PART 3

Bret Hart Vs. Diesel (Survivor Series '95)
& Ryu Vs. Akuma (Street Fighter Alpha 2)

 
    
 

Many professional illustrators use inspirations from movies, magazine covers, or real life photos for their 2D artwork, and sometimes cleverly mimic other forms of art... like pro-wrestling. Any creative person who enjoyed watching television in the 90's was definitely watching the crazy things happening in the World Wrestling Federation. The early WWF had so many great characters and legends.

As you probably know, many fighting game characters take direct inspiration from these real life wrestlers. In this case... a popular headlining photo / magazine cover of Bret Hart Vs. Diesel from Survivor Series (1995) made a statement worldwide. Releasing only a few months after this iconic photo, DAI-CHAN's iconic Street Fighter Alpha 2 poster clearly takes direct inspiration from The Hitman and Kevin Nash!
 

 

Hulk Hogan Vs. Andre The Giant (1987)
& Alex & Hugo Andore (SFIII: 3rd Strike)

 

 
Wrestling was getting HUGE in the late 80's... worldwide! In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Capcom decided to recreate the iconic standoff between Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant from Wrestlemania III (1987) with Alex and Hugo - further cementing the idea that both characters take heavy inspirations from the WWF / WWE legends. "NO BABY OIL!" ~Andre The Giant
 

    

Rey Mysterio & El Blaze

 

 



 

              

 
Virtua Fighter 5's El Blaze shares a striking resemblance to not only Luchadores in general, but especially Rey Mysterio. and probably one of the few intentional tributes by Sega. I suppose they thought a light and speedy Lucha Libre wrestler would fit in well with the VF cast, and they were spot on.


Don Frye & Mike Haggar
(Submitted by Chris S.)

 

 

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I can't think of a better man to play Mike Haggar of Final Fight than legit mixed martial arts legend and former pro-wrestler, Don Frye. Don Frye won the freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling events during an Olympic qualifier in 1987 and made his professional boxing debut in 1989... (interestingly, the same year Final Fight was released). Did someone over at Capcom see Frye in the ring and become inspired to create Mike Haggar? It's quite possible. All I know is that if a live action Final Fight movie starring Don Frye existed, life would be significantly better.
 
 
[UPDATE: July 16th, 2018]
 
Life is significantly better. After many years of this character / celebrity comparison existing on the internet, in June 2018, the Frye himself was cast as Mayor Mike Haggar in a fan film: "The Broken Gear: A Final Fight Film". Thank you Game Basement Productions for turning our childhood dreams into a reality. Enjoy the full 30-minute martial arts flick below.
 

  

 

Raiden & Big Van Vader

 
        
 
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Raiden (also known as Big Bear) was based off of real life pro-wrestler, Leon Allen White, better known by his ring name, Big Van Vader! Vader also did a lot of wrestling in Japan back in the day, so clearly, some of SNK's designers went and saw Vader at one of the shows and was inspired! Raiden and Vader share a lot of similarities as "big men" in the wrestling business, and while Raiden's mask isn't a direct copy of Vader's... it's similar.

Big Van Vader was definitely a badass and memorable pro wrestler (and WWE Hall of Famer!), which actually makes Raiden a bit cooler as a design than he may seem at first. It's Vader Time! Sadly, Leon White passed away in 2018. R.I.P. Lord Vader. You're a legend.


Andre the Giant & Hugo/Andore

 
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I never thought one of the classic "baddies" from Final Fight would actually cross over to Street Fighter. My jaw pretty much hit the floor when I first saw Hugo in SFIII: 2nd Impact. He wasn't a very popular character back then, so Hugo's appearance in SF3 was a huge fan service for old school Capcom fans. Capcom kept his visual design nearly identical to his original Final Fight appearance, yet managed to fleshed him out further thanks to SF3's awesome art style. The 3rd Strike artists set out to create a huge, clumsy pro-wrestler, who looks slightly off balance at times, but hits very hard. It's sheer brilliance what they did with his animation and design in SF3.

