Crossups…or any deep jump-in…are PPP Lariat fodder. Any move that can be hit that comes into contact with 'Gief on the first frame of that move gets hit because he’s invincible at the beginning of it. For best results, do it while crouching.
The best thing to do against Balrog is the running bear grab in my opinion. He’s pretty much the only character you can do that against reliably because you can land it on him mid-slide when he does one of his sliding punches.
If he goes on the offensive, you just do the running bear and it will beat most of the moves he’s likely to make. But if he sits and waits for your move, he will just headbut you as you come running so then you will have to figure something else out. Perhaps try to bait him or something? Most Balrogs will do another sliding punch right after you block the first one, so that would be a good time to pick him up and slam him into the corner. 
the running bear grab is not the best option. you can jab him out of his rushes and then after you hit him with a jab ust spd him. you dont always get the grab with the running bear grab.
RBG against rog? No way. Rapid fire st.jabs, smart PPP lariats and cr.rh’s wins the match for gief.
I tried RBG and failed most of the time as it seems if they use a light punch or kick rush then the attack comes out before I can grab them. I’ve been doing the lariats, jabs and cr.hk for a while and it works fairly well but I still find Balrog a tough match.
Next question, recently I’ve been running into Fei Long’s who do that chicken wing kick, flame kick, and repeat this for the whole match when I’m in the corner. I’m not that bad when it comes to reversal SPDs but for some reason I can’t seem to SPD him after the chicken wing. Is there any normal attack that can outright beat it or a method out of it? It’s pretty annoying to see my ranked score go down the drain due to three losses from this thing.
I bet st.rh beats his chicken wing. Either way, you can reversal SPD after a blocked 3rd hit of CW because of the added recovery.
After the 2nd hit, the 1st hit, doesn’t matter when. Fei Long’s a dead chicken whenever he does Flying Kick against a Zangief who knows how to reversal SPD. Period.
This thread has been dead for a while!
For the above two posters, I’m still struggling with Fei Long to be honest, st.rh works fine against the chicken wing but if he’s doing it up close then I need to react pretty fast.
Anyway I had a couple more questions;
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I read in a previous post that the different punch buttons have a different range on the SPD but then someone else said that all SPDs have the same range. I’ve been playing Zangief for a while now and tested it a few times. Each time I found all SPDs had the same range but different strength.Assuming I’m right, why do people ever use jab or strong SPD? I’ve seen some strong players use it time to time but I guess that might be for the piano method (I don’t have a stick yet so I dunno if people use the piano method for timing SPDs)?
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One thing that was I saw a room for improvement on my 'gief was using his super. I found I could hardly ever pull it off in a real match situation even when they were dizzied so I worked on it today. It’s pretty satisfying finishing rounds with it but is his super really that necessary? At the moment I can only really tick from jumping knee into super but I find that it usually brings more problems and that I can win rounds more reliably without it. Does anyone here use it often in match situations outside of showboating?
Thanks in advance!
Sirlin just offered a counter strategy to this in the Fei Long thread. Check it out.
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If all of the SPDs have the same range yet differ in strength, well…:hp: SPD all day! The only time you’d want a :lp: or :mp: version is if you’re pianoing to ensure a reversal SPD. By the way, :lp: whiff has fewer frames than :mp:, which has fewer frames than :hp:…not that this really matters because they’re all quite noticable.
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Check out my FAQ on GameFAQs for some more FAB setups. It may have a shorter throw range than the SPD, but all you really have to do is alter your SPD setups and you can start snatching your opponents with the FAB when you have it charged. You just have to make sure your execution is tight.
By the way…75% damage is pretty nice if you can get it, right? 
Does the opponent land further away with the stronger punch button being used for spd? That can be the difference, but I’ll test it out in a bit.
Nope, the distances are the same afaik.
Thanks for the info on the whiff though Fresh OJ, I never noticed it before. I’ll give the FAQ and Fei Long thread a good read through when I get the chance.
Hey guys, this is a pretty noob question but I’m just learning Zangief so bear with me. What does 'Gief have to counter a Chun Li that does nothing but jumps backwards into a corner and spams j.lk? I’ve tried lariat but it gets beat most of the time. I try to time my jumps to hit her but that j.lk sticks out for a pretty long time. s.mk I’ve tried and it hits sometimes, but is there any sure way to counter this?
If she spams j.short try to time it so that you can j. strong (chop) on her way up. Does cr. roundhouse reach? What about banishing fist?
j.strong right after she falls down and on her way up…chop her ass then spam body splash =P
I never tried j.mp come to think of it, shows how much of a 'Gief noob I am:lol:
Zangief’s j.Strong is great against Claw too. In this matchup I used to use Lariats and cr.Fierce a lot, as well as j+d.Fierce to stuff corner dives, but I played a couple of good Claws lately, and j.Strong seems to stuff or trade wall dives at almost any range, especially if you do it early in the jump. Now I’mma mix it up with my other anti-dive strats, and keep that Claw grounded. = )
Weaker the SPD, more stun it does.
^^
Oh reeeeaallly now?! I need to play around with that. We might not need so many jabs in our combos to dizzy people. Hmmm hmmm hmmm…
Of course…if they give you the jabs and the damage…and essentially give you the opportunity to ToD them…well…take it!!!
Works nice as wake up reversal. Since you are in the wake up animation, you can dial in the 720 and hit the super pretty easily. I love it if someone has tripped my Gief up, they go in for a meaty jump in and bam, they get supered on wake up. I also find st.jab into super works or I tend to whiff a jump forward roundhouse and super as I land.