Below you will find everything that happened in Professional Wrestling history on February 28th.
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• On This Day In Pro Wrestling History (February 28, 2024) – Old School WWF Veteran Passed Away
On this day in 2024, we lost Old School WWF Veteran Virgil (Real name: Mike Jones) at the age of 72 due to complications from strokes and dementia.
Virgil joined the World Wrestling Federation in the summer of 1987 as the bodyguard of ‘The Million Dollar Man’ Ted DiBiase.
He lived that gimmick in and out of the ring – to convince the fans everywhere it was real – until he sort of broke free from his boss at the 1991 Royal Rumble PPV.
Virgil then defeated DiBiase for the Million Dollar Championship at SummerSlam 1991, but lost it back to Ted a few months later. This was the only championship Virgil won in the WWF.
He left the Federation in 1994 and in 1996 joined Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling as Vincent, a member of the new World order.
When he sadly passed away, we found out that his birthday wasn’t actually on June 13th 1962 as he had previously claimed.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY & REST IN PEACE!
April 7, 1951 – February 28, 2024
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• Old School ECW Veteran Celebrates His Birthday
Old School ECW Veteran Masato Tanaka celebrates his birthday today.
Masato Tanaka made a name for himself in his home country Japan while wrestling for the hardcore promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling during the 90s, but north american Old School wrestling fans mostly remember him for his time in Paul Heyman’s Extreme championship Wrestling from 1998 until 2000.
In late 1999, he defeated Mike Awesome to become the first non-american ECW World Heavyweight Champion, but that reign only lasted a week.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MASATO TANAKA!
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• Old School WCW Veteran Celebrates His Birthday
Old School WCW Veteran “Screamin” Norman Smiley celebrates his birthday today.
Smiley wrestled for Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling from 1997 till it was sold to Vince McMahon in 2001.
In 2007 he joined the WWE as a trainer for its developmental promotion Florida Championship Wrestling, a job that he continued after FCW folded in 2012 and NXT took over as the developmental promotion, and is still working as a coach in the Florida based performance center to this day.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NORMAN SMILEY!
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• Old School Wrestling Legend Celebrates His Birthday
Old School NWA-WWF-WCW Legend Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (Real name: Richard Blood) celebrates his birthday today.
Over the years Steamboat wrestled in quite a few of what are now considered to be among the best matches in wrestling history, against opponents like “The Macho Man” Randy Savage, “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair & “Ravishing” Rick Rude.
After becoming a star in Jim Crockett Promotions during the 70s & early/mid 80s, he basically jumped back and forth between the World Wrestling Federation (1985-1988 and 1991) and Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling (1989 and 1991-1994).
His last big matches were against “Y2J” Chris Jericho, in a Handicap Elimination match at ‘WrestleMania 25’ and in a singles match at ‘Backlash 2009’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICKY STEAMBOAT!
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• Old School Wrestling Veteran Would Have Celebrated His Birthday
Today would have been the birthday of Old School Wrestling Veteran The Missing Link (Real name: Dewey Robertson).
Dewey wrestled for several north american territories during the 60s, 70s & 80s, using different names & characters, before adapting the gimmick of “The Missing Link” in 1983, which he mainly used in Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling, Fritz Von Erich’s World Class Championship Wrestling and Eddie Graham’s Championship Wrestling From Florida, before joining the WWF in 1985.
During his World Wrestling Federation days The Missing Link was managed by Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and wrestled against WWF Superstars like Ivan Putski, Paul Orndorff, Tony Garea, Salvatore Bellomo and SD Jones.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY & R.I.P.!
February 28, 1939 – August 16, 2007
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