4. Vladimir Kozlov - Zangief From Street Fighter
Sure, before Vladimir Kozlov the insanely muscular, dominant specimen from Russia was pretty common in wrestling, - even the character of Zangief was inspired by a wrestler with the same name - but Kozlov shared many similarities with Zangief from the Street Fighter games. Kozlov debuted and ascended through the ranks in WWE earning a title shot incredibly quickly. His slow, plodding, brute force style of grappling was reminiscent of The Red Cyclone, a hulking embodiment of pure Russian power, and his stalking around the ring, was incredibly similar to Street Fighters' resident grappler. Zangief's Street Fighter moves included a number of Sambo moves mixed in with his powerful wrestling moves and Kozlov would incorporate throws and chokes into his matches as well, and he was trained in sambo martial arts. Somewhat unfortunately, if you look at Vladimir Kozlov's face run and comedy character you might find he's quite similar to the Zangief character from the Street Fighter Movie.