Exactly, I think they both know the matchup in a really high level.
Ken with his old walkspeed coupled with the old LP SPD range made spacing his stepkick a hassle for him, not having a hurtbox in frame one of st.MP made that button dominate Ken’s footsies. Ken’s fireball isn’t good enough to zone Zangief out thanks to it’s total frame count so once Gief had meter he couldn’t really try to keep Zangief out and the matchup turned to a slugfest which Gief loves, his AA’s don’t hurt that much unless they hit deep and in that case it was more of a mistake by the Zangief player than a strength in Ken’s game. Having a projectile and a special for anti airs isn’t enough to defeat Zangief like in the old games thanks to EX GH, ask DJ about it too.
These buffs changed the Gief vs Ken match up to even… At least for Ken
Backwards walkspeed increased
thunderkick frame advantage from -4 to 0
Cr.HK start up 7f… Recovery is the same as AE2012 but blockstun was reduced by 2 frames.
Fireball damage increased (including chip damage)
Cr.MK hurtbox reduction
U2 travel speed for the first few frames
MP SRK knocks down on the first hit making it very reliable to AA with
The SRK FADC nerfs mean nothing in the gief match up, delayed wake up hurt gief more than Ken in this match up as well.
The only thing Zangief has on Ken now is the fact that Ken doesn’t have a reliable grounded AA against Gief. That’s it.
I could see 'Gief v. Rose being 5-5 or maybe a slight advantage for 'Gief. I’ve played a solid amount of Rose since Super and always found it a bit hard. Her cr. fp tends to trade with is jump attacks a bit much, which sucks since he has great health. You have to very carefully space soul spiral to avoid SPDs. Lastly, I don’t think Rose is a good fireball zoner. She’s an excellent counter-zoner and good footsies zoner, but her raw fireball game is probably decent or mediocre at best. Couple that with her poor wake-up options and I could understand why one might think 'Gief wins. Maybe I just played the matchup wrong but it definitely struck me as a bit hard. Just my $0.02.
EDIT:
@MachoRhombus
Totally agree. Dee-Jay is my most played character in all of SF4 and I consider Zangief one of his worst matchups. Right next to Blanka, Honda, Yun, and so forth.
Gief’s JMK beats most normal anti airs due to how far down it reaches. Deejay’s LK Up Kicks also only have 2F active so he has to time it pretty specifically and the timing that Gief’s jMK hits vs when JHP or D+LK hit is EXTREMELY different. (Also fuck D+LK hitbox. Only reason people don’t bitch about it I think is because Gief is slow and it doesn’t get much hitstun. The whole “no jumping normals have a hitbox that extends lower than the hurtbox, except for Sakura which was a “bug”” claim by Combofiend is shit all over by that attack (and by Vega’s angle jump HP).
Gief’s D+LK beats any mid tier or lower anti air that isn’t invincible. The only one Cody has that consistently beats it is B+MP only on the first active frame with specific spacing.
Even characters who do have invincible anti airs get screwed, because of how far down it reaches you have to react almost as soon as he jumps in order to not trade or get beaten.