Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
“They said no man could replace Roddy Piper, but a woman can!”
Right before the WWF’s biggest event…Wrestlemania III…the landscape of the company was beginning to change. The always lovable, fan favorite Andre the Giant turned heel. Hulk Hogan was still going strong as WWF champion…and one of the greatest characters in WWF history ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper was retiring. It was the retirement of Piper that is the basis for this piece.
You see, when he announced his retirement from wrestling to try his hand in Hollywood as an actor…it left a great void for Vince McMahon to fill. Not only was he a box office draw inside the ring…he had an extremely innovative and successful interview segment entitled, Piper’s Pit.
With Piper gone, both voids needed to be filled as soon as possible. Vince McMahon looked to the upstart Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) to poach talent from. His eyes were set on both ‘Hot Stuff’ Eddie Gilbert and his girlfriend Missy Hyatt. McMahon’s idea was to have Eddie Gilbert possibly fill the void in the ring and Missy could fill the spot where Piper’s Pit use to be.
Despite both Gilbert and Hyatt being under contract to Bill Watts UWF promotion, they agreed to a sit down meeting with Vince McMahon in Connecticut. According to Missy Hyatt, Vince took an immediate liking to her and spent most of the meeting discussing what her plans would be in the company. She was going to be a huge star complete with her own Missy dolls. Eddie almost became an afterthought. Missy Hyatt would have the prime spot conducting interviews WWF superstars with her own talk show segment. With the meeting being semi successful, it appeared that both Gilbert and Missy were headed up north.
Enter Bill Watts…Bill knew the importance and talent of Eddie Gilbert, so he offered to make Eddie the booker of the UWF if he agreed to stay. Eddie, whose ambitions were always to be in charge of booking agreed to stay with the UWF. Missy Hyatt on the other hand, gave the WWF a try.
A week before Wrestlemania III, during a series of television tapings, Missy Hyatt debuted her new talk show entitled, “Missy’s Manor.” Missy’s Manor appeared to be something very different and unique to that era of WWF. Missy would prance in with skin tight dresses and pumps showing off cleavage. A big departure from the bubble gum product that most had grown accustomed to.
The show was a train wreck from the beginning. First, there was no build up introducing fans to Hyatt. She was just thrown out there and fans were either quiet and indifferent or sounds of groans came from the audience. Secondly, Missy mispronounced her own show calling it Missy’s Manners instead of Missy’s Manor. It seemed that every segment was ad libbed instead of properly thought out. They also couldn’t decide if she was playing a heel interviewer, a babyface interviewer or just a down the middle interviewer.
It didn’t matter what they tried, nothing would stick. It was sloppy and it didn’t make Missy or any of the wrestlers she was interviewing look any better. The segments were so bad, they never actually aired on TV.
Once the decision was made to scrap the interview segments…Vince McMahon was left with one other dilemma…what to do with Missy Hyatt. Instead of using her as a valet or manager…Vince offered her a position as a ringside WWF Federette. If you don’t know who they were…they were scantily clad ring girls who would take the wrestlers attire back to the locker room before their matches started.
Missy turned down the offer as she felt it was beneath her and bolted back to her boyfriend and future husband Eddie Gilbert in the UWF. Vince McMahon told her that he understood and that perhaps the timing wasn’t right. Vince told her the door was always open for her whenever she wanted a job in the WWF. Fast forward to 1997…Missy wrote in her book that she practically begged and pleaded for a job in the company and heard nothing back from them. Perhaps Vince didn’t like the word “No?”