Zangief's Russian Suplex (near opponent) Street Fighter 6

Domingo posted June 22, 2023

In spite of this move looking impressive, I find that it's not that easy to land and it's not as effective as the SPD in most situations. It sadly does less damage, too.

This move only activates when done point blank, otherwise Zangief does the running bear grab. That means it doesn't actually work off most tic attempts and if you try it, you can easily be hit out of it by almost anything. It oddly even has a whiff animation that only activates off of tic attempts, making it that much tougher to use. The whiff even occurs much further than when the move normally activates, which keeps running bear grab tics from being overly strong. Bummer, right?

You can really only land it off light/empty jump-ins, after a drive impact, as a punish, or the rare instance where your opponent is right next to you and not pressing buttons. It will grab Drive Impact attempts, but they have to actually be so close to you that it's a massive risk. If you're anywhere but point blank, you'll do the (slower) running grab and get hit instead. You can also try it during a Drive Rush blockstring, but if your timing is off it will whiff, which leaves you wide open for a long time. You're better off trying a normal grab.

Why use this instead of the SPD? The only real reason seems to be that it reverses your onscreen position. If you're cornered, this will essentially get you out of the corner and put your opponent there instead. The further away from the corner you are, the further out they will be, too. After a drive impact is the most common scenario for you to try it, although it might just be better to go for pure damage (the SPD or level 2/3) instead. Also, be sure not to corner yourself trying this move when your foe is near a corner. Those old loops from SF4 *do not* work.

NOTES: This move does build quite a bit of super meter when done as an EX/Overdrive. Roughly 1/2 the gauge. That's usually not that big of a deal, but it's at least one other good thing about this move. I'm still struggling to find a great use for the normal version beyond corner swaps. I've been tinkering with using it as a predictive counter to DI's and it seems like you can buffer the move after a meaty medium attack. If they DI, you'll suplex them out of it. If they don't - typically nothing comes out at all. The catch is that the timing seems tight and occasionally you'll get a whiff or even the running version instead. I feel like this move has some hidden potential and potentially even some option select properties.