411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: ‘The Walking Riot: Missy Hyatt’

–Dark Side of The Ring: ‘The Walking Riot: Missy Hyatt’
-Written: 8.18.26
-Source: Vice
-Run Time: 1 Hour (w/ commercials)

-Plugs: SummerSlam 1994; Dark Side: Mr. Wonderful

-Chris Jericho is our narrator!

“The Following Episode Contains Content About Suicide and suicidal ideation. Viewer Discretion is Advised.”

-Preview: Missy says she knew women had the upper hand because they had their bodies and guys want them. She says he was treated like her character and not the person she was. They touch on her suing WCW, and someone thinks that is what put her on a downward spiral.

-Show opening!

-We start at Missy’s house, and we are greeted by barking dogs. They look like Jack Russel Terriers. Makes sense as to why they would be barking. She shows off some of the photos she has, including one framed photo of her, Austin, Pillman, and Schiavone. She shows off her trademark of “The First Lady of Wrestling.” Sorry, and this will be the last time I say it, Miss Elizabeth will always be the first lady of wrestling in my eyes. She is daring someone to use it, as she will “sue that shit out of them.” She shows off her Gucci bag, and it’s the same one she has had since 1984.

-She introduces herself and notes her real name is Melissa Hiatt. She has been in wrestling for 40 years. She grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. She was a spoiled kid and was adopted at birth. Her parents never told her no, and she thinks that was a mistake, as she thinks she would have grown up as a better person. She says she was a bad kid and wrecked nine cars, but her dad just kept buying her a replacement.

-She had dreams of being a star on Soap Operas. We get footage of All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital. I grew up watching Soaps with my grandma in the summer. I got way into All My Children. She remembers practicing her autograph as a kid.

-She was watching TV one day with her dad, and he stopped on Georgia Championship Wrestling. She watched as Michael Hayes turned on Terry Gordy and put a baby bonnet on his head. She was blown away and wanted to do that when she got older. She had a girlfriend go with her to see Tommy Rich face Michael Hayes in Macon, GA. She loved Tommy Rich and had his picture on her walls. She got a picture with him and says they hooked up, but Tommy will deny it.

-We meet Loree Dorminey, who has been friends with Miss for almost 50 years. Loree worked at an after-hours club and was known as The Blonde Bombshell. She would turn into Marilyn Monroe and would perform for the people in the club. She taught Missy how to flirt and how to be a tramp. One night Missy filled in for her and showed her tits. That was the first time she performed on stage. Loree loved that Missy was wild.

-Missy moved to Atlanta and continued to go to shows. She would go in the back and act like she was supposed to be there. She met Jake Roberts, and they started dating. She notes they did cocaine together and would play cards while watching wrestling. One night, she, Precious, and Sunshine got into a catfight, and she told Jake that’s what she wanted to do. He told her to send photos to WCCW, but they hired Baby Doll.

-Baby Doll is here and talks about the importance of valets in the 80s. They would walk men to the ring and get into catfights. Not Liz! She met John Tatum, and he saw how much heat she was getting with Gino in WCCW. Tatum wanted a valet. Missy says she and Jake broke up and she got her first boob job. She met Tatum and fell in love with him.

-Here’s John Tatum, and he says Missy was his girlfriend. He wonders if she had a hidden agenda. He says she wanted to be Missy Hyatt, but was patient enough. She came with him when he got a job in Texas. Here’s David Manning (WCCW), and he says we can blame him for Missy getting into wrestling. He calls her gorgeous and asks when she wanted to get in the business. He told her to bring a purse as she would be hitting Sunshine. We see the video of her decking Sunshine, and she never looked back.

-She talks about the influences she took for the character. She was viewed as a spoiled kid who would throw a tantrum when she didn’t get what she wanted. Boni Blackstone, a name from the past, has been in wrestling for 30 years and has known Missy for most of those years. She calls Missy the ultimate heel. The fans wanted Missy and Sunshine to fight. Manning booked them at Parade of Champions in a mud match. Missy says she showed people that women could draw.

-Missy and Tatum head to The UWF next. Missy decides to leave John, and she says it’s because she never thought he loved her. Eddie Gilbert stole her away, and they broke the news to John that they were in love. Watts used the drama on the show, as he said they couldn’t write anything as good as her life. Tatum saw it as a way to get to the top of the card, but he was in a car accident that ended his career. Look at young Sting standing behind Missy and Eddie!

-Commercials!

-Over in the WWF, their company is exploding thanks to Hulk Hogan and other big personalities. Vince calls Missy in 1987, and she says she could not talk to him because she was in awe that he was calling. He wanted Eddie and Missy, and she says that Vince told her he would make her bigger than Hulk Hogan. Okay, sure! She was apparently going to take over Piper’s Pit because Roddy had retired after Mania III. Vince told Eddie he could be a wrestler or manager, but what he really wanted was Missy. That rubbed Eddie the wrong way, and he was going to stay in the UWF, but he told Missy to go. She knew that meant they were going to split.

