Michael Jones, who wrestled in WWF under the name Virgil and in WCW under the name Vincent in the eighties and nineties, is one of the sadder cases of professional wrestling chewing up and spitting out its stars. Not that Virgil or Vincent were ever exactly stars. Playing the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiases bodyguard and gopher from 1987 to 1991, he inevitably turned on his heel employer after one too many humiliations and remained babyface in the midcard until leaving the WWF in 1994. Hed wrestle in WCW (along with every other wrestler in the entire world ever) from 1996 to 2000, for a while working for the NWO in the same kind of role as he did for DiBiase in the WWF, and has been semi-retired ever since. It would appear that Jones didnt save a great deal of the cash he made during his eleven years working for the two biggest wrestling promotions in America. Since his retirement, Jones spends his time flitting like a homeless, aimless bumblebee between wrestling conventions and independent shows, selling tatty old merchandise and posing for pictures (theyre not free). Theres a website that until late last year was recording candid fan photos of Virgil alone looking bored or sleepy at the gimmick table lonelyvirgil.net and plenty of anecdotal evidence online about his interactions with fans, telling longwinded stories about the glory days, cadging free food and rides to shows, crashing their hotel rooms, etc etc. Its a melancholy story, but a familiar one remember the sad sacks at the local wrestling cons in the movie The Wrestler? Thats Virgil, right there.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
