Ted DiBiase Reacts To Virgil Passing Away
Ted DiBiase has given his thoughts on the death of Virgil and how he reacted when he heard the news.
The wrestling world has been mourning a few deaths this week with Ole Anderson passing away and also Mike Jones aka former WWE Superstar Virgil, who passed away at the age of 61 years old.
During his run in WWE, Virgil was best known for being “The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase’s butler. In the late 1980s, Ted Dibiase taunted his foes by bragging about being rich while Virgil stood beside him often in silence and Virgil wasn’t afraid to get physical when he had to.
That alliance between Dibiase and Virgil fell apart, which isn’t a shock in pro wrestling. That led to a huge moment at SummerSlam 1991 when Virgil got the biggest win of his wrestling career when he beat Dibiase for the Million Dollar Championship.
After Dibiase went to WCW in the mid-1990s, Virgil joined him there. It’s interesting to note that the name Virgil was given to him as a shot at Dusty Rhodes, who was booking for the NWA. When Virgil went to WCW, he was named Vincent, which was a shot at WWE’s boss Vince McMahon.
On a new episode of Dibiase’s “Everybody’s Got A Pod” podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer said he was sad when Virgil passed away and spoke more about how they first got to know each other.
“I was really sad to hear that. Mike Jones is Virgil’s real name or was Virgil’s real name. We met in the WWE office when this whole thing with the Million Dollar Man started. Back then, Mike had this tremendous body and kept himself in shape and eventually that was his role. He was the bodyguard. I would run my mouth and if somebody wanted to say something, I would back up and say, ‘Virgil, take over.’”
As he continued, Dibiase spoke about their on-screen rivalry.
“We did a thing where basically as Virgil, he gets tired of my crap and says, ‘I’m not doing it anymore.’ We ended up having a match. Mike was a great guy, a nice guy. To keep your body in that kind of shape takes a lot of discipline and he was very good at that. He was much better at doing that than I obviously was in terms of keeping his body in great shape.
“I just wish that he had more wrestling savvy. I don’t know how to put it any other way because if he could have really wrestled, we could have had a good run, but basically it was on and it was over pretty quick. Good ol Virgil. He didn’t have the charisma. It was probably over before it really started, but we continued to be friends.”
Dibiase also talked about how Virgil was struggling in his later years.
“I would see him at some of the Comic Cons from time to time. I said, ‘If you get booked on any of the Comic Cons and we end up there together, then please come and sit with me.’ I did that much, but the reason that I stopped doing it was things that Virgil had said to some fans that just wasn’t right. I’m looking back at it from where I am now. He never would say that to me, but he didn’t want anyone to know that he was struggling.”
“Later, I did find out. I can’t remember the guy’s name that was his caretaker, but he was seeing to it that he was taken care of a little bit better. I just don’t know. It’s mind-boggling to me because I don’t know who he was living with or how he was living, but I know that it was not good. It’s just a sad story.”
Ted Dibiase Got Virgil A Job With WWE
According to Dibiase, he played a big role in Virgil getting a job with WCW in 1996, which was when Dibiase went there as well.
“When I went to WCW, that’s one of the things I did. They had all these people coming over. It was kind of like the wrestlers were taking over. If you’re taking over, then obviously you need security and I said, ‘What better security could I have than the guy who was my security for all those years’, so I got Virgil booked with WCW.”