A Grappler is a character archtype in the Street Fighter series.
Description
Zangief is Street Fighter's original grappler
Grapplers are characters who excel in throwing. While every other character tends to have their own Grabs and Throws, Grapplers tend to have access to some of the best Command Grabs in the game.
Grapplers also tend to have higher than average health. Zangief tends to be around the 1100 HP mark and Hugo tends to be a little above at 1150. As a trade off they tend to have some of the slowest Walk Speed in the game, although they can have good Dashes.
In Street Fighter
Grapplers in Street Figther tend to be one of the hardest to pressure in the game. Their Command Throws tend to have more range than the furthest range of a good amount of the cast. Grapplers also tend to have good "Get Off Me" options, Zangief's Lariat is great for stopping Dive Kick pressure and other jump ins. In some games their normal Command Throws can have as little as 1 frame startup. This let's them punish tactics that most of the cast can not.
Grapplers tend to be vulnerable to Zoning. Zoners have much faster walk speed, and very good anti airs. This means that a good amount of the time the grappler has to rely on "Hard Reads" to get in. Once they start their pressure grapplers tend to have some of the best knockdown pressure in the game.
Anti Airs tend to be very plentiful with grapplers, even in ultras. Zangief's ultra two can beat out even Shoryuken's. T. Hawk and Hugo both have ultras that can punish aerial opponents. Grapplers tend to be very good at "Footsies". While they may not have the furthest reaching pokes they have very good hitbox to hurtbox ratios that can lead to many Counter Hits. This is imporant especially against lower health opponents such as Ibuki and Chun-Li, who are weared down relatively quickly by being outpoked.
Mobile Grapplers.
Makoto is the original "Mobile Grappler", described as a "Mini Zangief"
Mobile Grapplers have appeared in Street Figther games. Mobile grappers tend to be faster in terms of overall speed, but their command grabs are slower than "True" grapplers and they tend to have less overall health. Most grapplers in this category tend to be female with the likes of Makoto Laura and R. Mika, but a male example in Abel has been done. Makoto and Mika both have 950 HP currently while Laura and Abel have the average 1000.
Mobile Grapplers tend to have better anti projectile measures, their command grabs tend to have slower startup and do less damage. Makoto's command grab is to further open an opponent for her strike while it does little damage itself.
Non grapplers with command grabs
There are multiple characters who have command grabs that are not grapplers, some of these include Fei Long Yun and Yang. These characters tend to have even slower command grabs than Mobile Grapplers. E. Honda also has a command grab but it is not part of his overall gameplan.
Guy and Ibuki both have ultras that are command grabs. The main difference is that a grappler's command grab ultra is "Instant Activation" which means that once a player sees the animation they can not jump away or do a reversal. Both ninja's ultras are 1 frame, this means that while it still has great punishability it can not be used in the same application as Final Atomic Buster
Dive Kick characters such as Rufus, Cammy, and Yang tend to have strong throw games but are not grapplers.