I highly RESPECT this compilation video for various reasons.

So, I’ve had this idea mulling around in my head for years, ever since Street Fighter IV came out. I was pretty disappointed in the character design; specifically, there seemed to be a disparity between the new SFIV characters’ respective martial arts and what they actually did. Furthermore, they didn’t seem to visually represent the martial art they claimed to know.

So I gave myself a challenge: design a character that represents his martial art(s), both by appearance and movement.

I had a gripe with Juri with her weird stance, appearance, and her moveset, so I started with South Korea. I wanted a martial art that wasn’t Taekwondo and found Ssireum. It’s a grappling-based martial art, and it happens to be the national sport for South Korea, but it’s dwindling in popularity. Because of that, some of the practitioners are finding something else to do....it turns out that sambo is one of the outlets. This worked out perfectly for my Street Fighter character. I’m a fan of grappler characters, but because Ssireum is ALL grappling and no strikes, I was concerned if the character could exist in Street Fighter. However, because some Ssireum wrestlers were transitioning to sambo, it was a perfect way to add a striking moveset to the character.

The first picture was what I came up with several years ago, but I wasn’t satisfied with the design. It was tough trying to get Abel out of my head because he is also a MMA fighter and grappler. I never came up with a name for him, though. I want him to have an authentic Korean name (real or stage name), but I don’t know enough about the language or culture to come up with one I’m happy with. I wanted him to be somewhat like Makoto, short and quick. His low height would allow him to get under his opponents’ center of gravity more easily and control the match with throws, shoots and trips. His smaller frame should also help him move quickly in and out of range. He would also have a set of command throws to match his Ssireum style, so they would perhaps be the multi-link type, where he would shift the opponent’s weight before he throws them. He might have a 360-type move, but it would not have the long range that Zangief would have...you would have to get in really close to get it to work.