Balrog

Balrog is a greedy American boxer who loves booze, gambling and ladies. He is also a personal bodyguard to M. Bison. Balrog is a tall, heavily built and very muscular African-American boxer. He wears blue boxing trunks with white trim and a torn white shirt under a blue tank top, as well as red boxing gloves and boxing shoes. He have short black hairstyle. Official artwork at the time also depicted him sans a canine tooth in the upper right side of his mouth. Balrog wears a blue openly hooded robe with yellow outlines and ripped sleeves; on the back it has the design of "Crazy Buffalo" in a black round sign, a large golden crown with clouds and several red stars, the outline on his boxing gloves are black with gold star designs, his boxer shorts are black and he wears matching boxing boots with white outlines. Balrog can be viewed as a "dark mirror image" of Ken Masters. While both are aggressive, egotistical and arrogant, Balrog is also ill-tempered, brutish and sadistic, unlike Ken. Ken matures as time in his life goes by, while Balrog often refuses to take responsibility for his actions. Both have an affinity for women, but while Ken settles down in a happy marriage with one, Balrog prefers to remain a playboy. He is a belligerent pugilist who possesses an insatiable urge for the love of money and a vicious, bullying and mean streak. Despite his past as a renowned prizefighter, Balrog habitually resorted to cheating in his matches, and unintentionally killed an opponent. Balrog is also shown to lack leadership skills; when M. Bison was believed to be dead after the events of Street Fighter Alpha 3, the role of leader of the organization fell to him, and it collapsed immediately, which forced him to work security at casinos and other places just to get by. His lack of skill in pursuits other than fighting has been attributed to his unruly and delinquent youth, as his pursuit of strength and dominance in the mean streets of his home city led him to drop out of school. Contrary to prevailing beliefs, Balrog exhibits a degree of cunning and underlying intelligence, particularly showcased. In that game, he is shown to be capable of devising otherwise successful plans for his (and Ed's) own personal gain. There's also the matter of being able to hide the fact that he was raising Ed with no detection after he had been discovered. He has also been shown to have a much more elaborate fighting style than in the previous games. Whereas in the games following up to Street Fighter IV displayed his method as a brutish, "punch hard to win" style of boxing. The common misconception of his intelligence is due to his overall recklessness and lack of leadership skills. His motivations for joining Shadaloo and M. Bison throughout the Street Fighter series have always been to attain massive wealth, fame and glory so he can be on easy street for life. As such, though Balrog would cheat, steal or even kill to this end, he is more greedy for money than actively malicious, and takes little substantial interest in Shadaloo affairs otherwise. Balrog's unexpected capacity for genuine connections and fellowship finds its sole expression in his relationship with Ed. Despite occasional conflicts and the challenges stemming from Ed's tumultuous upbringing under his care, followed by the latter's departure, Balrog continues to harbor a heartfelt concern for him. This enduring bond serves as a testament to Balrog's depth beyond his abrasive exterior. Remaining in contact with Ed and occasionally visiting Neo Shadaloo, Balrog's actions raise questions about the nature of his commitment. They could either mean he is nostalgic for some aspects of working with the original Shadaloo, or that he still considers Ed a friend and is trying to look out for him. Rising from a childhood of poverty and a ghetto neighborhood, Balrog was once a great boxing champion and prize fighter who fought his way to the top. Due to his somewhat cutthroat and ruthless nature from his time on the streets, however, he was banned from boxing in his later career for permanently injuring his opponents and accidentally killing one, as well as his illegal maneuvers, particularly his headbutt. Though he enjoyed great fame, especially in the city of Las Vegas where he lived, he valued money more than glory, leading him to join the Shadaloo criminal organization, where he eventually became M. Bison's chief enforcer. While running errands for Bison, he killed Dhalsim's elephant with a single Gigaton Punch. In one mission, Balrog was sent to terminate Birdie, although he did not know the reason for this mission. Birdie told him about the Psycho Drive, and Balrog agreed to help him find it, thinking he could make money from it. When the Psycho Drive exploded, Balrog realized that he had not been paid recently. When Bison committed suicide after being defeated by the World Warriors such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy and especially Guile, ownership of Shadaloo was transferred to the former prize fighter. Unfortunately, due to his lack of experience and lack of decent management abilities, he ended up running the entire organization into the ground in no time. After the fall of Shadaloo, Balrog ended up back on the streets, working menial jobs such as casino security. When Bison makes his return through the construction of his new body, Balrog is immediately brought back into the organization, hired by Bison to pick up Seth after he was defeated by Ryu before dropping him off his headquarters and guard Bison's replacement bodies, which Balrog refers to as "dolls". Balrog is not satisfied with this, however, and forms a new get-rich-quick scheme. He manages to make his way into the S.I.N. building (along with fellow agent Vega). While looking for treasure in his ending, he stumbles across a young bandaged boy begging for help. Initially disinterested, Balrog notices a mark in the shape of the Shadaloo symbol glowing on his hand. Realizing the boy could hold some valuable secrets, Balrog pulls him out of the ruins, believing he's finally lucked out. However, when Balrog asks what the boy can do, he reveal that he is powerless on his own; though Balrog assumes he's useless, he carries the boy off anyway. Balrog is convinced that the child will be of use to him later, and owes his as much in return for rescuing him. In his character story, F.A.N.G was impressed to see Balrog had found the bandaged boy from the S.I.N laboratory who is revealed to be Ed. F.A.N.G informs him about their plan(Operation C.H.A.I.N.S.) is now in full swing and to keep this information a secret. He also remarks that his actions are considered betrayal which causes Balrog to fight him. After the commotion, Balrog manages to knock F.A.N.G's hat off before retreating saying that he has work to do. When he calls Ed to come out, Ed manages to burn the hat into ashes. In China, Balrog and Ed meet up with Urien then Necalli confronts them in order to devour their souls. Urien tells Balrog to beat Necalli down for some reward money, which Balrog excitedly agrees as he fights off Necalli. When Necalli was defeated, he turns into dust. Urien pays him the reward and wants him to deliver the data of Operation C.H.A.I.N.S. in exchange for his service at Shadaloo. Balrog accepts the payment. Back at the Shadaloo Base, Ed remarks that Urien was more of a jerk. Balrog reveals that will bash his face once the job is done. Ed agrees to his plan as both he and Balrog walk away. Balrog is depicted playing the drums at a concert when Dee Jay reminisces about Shadaloo, mistakenly believing the criminal syndicate was a popular band. Ed explains to the Avatar how Balrog introduced him to boxing. Ed says that Balrog wasn't the ideal fatherly figure; sharing tough days and getting roughed up by the boxer. However, Ed also admits that he also admired Balrog for how treated him like a person, rather than a weapon or a Psycho Powered experiment, as well as his raw prowess. Upon regaining some of his memories, the resurrected M. Bison commands the Avatar to seek out information on his former lieutenants Vega and Balrog. To attract Balrog's attention, the Avatar takes part in a fixed tournament held at the underground fighting arena in Nayshall, an event that Balrog has placed wagers on. After "winning" the tournament, the Avatar is contacted by Balrog, thanking them for netting him a sizeable payout on his bets. Despite saying that he couldn't "give two craps" about Shadaloo, Balrog admits that he did enjoy his time in the organization and states he could be interested in a revival of the syndicate. However, he also states that Ed's Neo Shadaloo also interests him and that he could go either way, but a large amount of cash would influence his decision. he is 29 years old.