‘Larger than life’: Mike Jones, wrestler better known as Virgil, dies
Former professional wrestler Mike Jones was a “bonafide character,” according to his friend Mark Charles III.
The description was apt for a man who, to pro wrestling fans, is best known for his role as the bodyguard Virgil in the WWE.
“He definitely had his own drummer,” Charles said of Jones. “It was a unique drummer. Nobody was like that guy. He’s going to leave a giant hole in a lot of people’s lives. He was an entertainer, whether he was on stage or he was off stage. He was outlandish.”
Jones, who made his home in California Borough, died Tuesday in AHN Canonsburg Hospital with family and friends around him.
In 2022, Jones announced that he had two strokes and had been diagnosed with dementia. A month later, he was diagnosed with Stage 2 colon cancer.
During his wrestling career, Jones, a Wilkinsburg native, wrestled under a number of monikers like Soul Train Jones, Curly Bill and Lucious Brown. In 1987, Jones debuted the character Virgil, a bodyguard for “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase.
In that role, Jones usually stood silently flaunting DiBiase’s money as “The Million Dollar Man” cut a promo. Virgil was also the one who took the licks as DiBiase scurried from the ring.
One of Virgil’s major storylines involved helping DiBiase and Andre the Giant defeat Hulk Hogan for the championship during an NBC “Main Event” telecast. The tainted victory ended Hogan’s five-year title reign.
Virgil was a character that took a lot of selling on Jones’ part, since he was relatively silent during the character’s heyday. A prime example of this is a live performance at the 1987 Slammy Awards of the song, “If You Only Knew.” As all of the other wrestlers danced and swayed to the music, Virgil stood still with an angry scowl on his face. Charles said Jones took credit for coming up with that idea.
“He lived kayfabe,” said Charles, using the term that describes portraying wrestling events as real.
“He would kayfabe everybody about everything all of the time. You never knew when he was pulling your leg or when he wasn’t. After a while, I don’t even think he knew when he was pulling your leg or not,” Charles said.
One example of that may be Jones’ age. Most media reporting his passing list his age as 61, but Charles and area ring announcer and wrestling historian Tom Leturgey say Jones was 72. They said Jones would give a different age to anyone who asked.
“Virgil was always working an angle with somebody,” Leturgey said. “Everywhere in the world has (his date of birth) as June 13, 1962. The fact of the matter is he was born April 7, 1951. He was very coy about his real birthday.”
Charles said both he and Leturgey have changed Jones’ date of birth on his Wikipedia page a number of times, “but somebody immediately goes in and changes it back.”
Leturgey, a ring announcer in the local KSWA promotion, recalled Jones as a man who liked to stretch the truth.
“He was coy about a lot of things, but he believed everything he said. Whether it was something that he told you, or he told me something that was completely different, he said it with the same confidence no matter who he was talking to or what he was talking about,” Leturgey said.
Despite how that might seem to some, “There’s a genuineness to that. He never did anything mean-spirited. He never said a bad word about anybody,” according to Leturgey.
While Virgil started out as a “heel,” he eventually turned “face” (a bad guy and a good guy, in pro wrestling parlance). It was a move that was met with fan approval.
“That’s a pop that’s hard to get,” Leturgey said. “People were invested in Virgil and wanted to see him succeed. People have come out of the woodwork the last couple of days really supportive of him, and that is great.”
After a couple of years on the independent wrestling scene, Jones turned up in WCW. There, he was Vincent, and again, a heel.
“He was more of just a member of the gang in WCW,” Leturgey said. “He took a lot of beatings from Sting and some of the other guys as a flunkie.”
Jones retired from active competition in 2000, but continued making appearances in 2006.
He got back into the squared circle on occasion, in 2010 bringing Virgil back with Ted DiBiase Jr.
Charles said Jones was taken to AHN Canonsburg Hospital Feb. 23, where a brain scan revealed he’d suffered two additional strokes.
“It’s been a long struggle for him,” Charles said. “Those strokes, with the dementia, just proved to be too much in the end. He fell asleep and didn’t wake up.”
But, said Charles, Jones created a lot of memories as a character that definitely stood out in the wrestling biz.
“He was 100 percent larger than life. He had this mystique about him because you never knew what the real story was. Even now, I don’t know what a lot of the real stories are. I’m really going to miss him a lot.”