Page "Dusty Rhodes (wrestler)" Paragraph 8

When the WWF introduced Mike Jones as Ted DiBiase's bodyguard, Bobby Heenan suggested to name the character Virgil as an inside joke on Dusty's real name.

Years later, when Jones appeared in JCP's successor World Championship Wrestling in a similar role, he was named Vincent, in reference to WWF owner Vince McMahon, reportedly again at Heenan's suggestion.

The joke continued later in WCW when Jones changed his name again, this time to Shane, the same as Vince's son's, Shane McMahon.

As the executive producer of JCP's programming, he was credited by his real name ( Virgil Runnels ) to avoid fans seeing that Dusty, still a top draw in the company, was actually running things behind the scenes.