We keep referring to the leader of the international terrorist group called Shadoloo as M Bison. What really does M stand for?
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3All this time I thought it was short for Major- as in the army rank. – Nu'Daq Jun 16 '19 at 03:20
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Originally, the M. stood for "Mike". The character we know as Balrog was named Mike Bison, and was a Mike Tyson expy (exported character). Fearing a lawsuit, Capcom shuffled the names of Balrog, Vega, and M. Bison. The closest I've found to a canonical reference to what the M. stands for is in Street Fighter Alpha 3, where
He refers to himself by the full title of Master Bison ("Vega-sama" in the Japanese version), with Cammy and the Dolls referring to him in the same way as well.
As a side note, despite a similar name in Japan and the same fighting style and backstory, Mike of Street Fighter is a distinct character from Balrog.
Giacomo1968
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FuzzyBoots
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3There was a similar issue with E. Honda if I recall. In the original games, they had a pretty strict character limit on the names, so they had to abbreviate mercilessly. – Darrel Hoffman Jun 18 '19 at 12:42
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Though the "M" originally stood for "Mike" in Japan (for the boxer character), Capcom has never explained what it stands for in Western releases, calling it "part of the character's mystery".
Wikipedia
His name stands for “Mike Bison”, but is abbreviated for copyright.
Stormblessed
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