Dark Side of the Ring: The Walking Riot, Missy Hyatt Review

Back with the #DarkSideoftheRing, we have the episode I had wanted to see the most for this season with the topic of #MissyHyatt. I discovered Missy Hyatt right around when she got started in ’85 or so in WCCW and pretty much took a liking to her almost immediately, despite how she was portrayed as this bitchy heel, girlfriend type connected to Hollywood John Tatum. As a result, I tried to follow her career as much as I could, although for a small period I did stop watching pro-wrestling for several years. Nonetheless, that never prevented me from still liking Missy as my favorite valet (at least until I saw Sensational Sherri with Ted Dibiase)

Similar to my own journey of discovering Missy Hyatt, this episode of the Dark Side of the Ring starts near her entry into WCCW. Just before that though, they gave some background on what she did prior to pro-wrestling. Most people by now probably know that Missy Hyatt (or Melissa Hiatt) was adopted. However, I don’t recall her ever discussing how she was raised. But it seems that the way her parents treated her, despite being adopted, she was quite spoiled, which wasn’t too far off from her better known personality in the ring. They also mentioned how she discovered pro-wrestling when her father was channel surfing and ran across Georgia Championship Wrestling, which reminded her of her soap operas (which she admits to have watched and still does). Like others after her, Missy realized that pro-wrestling was a soap opera for men. And while there was female pro-wrestling, it was limited and not discovered by her at that time. However, she did see a place for herself especially when she witnessed Sunshine and Precious in their feud in WCCW.

They talked about her dating Tommy Rich and later Jake Roberts, who was instrumental in helping her in getting involved (which is interesting since Jake’s sister did eventually become a pro-wrestler as Rockin’ Robin). They mentioned Baby Doll’s involvement where she became Gino Hernandez’s valet and that Missy would want that type of role for herself. Later once she started dating John Tatum, she found her in to get into WCCW where she admits to having the best time of her life.

Let me pause here to say I think WCCW probably was her career peak. That might sound a bit sad but she had a short but highly memorable run there. The Tatum and Hyatt package was one of the highlights each week for me on their TV. I missed out on Precious’ run there but did see Tatum and Hyatt feud with the Fantastics and Sunshine (I think the Grappler might’ve been involved too at some point). But there was an infamous match where Sunshine grabbed mustard, ketchup and maybe a chili dog from an obvious plant food vendor and smothered it all over Missy’s face and dress. Afterwards, one of the Fantastics grabbed the mic and told her, “Missy, you just look so good!” And I felt bad for her, even though she was meant to be this blond, snobbish, bimbo type. At the same time, it made me hate Sunshine, which is ironic.

Part of that too was that no one, in those days, came close to being as hot as Missy Hyatt. I was probably 11 when I discovered her so there were some changes slowly coming my way. And while Wendi Richter was on the other channel with Cyndi Lauper, I didn’t really get her appeal especially since (at that time at least), I didn’t care for Cyndi Lauper. I think the sexy kitten bad girl in Missy appealed to me far more. Then I recall seeing Missy Hyatt with John Tatum in a match against Steve Simpson where Missy was wearing that pink satin prom dress and I was smitten. I would secret call her “Satin Missy” for that outfit because I misinterpreted her wearing some elaborate robe like someone you’d see on Dynasty (which she would later do by a swimming pool in a UWF vignette). But she became my #1 pin up pro-wrestling girl for a long time (until Sherri came around)

Anyway, they talked about how Tatum and Missy transitioned to the UWF. I think by that point I had quit pro-wrestling or was about to but at the same time I started to really get into the NWA (because I discovered it). I think WCCW was in this odd position where they were getting new people like the Dingo (Ultimate) Warrior and I probably wasn’t seeing Missy as much. But I certainly wasn’t aware of the UWF at that stage.

