Beowulf

**Beowulf** (JP: ベオウルフ) is a wrestler who retired at the height of his professional wrestling career, defeating the seemingly unstoppable Grendel, as well as his frenzied Gigan mom when she nearly ate the audience after her son’s defeat. Years later Beowulf had become restless, wondering if that was his limit. He announced his plans to fight once again. What he didn’t mention was that it wouldn’t be in the ring, since there’s no telling where his greatest opponent will show up.

## General Information

Beowulf was the twenty second possible DLC character to be revealed in the Indiegogo campaign, at $440,000. He won the final character vote, and was the 5th DLC character confirmed. He was the first character implemented into the game with stage-specific VO introductions.

Beowulf's weight class is the mid-lower end of cruiserweight, the level just below heavyweight. His non-arbitrary wrestling record was 32:0 before retirement, meaning he is currently undefeated.

He was briefly mentioned in Peacock's story, where Andy Anvil notes that he was coming out of retirement.

Cerebella is noted as being a huge fan of him. In the official Steam Trading Card artwork of Beowulf, Cerebella is seen eagerly getting his autograph.

### Personality

Beowulf is a hot-blooded wrestler who enjoys the spotlight he received from wrestling. Even after his downfall following the defeat of Grendel and the slaying of his mother, he is unwilling to give up his career and wants to please his fans. However, he is not really known for thinking things through as he was focusing on the career and receiving advice from his shady "manager" Zane instead of seeing the main problem at hand. Despite his bumbling tendencies, he is a good person and a capable fighter who legitmately cares for his fans and other people. This is proven when he told the crowd later in his story mode that his match with Grendel was fixed after finding out and promising them he will defeat the Skullgirl Marie.

## Character Basis

### Origin

Beowulf is named after the protagonist of the Old English epic poem with the same name, who also kills a troll-like creature called Grendel along with Grendel's mother.

Hrunting was the sword of the mythological hero, and is referenced in *Skullgirls* with the "Hurting", an ordinary (but durable) chair used by Beowulf.

### Design

Beowulf is portrait-ed as a well-conditioned wrestler with black hair and beard stubble. He is wearing brown pants with suspenders and fur strapped to his legs. He also wears a wolf headdress and fur over his shoulders and back. During certain moves, and occasionally while being hit or winning a match, the wolf's head covers Beowulf's face, making him look like a hybrid between wolf and human. Besides his folding chair, Beowulf also uses Grendel's arm as a weapon.

His attacks are thematically based on these three topics: The wolf, Grendel's arm and wrestling techniques.

## Abilities and Fighting Style

Beowulf is a character who uses his immense strength and wrestling skills to fight his opponents. His weapons of choice are his endurable chair The Hurting and Grendel's gigantic arm. Some of his attacks depend on whether he has his chair or not; if not, then he will use Grendel's arm instead. He attacks with chops, stomps, charges, and other hard-hitting kicks . Another element of his fighting style is his collection of throws and finishers that can be comparable to a character of the Beat'em Up game genre. Whenever he has an opponent in his grasp, he can attack with a headbutt, his knee, or various damaging slams in the air or on the ground. When Beowulf throws his chair around the stage, he must wait a few seconds before the chair is light and he can be able to pick up again. If he slams his opponent onto his chair, he deals a bit of extra damage and regains the possession of it.

The Hype mechanic is another important factor for Beowulf where the levels (Max level is 3) are represented by pyrotechnics and a stream of confetti. There are several ways to increase the level: performing a taunt, an opponent is slammed onto his chair, dropping the mic several times with S.MP or holding S.LP. The number of actions he can perform depend on the super being used and the level he is currently on. When he is at max level and his opponent has a certain amount of health, he can pin the opponent down after performing a body splash during Wulfmania or Alpha Maul and the referee will make his appearance to count to three, dealing additional damage and knocking the opponent out (or the last remaining member in the case of teams).

### Gameplay Inspiration

* Tizoc *(Garou:Mark of the Wolves)*
* Rainbow Mika *(Street Fighter Alpha 3)*
* "Macho Man" Randy Savage *(WWE/WCW)*
* The Ultimate Warrior*(WWE/WCW)*
* King *(Tekken series)*
* El Fuerte *(Street Fighter IV)*
* Captain America *(Marvel comics)* *(pre-Marvel vs. Capcom 3 version)*
* Not Kanji Tatsumi *(Persona 4:Arena)*
* Jack *(Tekken)*
* Jon Talbain (Darkstalkers)

## TMNT X Pokemon

Beowulf had come to New York for any competitors willing to challenge him to wrestle. After being defeated by Sakura Ogami, he decided to join the Turtles on their quest to recruit allies.

## Trivia

* Lab Zero went through the archives of many prowrestling videos when looking for inspiration for Beowulf.
	+ His mic drop is a shout out to CM Punk, a former professional wrestler.
	+ Beowulf's standing light punch has him dramatically holding his hand to his ear in homage to professional wrestler Hulk Hogan.
	+ His crumple state animation is identical to Ric Flair's "Flair Flop".
* The fan cheers and chants of his 'Get Hype' move were recorded during a session of *Salty!*, using the voices of *Skullgirls* fans and attendees at the Ultimate Gaming Center.[1]
* While an actual crowd exists in NMO Arena to cheer Beowulf during his fights, it's been stated that any cheers that happen on other stages are merely happening in his head.
* His first Blockbuster is a a shout out to Slayer's Dead On Time overdrive (and also possibly Ralf's Galactica Phantom).
* Beowulf's Three Wulf Moonsault Blockbuster is a reference to the memetic T-shirt Three Wolf Moon. Successfully landing the move produces a graphic similar to the design of the shirt, featuring three wolves howling at the moon.
	+ The animation for the punches before the dive somewhat resembles that of the Shin Shoryuken, of *Street Fighter* fame.
* Palette 20, two of his outtake quotes and his basic outtake animation are reference to Commander Riker of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Riker's rank on board the Enterprise, Captain Picard's catchphrase and Riker's unusual approach to chair usage.
* In his dislikes it says he dislikes "Potatoes", which may be a reference to the wrestling term "Potato", in which a strike makes legitimate contact with the head.
* In his likes, it states that he likes "Working Snug." This is most likely a reference to the wrestling term of the same name, which refers to a wrestler who really pulls their punches as opposed to someone who "works stiff", which is someone who puts real power behind their strikes.
* His dislikes include "Being told what to do, being told what to wear", which may be a reference to WWE Stable D-Generation X's theme, which states in the opening lines "You think you can tell us what to do? You think you can tell us what to wear?"