Snapshots: Zangief: Poster Boy?

In Snapshots, Three Man Booth searches for images to share.

Outside of Wrestling Videogames, there have not been too many ambassadors to the world of professional wrestling. Granted, Mayor Mike Haggar of Final Fight is a former wrestler but his career probably inspired wrestler turned governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura more than anyone else. Plus, Haggar only has two moves – a Spinning Clothesline and a Lead Pipe Attack – and one of those is illegal. The Videogame ambassador is Zangief of the Street Fighter Franchise; he even appears in PIXAR’s upcoming Wreck it Ralph film. Despite this accolade, Zangief is not a cover model: that’s reserved for guys like Ryu and Ken, which was the case for the Street Fighter IV cover. Luckily there are sites like PaletteSwap, which showcases artists re-design videogame covers, and artists like Ramon Villalobos to give Zangief his moment in the sun:

Villalobos created a version with El Tigre, the newest wrestling-based World Fighter, putting Zangief in a standing Koji clutch, showcasing his wrestling knowledge as he did with his depiction of Bane putting Batman in an abdominal stretch. Zangief isn’t the only wrestler becoming a cover model on PaletteSwap, however. Rusty Shackles (Great Wrestling Name) decided to take on the NES classic Pro Wrestling:

Rusty corrected what the issue was with the original cover: No Starman!

Everybody knows Starman = Ratings.

Check out PaletteSwap for cool re-interpretations of vidoegame covers, even the non-wrestling ones.

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