-Missy’s Manor is the new show, and she says her deal was $1000 a week plus all expenses paid. She says Vince bought her leather clothes, took her to dinner, and taught her blackjack. He walked her to her place and tried to stick his tongue down her throat. She pushed him out and shut the door. She thinks Vince sabotaged her after that. She did segments with Randy/Liz, Jimmy Hart, Bobby Heenan, and she says they all sucked. Vince told her what to say, but she hated it as she liked to ad-lib. We get the rare sight of Missy and Liz on the same show.

-Baby Doll says it was understood that if you were in WWF you had to be one of Vince’s girls. Missy wasn’t going to play that game, and Missy’s Manor was shelved before an episode aired. Vince offered her a position as a Federette, and she didn’t want to do that. Her time in WWF lasts all of six weeks.

-She went home and then signed with WCW. Dusty told her they would make her a star. She did interviews, walked talent to the ring, and was made to look like a million dollars. She did comedic stuff with JR and Schiavone. She loved the segments where they just gave her a mic and let her loose. We see the deal where she goes to interview someone in the shower, and Stan Hansen comes out.

-Jim Cornette is here and delivers the line that annoyed me in the preview. He says Missy is the most well-known female personality, and it’s not close. Again, that is wild to say when Miss Elizabeth is in the other company and is in the middle of one of the biggest drawing angles of all time with The Mega Powers. He says Missy was more famous than him and says when she was on the cover of a magazine, it was an instant sell-out.

-They talk about The Hotline and how she had Sundays, and she just made up whatever gossip. She says her day made $500,000 one year and she didn’t get a dime. Her calendar sold like crazy, and she got $19. She says she was the lowest-paid person there. She notes her talent speaks for itself, and it was still a man’s business. She was treated as a blonde bimbo, and they fired her.

-Commercials!

-Missy starts a relationship in WCW with Jason Hervey, from The Wonder Years. She calls it one of the worst mistakes of her life. Cornette says Jason was a big wrestling fan, and since he was a TV star, they brought him on the show. She says she thought he was the best boyfriend. They lived together for two years, and he spoiled her with gifts. He was insecure as Missy was working all day with his heroes, and he would question what she was wearing and if her tits were showing. “Maybe it’s Missy.”

-Jason went out on a boat with girls, and he didn’t tell Missy. She was pissed at him for lying about it, so she broke up with him. She says that’s why she was fired. She brings up Eric Bischoff taking control just after she dumps Jason. Eric and Jason become good friends because Eric wants to be a TV producer, according to Cornette. Missy says Eric was so far up Jason’s butt and would do whatever he wanted. She wanted to be an announcer and not a manager, but they kicked her out of the announcer spot and put her with The Nasty Boys. She didn’t like it, as they were always yelling over each other during their promos.

-We get to Starrcade 1993, and Missy was wearing a mesh dress with a bra showing underneath. Her tit pops out while attacking Sting at the end of the match. She didn’t know the camera got it or that a photographer got it. She went to WCW studios, and on a bulletin board was the photo with her boob out. She tore it up and told Eric she wanted an apology from the photographer. Missy took the photo out of the garbage to keep it as evidence. She spoke to someone higher up than Eric, who didn’t know about the photo. Missy claims Eric fired her for going over his head. We don’t have Eric as a talking head for this one, but hear his comments from a 2024 interview. He notes it had nothing to do with going over his head. He fired Missy because she didn’t want any other women in WCW. He claims she put on a tirade and acted like a child. He didn’t want that on his roster, so he fired her.

-She went home and drank wine while taking a bunch of Xanax. She called Beefcake, who came over and made her throw everything up. She notes that Brutus saved her life. She gets emotional thinking about it and again blames Jason. She reiterates that Eric would do anything Jason asked.

-John Pollock next, and he says Eric didn’t need his arm twisted to stop working with Missy, but that photo was leaving them open to legal action. She called a lawyer about defamation of character. It turns into a 12-count lawsuit against WCW. It is over sexual harassment, equal pay, past royalties, discrimination, and other things. They went to mediation, and they settled on $175,000, and she notes the lawyers took 40%. Ouch!

-She fell into depression as she could not find anything to match the high of being famous and working in front of a wrestling crowd. “There is not a drug in the world that even comes close to that.” She cries a bit as she says, “It is what it is. It’s over with.”

-Commercials!

-After WCW, she moved to New York City and started working as a bartender and go-go dancer. She was diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar. She started self-medicating to make herself forget about it. She watched the wrestling world pass her by.

-Cornette mentions that in the WWF in the mid-90s, they had people like Sunny. He notes that’s showbiz and sorry, but he didn’t make the rules. One person who vouched for her was Paul Heyman. Missy says she only knew Paul in New York City. He called her and asked if she wanted to work in ECW.

