Even so, I’d much rather get other, less represented martial arts, or martial arts that have no representation at all yet, then more wrestlers. No matter how different they wrestle.
Tbh Alex seem classic case of bullshit profile… dude got nothing of kickboxing neither as fight style or lore, while he looks 100% pro wrestler and so are his rivalries (Hugo in SF3, Zangief/Mika in SFV)
Would really count it as pure wrestler tbh
I changed my mind on Birdie, after seen that you said he’s listed as brawler/pro wrestler i guess we can vount him at least as +0,5… after all considering how loose “pro wrestling” is in Capcom world is very possible his style in the ring was more or less the same we see in SF lol
Yeah, that’s why i said IF, i’m not a fan either to use it as a group 
More than anything because is more about use it as generic archetype, but if we count “chinese kung fu” as a category, applying the same we could have counted Ryu and Makoto in same group as “japanese karate” (as Ansatsuken is essentially Kyokushin of SF world)
But tbh if we want make that distinction i guess we should also split Ninjutstu group, having the Bushinryu group as their own thing
Or maybe not lol… after all while Guy seem to be all about Taijutsu (just non-armed fighting techniques) and use it as a “normal” martial art, Zeku who’s also a Bushinryu rep show to know stuff that bring him much closer to classic all-around Ninjutsu imagery (like let’s say Ibuki or Geki)
Even Pro Wrestling may pose similar question to some extent, there have been so many “styles”… first and most clear example i can think is that if we don’t say to be ok with generic groups will be hesitant af to put mexican Lucha Libre rep El Fuerte with Zangief, just like i will keep separated two “kung fu users” of different styles
Btw for the “kung fu group” i think it goes like
Chun Li - Wing Chun + other chinese styles
Gen - Mantis and Crane
Yun - Bajiquan
Yang - Bajiquan
Lee - Bajiquan, later made him Drunken style
Fei Long - Jet Kune Do (Capcom call it differently iirc) wich is a deviation from Wing Chun
Rufus - i guess he’s some kind of Shaolin parody
Fang: “Poison Hand” imagery
It’s loosely supposed to be Snake Style. But it’s not very accurate since he learned it copying movies.
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The only reason I don’t want another wrestler is because the ones they have now do nothing story wise. All they’ll do is either feud with Zangief before becoming friends with him or do nothing but drool over Zangief and I’d rather shoot myself then go through another game of “WOW MASTER ZANGIEF” and “MUSCLE SPIRIT”.
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Classic Costume+Cape is the best one.
Anything without hip vents is TRASH!
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I wouldn’t be surprised if the costume + cape makes it into a future game. It seems suited for a much more mature and more experience Ibuki.
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That’s just Mika though, and I think it was always in her backstory to be a Gief fan.
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for obscure characters and non-SF staple regardless of whatever they are in the profile in the backstory in their previous iteration, Capcom would just tweak and change them effectively but there are certain conditions.
Like they did with the other cast, yet too many wrestlers is an issue too,
Wraith which I like and one of my request in before Ken reveal trailer in SFV
is one of the flexible character that even his origin is from a fictional wrestling setting he can be tweak to be something else without the very wrestling in approach because of the other elements of his character that standout even he joined a fictional wrestling competition .
But there are exception if that character with a wrestler in all aspect from the moves, visuals and memorable backstory. Like a typical wrestler whole presentation like Alex, Birdie and Gief etc.
gief for example was banned in wrestling and everything from his moveset and backstory are inspired with a wrestling like story it’s hard to tweak.
even Alex that is associated with wrestling so much in most of his reference and popularity. so it cannot be easily dis associated with.
same goes with this slam master characters, they are very wrestling at there core.
Even with the change of costume
yet I also believe that gameplay can diversify and solve this even with wrestling as a fighting style, since this is a fighting game. yet to many with a wrestler like visual and moveset as an entry is an issue too.
The new Ibuki costume is straight-up garbage. It looks like a lazy AS cosplay/Halloween costume a thot threw together at the last minute
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Was looking up the wrestlers stories and yeah Fuerte is the only one other than Mika who does shit with Zangief. For some reason I thought it was more lol. I still hate the muscle spirit shit though.
It looks like a high school girl in her Covid-gear.
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They should have just used rhe luchadore from SM instead of El Fuerte.
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You say this but Ibuki would bring the virus to her whole village all because she broke isolation rules to shag some city boys.
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Yeah some snake is definitely there, but i thought to have seen also something else… Eagle i think + some other styles
Btw iirc he actually traveled to China to learn kung fu, wich may have influenced his stache/hair style lol
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Alex have him as SFV last boss/fight (plus ASF interaction) too, and his arcade ending is about that fight
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Darun used to have him as rival and tag partner
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Abel had interactions with him in both SF4/SFV. Gief even call him “comrade” as say fellow grappler, but i guess the hidden joke was Zangief recognizing in him some russian-something (Abel was based on Fedor Emelianenko)
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Azam and Laura seem to recognize him as part of some sort of elite grapplers group, Laura fight him too in story
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Mike Haggar obvious one
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Slam Masters main protagonist Biff/Aleksey is friend with/personally know Zangief and mention him
So yes, Zangief is involved more often than not when it comes to wrestlers
Wich is good
While at it SFV Master Zangief/Muscle Spirit version is probably the best he ever been, finally they bothered give him some respect instead treat him as everybody’s jobber
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They can’t use El Stingray (or any other SM char) due rights problems iirc, from what i understand they can only hint at their existence but not show them
I don’t think that’s true. I know the art for those games was drawn by the Fist of the North Star guy, but I don’t think he owns those character’s images.
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And still we never seen any of them portrayed in any way* after
Even SFEX cast got canonized and portrayed in SFV profiles, but not the Slam Masters crowd (canon yes, portrayed no)
In SFV profiles Blade it’s “hinted” to be Gunloc, but not shown (got helmet/mask) as him
*this
the only exception but was a mini mini cameo long ago
Obviously because it’s likely a promotion to Arika that also planned comeback to the fighting game scene that would release Fighting EX Layer latter. It’s just to hype.
That popular stage, doesn’t justify anything. things can change overtime, priorities and so relationships.
The thing is they are still dodgy at it nowadays.
That they only hint them in CFN profile than acknowledge them
There might be that there are some technicality in the rights with Tetsuo Hara regarding “some” character designs not the in terms of the character ownership.
Since the guy isn’t an in-house artist, so maybe it’s on the contracts.
It doesn’t mean they had conflict, probably it’s just Capcom don’t mind it anyway or doesn’t even think it’s worth to bother and risk since SM as a brand and even gameplay compare to other titles they had that they had.
Yet I believe, they can still used some of the character by reinventing them someday without the need to acknowledge the rest of the cast in that game which the artist had major influence with. the thing is they probably just doesn’t think it’s worth that just by doing a new character would least the trouble of many things like the need to settle of schedules, lawyers and paper works like agreements. Since they probably just took least character from the franchise not everyone of them.