Ted DiBiase Takes Shot At Virgil While Revealing WWE’s Inside Joke Behind His Name

Ted DiBiase is opening up about his longtime association with Virgil — and he didn’t exactly hold back while doing it.

During a conversation with Inside The Ropes, DiBiase reflected on Virgil becoming his bodyguard during the Million Dollar Man era in WWE. While discussing their partnership, DiBiase explained that he personally had no issue with WWE pairing them together, but he also threw in a brutal joke about Virgil’s intelligence.

After calling Virgil a likable person, DiBiase took the conversation in another direction while describing what it was like working with him behind the scenes.

“And the thing about Virgil, his real name was Mike Jones. And uh he’s a real likable guy. He just I don’t know how else to put it. He just wasn’t very bright. You know, you know, like uh sometimes you knock on the door and nobody’s there.”

DiBiase also talked about Virgil’s role as part of the Million Dollar Man presentation, where he essentially acted as DiBiase’s chauffeur and assistant during WWE’s late-1980s boom period.

The WWE Hall of Famer admitted that the gimmick probably would not fly in today’s wrestling climate because of how the character dynamics were presented on television at the time.

The conversation then shifted toward one of wrestling’s longest-running backstage rumors — where the name “Virgil” actually came from. According to DiBiase, the name was intentionally chosen as an inside joke aimed at legendary wrestler Dusty Rhodes. DiBiase confirmed that Dusty Rhodes’ real first name was Virgil, which led to WWE using it for his bodyguard character.

“What’s funny is like why did we name him Virgil? Well, it was kind of a rib. You know, there’s another very famous wrestler who is very good and whose son is currently one of the top stars in the WWE and that would be Dusty Rhodes. Dusty’s real first name is Virgil. So that was just like an inside joke.”

DiBiase also pointed out that when Virgil later jumped ship to WCW, the company fired back with another inside joke by renaming him Vincent as a shot at Vince McMahon.

“And then later on when Virgil went to WCW, he became Vincent as a kind of rib back to Vince.”

Virgil remained one of the most recognizable parts of DiBiase’s Million Dollar Man act for years, eventually turning babyface and breaking away from DiBiase in one of WWE’s more memorable storyline splits of that era.