Turns out we could've gotten a very different version of Zangief for Street Fighter 2.
 
In a youtube video, game producer Yoshiki Okamoto shared some very interesting insights regarding the strength of the character. Zangief has become known as one of the weaker characters in Street Fighter but it wasn't always that way. In the early development of the game there was one player aftly referred to as the Zangief expert, who would always, and we mean always win with that character.
 
No matter what the developers try to do to modulate the character, he still won. The company even sent some of their staff to observe the player and reported that he managed to win a whopping 85 times in a row. This led to developers majorly scaling back on the strength of the character and Okamoto blames the whole thing on that one player saying "It's your fault Zangief became weaker. But thanks to you, he's become a specialist's character throughout the series."
 
See the whole video, click the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClfvLyoucK0
 
Who's your favorite Street Fighter character?