Mike Haggar

Mike Haggar is a character in the Final Fight series and is an ex-wrestler from the Saturday Night Slam Master series. Though he never made an official appearance as a playable character in a street fighter title he still plays a role in the back-stories of Cody and Guy as well as being a major enemy to the Mad Gear Gang. Zangief's moves were based off of his.

Final Fight Series
Haggar made his debut in the original Final Fight, originally released for the arcades in 1989. He is described as a former "Street Fighter" turned Mayor (much in the vein of real-life former wrestler Jesse Ventura who, years after retiring, would go on to be the Governor of Minnesota from 1999 through 2003), who has sworn to diminish the city's ever-increasing crime rate after winning the election. The plot of Final Fight centers around the Mad Gear Gang's attempt to manipulate the newly-elected Haggar by kidnapping his young daughter, Jessica. Instead of submitting to the gang's demands, Haggar enlists the help of Jessica's boyfriend, Cody and his friend Guy, to combat the gang and defeat their leader Belger. Of the three playable characters in the game, Haggar is the slowest but most powerful. He uses wrestling techniques such as a piledriver and the spinning clothesline. In addition, he also specializes in the use of a steel pipe (a pick-up weapon in the game), swinging it faster than the other characters.

Haggar appeared in two additional Final Fight sequels for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, following two different Super NES ports of the first game. In 1993's Final Fight 2, Haggar sets out to defeat the newly revived Mad Gear Gang led by Retu in order to rescue Guy's girlfriend and master. In this game Haggar is joined by Maki, Guy's future sister-in-law and Bushin-style fighter, and Carlos, a South American swordsman friend of Haggar staying with him at the time. Haggar's appearance did not change much between the two games, other than a slight change in his outfit). However, he did gain Zangief's spinning piledriver, replacing his regular piledriver, as a special move.

In 1995's Final Fight 3, Haggar is rejoined by Guy and the two team up with Lucia Morgan, a female cop, and another ex-Street Fighter named Dean to battle the Skull Cross Gang, a new criminal organization that has taken over Mad Gear's position by becoming the new dominant gang of Metro City. Haggar's design is changed drastically from the previous Final Fight games, with the character being given a pony tail and shorts. Haggar was also given a new super combo called the "Final Hammer", which is actually a series of various wrestling moves.

In addition to the two Final Fight sequels for the Super NES, Haggar also appeared in a trilogy of pro wrestling games by Capcom: Saturday Night Slam Masters in 1993, which was followed by an updated version titled Muscle Bomber Duo and a sequel titled Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters 2 in 1994. According to the original Japanese plot, the games are actually set before Final Fight and depicts Haggar's professional wrestling career prior to being elected mayor. However, the English localization of the series removes all references of the games being set in the past and even goes as far to describe Haggar as the "former mayor of Metro City". Haggar seems to have been loosely modeled after real-life wrestler Randy Savage in the game; his ring name is Mike "Macho" Haggar, and the games even feature a winning pose in which he lifts his daughter Jessica onto his shoulder, a possible nod to Savage and his valet, Miss Elizabeth.

Haggar did not appear as a playable character again until 1999's Final Fight Revenge, an American-developed competitive fighting game set immediately after the events of the original Final Fight. Haggar's story in Final Fight Revenge revolves once again around the disappearance of his daughter, who has vanished following a series of riots in Metro City. Jessica's disappearance is not resolved in Haggar's ending, which is instead a recreation of Rolento's ending in Street Fighter Alpha 2, which depicts Rolento's attempt to takeover the city.

Haggar's most recent appearance was in Final Fight: Streetwise, released in 2006. In Streetwise, Haggar runs a gym, 'Mike's Mat and Muscle', and a dock 'Mike's Maritime Maintenance'. He has seemingly isolated himself from most of Metro City, and says many of its citizens have forgotten him. He aids Kyle by teaching him grappling moves.

Street Fighter Alpha Series
Mike Haggar appears in the background of Guy's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2 where he is seen putting J into a headlock. He is seen in the background of Guy's Street Fighter Alpha 3 stage as well.

US Street Fighter Cartoon
He appears in the episode titled "Final Fight" where his daughter Jessica is kidnapped by the Mad Gear Gang. Haggar is threaten by Belger to not stop them. Haggar has Ryu and Ken go under cover and join Mad Gear to rescue Jessica. In the end Haggar kicks the door down to Belger's office while Cody and Guy defeat Belger.

Trivia

 * In Super Street Fighter IV, Haggar makes two cameo apperance a statue of Hagger can be seen in the background on the Metro City stage, and the bonus car stage has a billboard of Haggar which can also be seen in the background.
 * Zangief's alternate outfit in Street Fighter IV is that of Hagger's.