Nonetheless, the big thing there was Missy and Tatum breaking up, which lead to Eddie Gilbert and Missy becoming an item. Also, they mentioned Tatum getting into a bad car accident that supposedly lead to the end of his career. The thing is that he did continue in some capacity but maybe the implication here was that he couldn’t go as hard as before. Also, they managed to get him as one of the talking heads and he didn’t look all that well. As for the car accident, I don’t recall hearing that until this episode so I must’ve glossed over that fact (or just didn’t care).

The thing about the UWF was that they continued to use her in hot angles with her being involved with Gilbert (Hot Stuff Incorporated). But I think they completely dismissed the feud with Dark Journey. That seemed like a terrible missed opportunity because I think neither liked each other for real back then. I do think they made amends but it’s weird that Dark Journey wasn’t brought up in that period since it was such a big thing for Missy and allowed her to be at the top in the UWF.

They showed the marriage to Eddie Gilbert, although I don’t think they explicitly stated that they got married. I think that was another huge misfire because of the huge impact Eddie Gilbert had on Missy’s life both in front of the screen and behind it. Part of the issue was that Eddie’s brother Doug didn’t like her and I want to say that the father didn’t. They might’ve covered it on the Eddie Gilbert episode so perhaps that’s why they didn’t bring it up here nor having Madusa add her side.

But they did go into the extremely brief Missy’s Manor bit with the WWF. While this was probably significant to Missy, I think it’s such a tiny footnote in wrestling history that I don’t think it really belonged compared to other parts that could’ve been expounded upon. I just think that the Dark Side tends to rely too much on old classic WWF footage whenever they can because it’s so recognizable. But having Hulk Hogan’s name mentioned when he never had anything to do with Missy felt like a waste of critical air time.

They didn’t even mention whether Missy and Miss Elizabeth had any relevance to one another here, which would’ve been the better story to tell in bringing up the WWF at all. And I think Missy and Miss Elizabeth should’ve been a point of small discussion just to demonstrate the difference in how they were used because both were contemporaries. And it’s ironic how Elizabeth had passed, despite having a squeaky clean image at that time while Missy is still thriving.

Next, they talk about how Missy returned to WCW. I missed her initial return because I later saw her connected with the Steiner Brothers as their valet and how she was still involved in a variety of major angles besides being an announcer. I think one of the key ones was seeing the Great Muta mist Missy. It seemed that her initial arrival was well received and that she had been used reasonably well. While I eventually got to see her earlier WCW stuff via YouTube, I mostly remember her being there around ’92 especially at that Beach Blast PPV where she had the infamous bikini contest with Madusa.

Again, some other major stories that were missing about Missy was how she was mistreated behind the scenes. I know Rick Steiner admitted that she got messed with by them or the Freebirds. Something about getting pissed on and calling her dumb and implying she was a slut (not entirely untrue but it was still mean spirited and misogynistic in tone). After Ole Anderson had passed, Missy mentioned that Ole had also mistreated her where she linked that situation with her own kind of #MeToo moment.

Of course, they brought up Jason Hervey, which in my view was the weirdest relationship. I never thought much of the guy outside of him being a putzy actor in a shit sitcom. And it reminds me a bit of the Paul Orndorff Dark Side episode that just came on last week where they mentioned getting these B or C-level “celebrities” just to get some sort of credibility. But Hervey was some skinny kid that had no place in pro-wrestling. Apparently, that relationship would lead to Missy’s downfall.

They did bring up the sexual harassment charge with the picture and her wardrobe malfunction. And Bischoff tried to write off the claim in calling Missy unprofessional and jealous (because of Sherri coming in, which Bischoff also would later fire). And even if Missy might have a bit of a notorious reputation, Bischoff is practically a known liar so I’m more on Missy’s side for this situation. They talked about Bischoff’s ambition about getting into TV and you can even see how the two (with Hervey) remained friends/partners after WCW collapsed.

