Month: June 2016

Over the years, Alex Jebailey’s Community Effort Orlando event has become synonymous with its Pro Wrestling-themed attractions. From the Ultra Street Fighter IV Omega Mode and Street Fighter V Royal Rumbles, to wrestling-themed entrances with music on finals day, and of course, having the streamed matches on the main stage take place inside a boxing ring, it’s served as a love letter for any and all fans of Sports-Entertainment.

While many undoubtedly had their eyes glued to the myriad of tournament games being played, Jebailey also put on a special FT5 exhibition set on the Capcom Fighters channel between two of the most notable gaming wrestlers, the leader of The Bullet Club Elite, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Kenny Omega, and one-third of the current WWE World Tag Team Champions, Xavier Woods, representing The New Day.

Longtime friends and rivals outside the ring, the two have been waging war on Twitter about whose trio is superior, with Woods even taking shots at the Bullet Club during a promo on Monday Night Raw last week. The two have have also engaged in a rivalry across many different games on Woods’ YouTube channel, UpUpDownDown throughout this year.

Since the six men comprising these teams can’t meet in the Squared Circle, due to being contracted to different promotions, Woods and Omega decided to settle things in the virtual ring of Street Fighter V, though they could never find time for the matchup…until this past weekend.

The Cleaner had previously announced he’d be attending the event back in February, but Woods, who was in town for a live event in Jacksonville last Sunday, made an unadvertised appearance on Capcom Fighters, to interrupt an interview between Omega and Twitch’s Mike Ross, during which he laid down the challenge for a first-to-dive exhibition match! So with the FGC’s own UltraDavid and Mike Ross on call, the two headed to the ring for an epic battle!

To make the moment even more appropriately hype, the two Superstars chose to be represented by a pair of SF’s finest grapplers, with Kenny Omega using Alex, who he’d been running in pools throughout the singles tournament, while Woods opted to use Birdie.

In the beginning of the set, Omega took an early lead, displaying his knowledge of Alex’s Hard Hit setups with his Overhaul V-Skill, as well as some frame kill techniques. Xavier took the first game, due to Omega running into Birdie’s buttons and stunning himself, as well as the headbutt-happy glutton’s massive damage output. After engaging in some of New Day’s signature dancing and even the Bullet Club’s trademark finger gun gesture for a pop-off, Omega took a 3-1 lead after some words of encouragement from Jebailey. After Omega boldly proclaimed that he had Xavier downloaded, and would make a run of four straight rounds to take the set, Woods proclaimed he was enacting a “Security Blanket” strategy of making him feel comfortable with his 4-1 lead, before strangling him with it.

After proclaiming he could beat Omega at Dance Dance Revolution, Woods took his second game of the series, ensuring Kenny would not get four straight wins on him, and cutting his lead a bit, to merely a 4-2 advantage.

The next game was back and forth, with both wrestlers displaying fundamental character knowledge and taking it to the final round, where Omega would take the set 5-2 following a great neutral jump over Birdie’s Drink Time, as the soda can harmlessly rolled off the stage, which lead to him eating a full combo punish for a Bullet Club Elite victory!

After the set, Woods was gracious in defeat, offering Omega a CEO Championship Title Belt, which should make a great replacement for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship he recently lost at NJPW’s Dominion event earlier in the week. Afterwards, they had a show of respect and officially ending their rivalry by channeling Carl Weathers and Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Jax and Johnny Cage for you Mortal Kombat fans, with the duo’s infamous handshake.

The event was also picked up by numerous Professional Wrestling news sites, such as WrestlingInc. and PWTorch, in another display of just how far the fighting game community’s reach is becoming these days.

Sources: CapcomFighters, WrestlingInc., PWTorch, The Young Bucks, UpUpDownDown

Street Fighter certainly is very summer-focused this year, first with the Kanzuki Private Beach DLC coming for Street Fighter V this Friday, and now this: UDON Entertainment announced today that they will be publishing a 32-page, full-color Street Fighter Swimsuit Special.

This gallery of flirty fighters will bring us art from UDON mainstays such as Genzoman, Edwin Huang, Rob Porter, Jeffrey Cruz, Steven Cummings, and Long Vo; it will also feature work from guest artists including Gisèle Lagacé, Xa, Vincenzo Cucca, and others. It will be available in two standard covers (Cover “A” by Ecchi-Star, cover “B” by Aki Lee) a special blank sketch cover, and a retailer incentive cover by Nei Ruffino.

Are only the ladies are getting featured in this Special, or will Hot Ryu make an appearance? If that Chun-Li cover is any clue, the men may also get some attention! Expect to see the Swimsuit Special in stores around September 2016, for $3.99 USD. Diamond Comics order codes can be found here.

Source: UDON Entertainment

With much anticipated June Update on the horizon, the Street Fighter V development has taken some time to release early designs for SFV that were omitted from the final version of the game. Sketches of eight characters and a number of prototype V-Triggers were included in the activity reports on Capcom’s CFN Portal along with some passed over stage effects.

While some of the designs led to new characters like Laura and F.A.N.G there were a few interesting concepts left on the table. The blog offers a brief description of the rejected fighters, ranging from a fighting politician (like Guilty Gear’s Chipp/Leo?) to a tool-using “cutie” who’s clothes fall off while you fight (wonder why that didn’t make it…)

To read a short description of each fighter, visit the CFN Portal.

Click to view slideshow.

Among the V-Trigger ideas that didn’t make the cut were “Grab Anything” for Zangief, which would have allowed the Russian Brawler to activate a grab from any normal attack on the ground or in the air. “Sadistic Chamber” would let Vega to call down a steel cage and return to his Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha 3 days of wall climbing.

Developer Takayuki Nakayama also wrote about several stage “gimmicks” that were omitted as well. Most of them are pretty silly, but I have to admit that I’m sad there’s no Haggar stuck in an elevator at the Kanzuki Estate.

Which of the forgotten designs would you have liked to see in Street Fighter V? Let us know in the comments!

Source: CFN Portal