Former WWE superstar Virgil has died at the age of 61, weeks after it was widely reported that he suffered 'several strokes,' a company spokesman confirmed to DailyMail.com.
Virgil, whose real name was Michael Jones, is best remembered for his time wrestling in World Wrestling Entertainment during the 1980s and 1990s.
According to referee Mark Charles III, who first broke then news of his sad death, Virgil died passed away Wednesday, peacefully in a hospital. In 2022, the star was diagnosed with dementia and suffered two strokes.
He began with the company as the bad guy bodyguard of one of the company's supreme villains, The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.
However, in 1991 he sensationally turned on his on-screen boss and become a good guy, defeated DiBiase at that year's Wrestlemania and Summerslam pay per views with icon Rowdy Roddy Piper by his side.
He failed to capitalize on that success and spent the rest of his time with WWE as a jobber or enhancement talent before jumping ship like many of his colleagues to World Championship Wrestling in the mid 1990s.
While at WCW, Virgil switched his name to Vincent, a nod to WWE owner Vince McMahon. His name in WWE was a joke against WCW executive and star Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnells.
He joined the heel New World Order stable led by fellow former WWE star Hulk Hogan. Virgil credited Hogan with getting him hired with the Ted Turner-owned company.
Virgil remained with the company until mid-2000 when injuries forced his retirement from the ring.
In a 2016 interview, DiBiase pulled back the curtain on his his relationship with Virgil, saying that the pair were never too close but always got along together.
However, unlike many of his hard-partying colleague, Virgil never drank, smoke or took drugs during his career.
'We would do our thing on the road and then I would see him in three days or a week, whatever it was at the time. I didn't really socialize a lot with him so to speak, but we had a great working relationship and we were friends,' DiBiase said.
However, the relationship soured in later years when DiBiase discovered that Virgil had been using his former partner's name when booking himself in for personal appearances at wrestling conventions without DiBiase's knowledge.
'You sometimes reap what you sow. You do things the wrong way and it comes back to bite you. I really think that is what happened to him,' DiBiase added.