-To say the women in ECW were used differently would be a total understatement. Heyman told her that she would kiss Richards and he would sue her for harassment. Missy: “Oh, this is going to suck.” Cornette says ECW is the last place on Earth anyone with depression and substance abuse issues should be. Man has a valid point! Missy says she tripped on acid at an ECW show and was hiding under a table having a giggling fit. Pollock thinks Missy fell out of love with wrestling in ECW and mentions she shattered her elbow.

-Missy doesn’t remember a lot of it and says 93-04 was a blur. She was using heroin, cocaine, pills, and tried meth, but was worried her teeth would fall out. She surrounded herself with idiots, and it wasn’t a good time. She pitched the idea of Wrestling Vixxxens, where she and other former women in wrestling would (Sunny/Tammy being one of them) pose semi-naked or, in Missy’s case, fully naked because she wanted to make money. OnlyFans way before it was a thing. She made $80,000 in the first month. She was spending the money on a car and drugs while living in Tampa. She says people took advantage of her, as she believes people when they say stuff. She had a psychotic break.

-Commercials!

-Cornette says they had the concept with the site, but it was low rent. Pollock says the business was not on solid footing as people were not sure about putting their credit card online in the early days of the internet. Baby Doll says Missy tried to get her to be part of it, but offered $600, which wasn’t near enough. We see old Tammy footage (2006) where she calls the site a big mistake. She says they made more money off her than she made. They mention that once people figured out how to steal the photos on the site, it could be shared for free.

-Missy started self harming herself and would snap out of it by doing cocaine. The same Tammy interview where she says they were close and like sisters. She spent every weekend in Missy’s apartment, and then she found Missy and some girl she didn’t know, smoking crack. That was enough for Tammy, so she left. Missy says she has no friends and was a total outcast. She questioned why she was living in hell. She doubled her Prozac, and that caused a mental break. She thought Russians were after her, so her mom called the police, and they took her to the hospital. Missy admits she was getting ready to kill herself again. Her friends had hoped she would be strong enough to pull herself out of it.

-Commercials!

-Next week: Zach Gowan! Guess that’s our season finale!

-Missy was sitting on the floor with a gun and was ready to blow her brains out. She called a friend who told her to do it in a tub so they wouldn’t have to clean it. Wow! Missy says that actually woke her up, and she went to her doctor the next day and asked for help. He got her to a place that could help. She found a psychiatrist that would listen, and she has not had a drink since or done anything to harm herself. “The last time was the last time.” She says she had PTSD from WCW and credits therapy for helping her a lot.

-We see her going through her collection of photos and magazines again. She shows the photo she pulled off the wall and out of the garbage of her tit popping out at Starrcade. She notes she no longer has ill will towards people, as life is too short.

-We meet Matthew Roblez, who is her life partner. He says they love each other and it has been a dream come true. He was a fan who loved her at fifteen years old and now it is storybook stuff. He shows the photo of her that he had in his locker in high school. She says no man has ever treated her so wonderfully and notes that he completes her. “If you surround yourself with good people, good things happen.”

-Loree hadn’t seen her in years, but missed her friend and found her number. Missy was stunned that she found her number, but she reminded Missy that people like them could get things when they wanted them, and Missy agreed.

-Missy says she learned that she is much smarter and stronger than her wrestling character. They discuss how she kept reinventing herself and how she knew how to work an angle. Cornette says Missy was Paris Hilton before Paris was born. She is credited with setting up the runway for the women who followed.

-Missy is not bitter about wrestling and loves it still. She is proud of everything she did and notes she was the first female announcer and first female to Main Event a large show. She calls herself the best dumb, blonde bimbo. She is the luckiest person in the world and is having the time of her life with the best boyfriend and friends.

-There was a lot here, and that could be because I didn’t know much about Missy’s story. Again, I grew up on WWF and didn’t know anything about Missy until the late 80s, and even then I just kind of knew the name more than anything. It wasn’t until I started doing the Retro Reviews that I saw her on the PPVs, etc. The most important thing from this episode is that she seems to be in a good place and, thankfully, survived her issues unlike others. That is something to be celebrated, and I hope she continues to do well in her life.

-I found this one captivating because I was learning so much. With Missy being part of the show, we got a lot of her side, and they were able to find the Bischoff interview to give his side of her firing from WCW. People will likely side with whoever they live in situations like that. I was wondering if they would touch on any Liz and Missy comparisons since they were the two most prominent valets during this time (Sherri would be right with them as well, but started as a wrestler). We didn’t get any of that, though. The Missy’s Manor stuff was fascinating, as I knew she had a brief run in WWF where they had plans for a talk show, but I never saw any of the footage. I am sure people from the McMahon camp are thrilled to hear a former employee accuse him of trying to kiss her. There was nothing saying they tried to reach out to Vince, but even if they did, he’s not answering. They had plenty of talking heads this time, and they were mainly there to fill in when needed, as Missy was the main focus, as she should be. I still would be interested in seeing any kind of tangible evidence that Missy was more well known that Liz. Perhaps I am wrong and was just stuck in my WWF bubble as a kid. Overall, this was a really strong episode that I am happy to see has a happy ending. Thanks for reading!