For all the time I’ve spent illuminating the uselessness of RBG, this happens:
I’m fighting a Ryu several ranks above me. It’s a good match and it comes down to the end. Ryu jumps in for the kill, and I block. He jumps back a short distance, probably fearing my full Ultra meter. However, I tried to EX-Suplex while he was next to me. As he jumps clear, I get an EX-RBG instead. I figure I’m totally screwed any way you slice it–and to add insult to injury he unloads his full Ultra as soon as he lands. I can’t believe what happens next–the Ultra fireball passes through the charging Gief! This isn’t an absorb, it’s a clean miss just like a lariat. Ryu has an obvious WTH moment as he just stands there in shock as Gief’s EX slam ends the match.
Now, what happened? Did the Ultra fireball hit some invincibility frames? Does EX-RBG beat Ryu’s Ultra clean or was this some weird fluke? My wife is pulling an all-nighter tonight, so I can’t test in training mode until tomorrow. (Our PC is in her home office and mashing a Hori stick is a little loud.)
While Ryu’s ultra has some invincibility on start up, you can still probably grab him through it with the right timing, however accidental. Same effect can happen against regular/EX fireballs, and even Dhalsim’s ultra. It’s not a glitch or a fluke, just fortunate timing on your part.
You got the luck of the draw. It happens sometimes. It’s just funny as heck when it happens with Gief. It’s ultra mega super funny when you actually land a RBG, no less on someone’s ultra.
Here’s what happened:
You essentially grabbed him when Ryu’s invincibility frames from the ultra startup wore off. You can replicate this with anyone against Ryu with a jumping attack. In the case of the jumping attacks - usually the hard punch/kick kind with the longer start up frames - if you hit the attack before the ultra starts up (this is also height dependent), your attack’s active frames will come out after Ryu has let loose of the Metsu Hadoken and invincibility frames are no longer active. Your jumping attack will more than likely (badly) trade if this happens.
In this case, you grabbed him with a command grab. You lucked out on both spacing AND timing. I’ve done this same exact thing a few times myself - much the same as you, not on purpose (I’ll take the win though!). He jumped back, you ran forward to him and ended up at just the right spacing/distance to grab him as if he were to land and try to toss out either a s/c.lp. If he would’ve tried to toss out a s/c.lp attack instead you would’ve seen the startup of that punch, but you would’ve ended up grabbing him instead (same thing for a fireball, except no fireball would’ve been tossed out, you’d just hear Ryu go “hado!” then the powerbomb). The reason you lucked out on timing is that if you were just one step back/late, the Metsu would’ve pegged you as you came forward (well, you might luck out and absorb one hit > grab, but I’ve yet to see that). If you were too early, your grab would’ve whiffed and you’d eat full Metsu anyhow. You lucked out on distance in that you actually did move forward just a hair closer to Ryu as the Metsu was coming toward you. Those tiny in-game millimeters and milliseconds made all the difference.
If you want an easier way to replicate this, just to get the general idea of what happened, toss in Akuma vs Ryu in the training mode. Have Akuma sweep Ryu then do the Ultra Raging Demon (I’m sure the super works the same way, but the ultra lasts longer). On Ryu’s wake, do the Metsu. You’ll see the Metsu go right through Akuma and the Demon connects. Gief RBG is essentially the same thing, just way more difficult to pull out.
Vega’s EX Rolling Crystal Flash goes through Abel’s Ultra. It could have a similar property to that. But considering the posts above, that is probably not the case.
Anyone can throw Ryu out of his Ultra if they are right in front of him. You may have just had the spacing right.