Virgil to the portal
- Thread starter HailtoPitt
- Start date
From Wilkinsburg and was living in Rankin I believe.
Dang, I saw him at a local McDonald's about a year ago. Didnt know that was him but someone recognized him and they were talking WWE. I was eavesdropping and then googled a few old school black wrestlers and Google said he's local. Never knew that.
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Saw him at Century 3 Mall back in the day. He had a booth set up where he was charging for his autograph or something, lol. Don't think he got much traffic, so I talked to him a little bit about his match with Yokozuna at Survivor Series '92.
I saw him once at the Civic arena, forget what the event was. Maybe a hockey game. The million dollar man angle was still in full effect. So he pulled out this fat wad of $100 dollar bills to pay for a $5 coke in the concession line. Wasn't subtle about flashing the cash.
I knew Vince had Ted Dibiase stay in character at all times and live the high life with a WWE expense account but I guess it also extended to Virgil. So I'm sure he had some fun with that.
That had to be one of the best jobs ever. Given an expense account where you have to portray being the Million Dollar Man character at all times.
Used to see Virgil around town a lot his last few years. Nice guy and I hate speaking ill of the dead, but he was a close talker and spit a lot as he talked. He once told me that his pay day for the Atlantic City Wrestlemania was like 300k and he used the money to put his nephew through college. Not sure if that’s true but that’s his story. Pretty sure he died penniless in spite of the money he made in wrestling. But any money he did have he spent on lottery tickets and Olive Garden.
Virgil went to so many of those things. He briefly got Ted DiBiase banned from conventions because word was getting around that the million dollar man was a frequent no show. In reality Virgil was just booking himself booths at conventions all the time and when the convention wasn't interested he'd tell them DiBiase was attending with him.
I got my picture with the Million Dollar Man putting me in the Million Dollar Dreams. My favorite picture of all time, and I’m including my wedding photos in that.
Old pro wrestlers exaggerate, so take a zero off that 300k and that’s what he most likely got, still a great payday for standing outside the ring 97% of the time.
Most of the old wrestlers from that era are broke, they made good money but that money stops when their push stops, there's tons of articles on how the WWF screwed over those guys by using the independent contractor status on them.
Not to mention the health insurance. This guy had chronic medical conditions and surely no insurance.
Actually that might have been the card that he wrestled on and is regarded as one of the worst matches in history.
I think wrestlers in general made a lot less than we would have thought back then. Bret Hart was basically on top of the WWF when he left for more money, and I'm pretty sure his WCW deal was like $2M/year. Of course, that was when WWF was going through a down time. But still.
But yeah... Virgil did not make 300k to work one day as a manager in the 80's. That'd have been more like an annual salary for a pretty decent name.
I think he had a few strokes, which might explain the talking thing the other poster mentioned, though.
have you seen the Ric Flair 30 for 30, he actually just naturally became the Nature Boy because he lived his character so much, He says he forgot what Richard Fleher was really like because he was too boring, or something along those lines.
Flair is a genetic freak of nature. Drank large amounts of alcohol every night, banged countless women, and still woke up at 5am and did 500 squats, pushups, etc, and wrestle an hour long match later that evening without breaking a sweat. Oh, and he survived a plane crash too.
Hogan is the same way. The Hulkster tells so many ridiculous stories that I don't think he even knows what actually happened in his life at this point. He's just a living embodiment of the carny spirit of pro wrestling
That's why if a fixed sport has a GOAT, it has to be the Nature Boy, the matches where fixed but he was somewhat real, and as a sport, Flair himself described it perfectly, it's not fake, it's choreographed, you still had to be an athlete, strong and durable, flying off the top rope, getting thrown, lifting up big men and slamming them taking the punches that was REAL, even though it isn't a real sport.
I met Hogan back in the Wanny era at a bar I worked at calico jacks on the north shore. His kid Nick was at heinz for some Go Kart race thing. A they celebrated his 18th bday at calicos. Took a zillion pics for hours just walking around a packed bar
Flair may have been a great wrestler, but he was a terrible husband and father. Probably banging women within a week of getting married. Was not a very good father in terms of being present and wasted a ton of money. He didn't have to live the life of Rick Flair any more then the Undertaker needed to be the Undertaker.
He looked homeless when I saw him which is why I was pretty surprised when some McD customer started a conversation with him about his WWE career.
None of that has anything to do with him being the greatest wrestler, some people hate Ben and call him a rapist, that doesn't change the fact that he's a hall of fame QB.
I was talking more about him living the Flair lifestyle. He didn't need to do that. He chose to do that because he was selfish.
That's true enough, he just wanted to have fun for himself, being the Nature Boy was more fun than being Richard Fleher.
Haha. That’s a good way to put it.
Flair just never grew up. He’s in his 70’s and still acts like he’s 25. And just not a good person. Also will die penniless. And knowing him he’d do it all again. Selfish is right.
But…he’s nowhere near the scumbag Vince McMahon appears to be. If you read through the court docs and the text messages Vince sent that girl on his payroll, there’s a special place in hell for him. Talk about taking your character to a whole new level. You can take the 50 worst wrestlers as human beings, combine them, and they still aren’t as bad as Vince.