At that point, Missy mentions her life started to spiral. Her firing occurred in ’94, which would’ve made her 31-32 years old. By that point, there weren’t many options for someone who had been on that high of a level as a performer to work, which probably is why she became depressed in part. So she moves to NY to work as a bartender and stripper apparently but got called by Paul E to join ECW.

The problem with ECW was the direction. Paul E was creating this underground world for a niche audience, kinda like a Fight Club deal, which was the worst spot for someone dealing with psychological and addiction issues. They re-did (exploited) her sexual harassment lawsuit issue with Stevie Richards and later put her with Sandman. I stopped caring for her at this point because the image Paul E was going for with Missy was basically cheap sleaze, which appealed to the gutter trash of Philly that composed his audience. Missy mentioned she was fed up and didn’t want to do the angle with Kimona and both left for AWF.

At that point, her career in pro-wrestling as a major star was pretty much dead. While she might still work independents, her more notorious story came from a softcore pr0n site in the early 2000s. I vaguely remember that along with the Sunny drama but the whole thing was sad to me. At that stage, Missy looked terrible and people accused her of plastic surgery gone wrong. They even mentioned Baby Doll getting a call from Missy to join her but the pay was so bad that Baby Doll saw through it. I guess the moral of that story was how all these so-called web entrepreneurs were tricking people into these things without really validating their business models with them.

They fast forwarded things a bit with Missy talking about a second potential suicide attempt. I can’t recall if I ever heard about that but that part was really glossed over again. Instead, they moved straight to her current status of where she is, mostly in having a “life partner” with some guy who had a fetish of her at the age of 15. Well, I had a fetish at the age of 10 so I beat this mofo! But in all seriousness, the main thing was her realizing that she had so few real friends and that she needed to surround herself by positive people.

So in all honesty, I don’t think this really was that dark when you compare it to say the Owen Hart and Chris Benoit tragedies. I think the big two issues were the thoughts of suicide (which felt minor) and the sexual harassment/lawsuit situation for WCW. They really glossed over a lot of things had their own merit in being dark and the episode really needed a good extra 30 minutes to cover all the other topics to get a better idea of Missy.

I really think the Missy Manor part is so small in the scheme of things but because it’s the WWF it gets brought up. And for Bischoff’s accusations of jealousy, I think Missy later addressed them in other interviews. But they should’ve let her speak on whether she really was jealous of Sensational Sherri. Because she seemed fine with Madusa and Woman, and perhaps Terri Runnels.

The pr0n parts were embarrassing to me. Maybe that’s the other dark part just because they were able to use more Sunny/Tammy Sytch footage and how we all know she’s pretty much fucked at this point. But the website deal like the WWF part seemed like a tiny moment in the scheme of things. Instead, I wish they addressed the perception of her changes during this period and that Missy could’ve been honest about how she was physically changing. She talked about the variety of drugs she was doing, including meth but didn’t necessarily connect them to how her appearance was altered.

Then there’s the brighter side of her life where she got her degree in psychology, started working a normal job and was able to move on from pro-wrestling except for doing the occasional fanfest conventions. Or her hobby of Civil War re-enactments. She also never mentioned about having a family. Yes, she was married but never had kids. One would think with so many boyfriends over the years that she might’ve had children at some point.

But that’s part of the issue I have with this episode where it only briefly touched on her life. The actual dark moments seemed minor compared to other people. She’s still alive and doing well, which is great but they never dug deep enough to show her really at rock bottom or getting into the psychology of it outside of “why did it happened to me?” I think the real story is that you had this entitled beautiful girl who got everything she wanted at an early age and experienced meteoric success but never understood how to manage it since there was as much emphasis on mental health back then. She did briefly talk about PTSD, being bipolar and having ADHD as well as taking a drug that pushed her bipolar disorder out of orbit. But these are really briefly covered and only come out at the end. The episode flies by just like her career if you’ve followed it but there’s still pieces that you need to flesh out to hear the full story.