip-Offs
12. Scott Steiner (Little Petey Pump)
Even at its creative mid-2000s peak (not coincidentally when they were furthest away from WWE in style and tone), Total Nonstop Action was still rarely able to unleash a single good idea without a list of caveats.
Such was the case with 'Little Petey Pump', an almost-devastatingly patronising nickname for Petey Williams when he embraced the aesthetic of Scott Steiner save for a few inches in height and arm width. The two were put together as unlikely allies on television after both found themselves in possession of "Feast Or Fired" briefcases for title shots in 2007. They traded cases, giving Petey a World Title shot, but Steiner eventually won possession of both in a match at Against All Odds 2008.
Rather than marking the end of the X-Division star's union with 'Big Poppa Pump' though, the positive feedback to the story from all sides resulted in them working a mutual respect angle until Steiner bequeathed his signature look (chainmail headwear included) onto the innovator of the Canadian Destroyer. The relationship was ultimately doomed by Steiner's inclusion in the heel Main Event Mafia, but it felt as though Petey had found a missing piece of the puzzle from the most unlikely of places.
'Maple Leaf Muscle' gradually became its own thing as a persona, and so it should have - having a body (and body of work) like Williams' was absolutely something to toast on its terms rather than just in the shadow of an even more preposterously jacked "freak".