Profile #771: "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert

He who slings mud loses ground,
He who throws fire yields the hot hand.
—Eddie Gilbert


So sayeth the late, great "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert. Pretty acute statement from a guy who spent most of his life doing coke, gobbling amphetamines, and wearing sunglasses straight from the set of Summer School. Gilbert was a second-generation wrestler who came to prominence around 1986 in Bill Watts' UWF. At only 5'9", he was undersized during an era that increasingly geared itself toward bodybuilders and steroid-heads. Nevertheless, "Hot Stuff" had charisma to burn, was great on the mic, and consistently put on entertaining bouts replete with both brawling and understated technical brilliance. He brought in local cooze, Missy Hyatt, as his valet/manager (and married her in real life some time later). Together they formed "Hyatt & Hot Stuff International." They worked well as a unit, playing off each other's real-life partnership.

In a dual role as booker, Gilbert was able to position himself as an invaluable asset to Watts and subsequently, when the UWF was purchased by Jim Crockett's NWA, Gilbert stayed on the active roster and excelled from mid-card status to a brief feud with world champion, Ric Flair.

For me, though, there were three distinct facets of Eddie Gilbert's career that remain burned into my memory:


1. Missy Hyatt's tits

2. Missy Hyatt's tits

3. Throwing fireballs into people's faces [hence, "Hot Stuff"]



Eddie was a heel for most of his career, but he was always pretty funny and mouthy and he earned his stripes in the NWA in the late-'80s and early '90s.

Unfortunately, he was one of those myriad partier wrestlers who indulged in the lethal mix of alcohol and painkillers and in 1995 it caught up with him. He was found dead of a heart attack at just 33 years old.

Where is he now? Slingin' fireballs in heaven, I hope.