The late great Andre The Giant is a legend... and Hugo (Andore) is a great homage to the iconic pro-wrestler. Andre deserved more than just being a generic Final Fight bad guy, and his Street Fighter appearances really make a statement. As one of the "biggest" big guys in Street Fighter, Hugo never fails to entertain the audience... just like Andre did. 

 

Hulk Hogan (Hollywood) & Bass

 
             
 

Bass-amania brother!!!  ...yeah, that's all there is to say about this one. Tecmo Koei clearly based their visual design for Bass on Hollywood Hogan in Dead or Alive 2.


Bill Goldberg & Craig Marduk

 
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The iconic WCW/WWE wrestler Goldberg was an obvious inspiration to Tekken's designers when they came up with Craig Marduk, a Vale Tudo fighter. They have strikingly similar appearances, moves and taunts. In Tekken 4, Marduk actually performed some of Goldberg's trademark "arm raises" in his win pose. Those animations were removed in the later games. However, Marduk still has some of Goldberg's iconic moves, such as his spear and jackhammer.


Joe Weider & Clemence

 
        
  

        

 

You may (or may not) have heard of the famous Canadian bodybuilder and entrepreneur Joe Weider. The same goes for Clemence, a pro-wrestler from the obscure fighting game, Fighting Layer. All I know is that the first time I saw Clemence, I immediately thought of the Weider logo (pictured above) as it appears on my home gym. What makes this interesting is that Weider is clearly famous for the "arms folded" pose, the same pose Clemence is seen in (in the only artwork for Clemence that exists). Also, somehow I always see an eyepatch over Weider's right eye in the logo now. lol.

 

Golddust & Exodus

 
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Here's another one from Fighting Layer. The odd-looking wrestler, Exodus, is clearly partially inspired by WWE icon and infamously bizarre-looking wrestler, Golddust (AKA Dustin Rhodes, son of Dusty Rhodes). As a WWE fan since the 90's, I gotta say Golddust was always pretty underrated and an interesting character. I definitely enjoyed his stuttering gimmick while it lasted. *HOH* In the same way, Exodus was a pretty interesting character on the Fighting Layer roster.

 

Darun Mister & The Great Gama

 
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The Great Gama is a Pehlwani wrestler from India who was famous in the early 1900's. Darun Mister's design appears to be heavily based off of the Great Gama. Nuff said? That's an intimidating mustache if I've ever seen one!

 

Rock & Triple H

 
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It's likely Namco would've used pro wrestlers as reference when they were illustrating & rendering the "big guys" of the Soul Calibur series. How else would they achieve such realistic-looking character models? Namco seems to have taken it a step further particularly in Soul Calibur 3 (2005), as Rock's facial structure eerily resembles Triple H's... both in the official artwork and in the actual game.

The ironic part is that Triple H is known for using a sledgehammer (especially since 2005?), and Rock has always used a battle axe / hammer. After seeing Triple H doing his trademark pose next to Rock's SC3 artwork, it's hard to label this one as just a coincidence. To add to the irony, Triple H's WrestleMania 22 entrance featured him sitting in a throne in full barbarian attire, with a huge battle hammer next to him. There's no doubt about it... Rock and Hunter are indeed separated at birth.

   

Mike Tyson & Balrog

 
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This is one of the first, and one of the most well-known likenesses in fighting game history. For those of you that don't know: Balrog's name in the Japanese version of Street Fighter 2 is none other than "Mike Bison"... which obviously has the same ring as Mike Tyson. Capcom purposely changed his name to "Balrog" in America to avoid any potential lawsuits... funny stuff. And in case you didn't notice, Balrog's SF2 character select artwork is practically based on that photo of Mike Tyson with the white background (above).

 

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa & Feng Wei

  
                                
 
Tagawa played Shang Tsung in the first live-action Mortal Kombat movie and Heihachi Mishima in the live-action Tekken movie. Too bad Feng Wei wasn't created when Tagawa was younger, because if they made a Tekken movie back then, this guy would've made a perfect Feng (perhaps if Tagawa bulked up a bit). Both dudes have such a convincing "angry face". It's not officially confirmed, but I personally believe the Tekken 5 designers based Feng Wei's facial structure off of Tagawa's.

   Continue to Part 4


 

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