Street Fighter II/Zangief

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Zangief is a close range character as he is a wrestling type. Many of his moves are more complicated to pull off due to the 360 motions input required to perform the moves, making him a character for advanced players. Zangief is one of the slowest of all characters in Street Fighter yet is still one of the most effective. His "spinning piledriver" is the single most damaging regular move in the series. Zangief's Flying Stomach block attack is the only standard move capable of dizzying a character in one hit.

Zangief's name is possibly based on real-life pro wrestler Victor Zangiev, a former Soviet amateur who trained as a professional in NJPW, and who also competed in WCW and UWF International. Zangief is still listed as being from the Soviet Union in all Street Fighter games, even those produced after the fall of the Soviet Union. This may be due to the fact that the majority of games he appears in take place at a time before the Soviet Union's fall. Zangief's prototypical name was Vodka Gobalsky.

Background
Zangief is said to have trained by wrestling polar bears in Siberia, on which he practiced his trademark Spinning Piledriver after being picked up by a cyclone while performing a piledriver on a bear. The scars covering his body are said to have been the results of wrestling with bears.

As the greatest professional wrestler in the Soviet Union, Zangief was contacted by a man named Erai Hito (Great Man) to represent his country in the second World Warrior tournament. Zangief agreed and began training in the extreme climates of Siberia, determined to demonstrate Russia's magnificent power to all of the world. With the assistance of his government, Zangief emerged from his training as "The Red Cyclone."

In his ending in the Street Fighter II series, Zangief is congratulated by someone who greatly resembles former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and dances with him. He is referred to as erai hito (or "great man") in the Japanese version. In later versions of the Street Fighter II series, Zangief calls him "Mr. Ex-President".