Kyle Sampson, owner of Sampson Industries, grew up alone with his mother, Miss Sally Gleason. Sally, who once worked as a high priced call girl, had never told Kyle the identity of his father. After some investigating, Kyle was convinced that Sally's old lover, HB Lewis, was his father, so he vowed to take what he felt was rightfully his—the Lewis family business: Lewis Oil. With that goal in mind, Kyle arrived in Springfield in December 1984. Soon, he came across Roxie Shayne, whom he immediately recognized as a former hooker in Tulsa. Kyle wasted no time blackmailing Roxie into having sex with him by threatening to tell her boyfriend, Rick Bauer, about her shameful past. Kyle also blackmailed Roxie into spying for him at Lewis Oil. Meanwhile, Mindy Lewis, Billy Lewis's daughter, had a crush on Kyle, who she thought was just another of her father's clients. Kyle had no problem using Mindy for against Billy and Lewis Oil. Finally in March, Kyle arranged a bad business deal for Lewis Oil and took over the company. Although Roxie had tried to warn Billy in Alaska, she had an accident and lost her memory. When Mindy realized Kyle's schemes, she got drunk and shot Kyle in his arm but Kyle told no one about the incident. Later, Kyle invited the entire Lewis family to a dinner where he informed everyone that Vanessa had driven the car that hit HB's wife, Reva Shayne, and caused her to lose her baby. In addition, Kyle also revealed that HB was his father, which H.B. denied.

Not long after, Reva asked for Kyle's help in locating Roxie in Alaska, since it was essentially his fault that she was missing. Surprisingly, he agreed and the two set off for Alaska to retrieve an amnesiac Roxie. Though they succeeded in locating her and bringing her to Kyle's plane, Roxie's new husband, Kurt Corday, sneaked onto the plane and, at gunpoint, forced Kyle and Reva to parachute out of the plane. Kyle and Reva landed at an old farm which was owned by an old couple. The pair spent the next several days at the farm and convinced the Yoders to let them work there to pay for the damage done to the roof when they crashed into it. It didn't take long for the two to fall in love. After a few days, when Billy found them, he thought that Kyle had kidnapped Reva and began to fight with him. As Kyle had no chance against Billy, he hit him with a shovel and Billy remained in a coma for a few days. Back at home, Reva and Kyle became a couple despite Reva's marriage to HB. At the same time, Billy, depressed over losing the company to Kyle, started gambling and lost a lot of money. Blaming Kyle for his misery, Billy tried to shoot Kyle during a party at Blue Orchid but, luckily, Sally stopped him. To stop the feud between Kyle and Billy and to separate Kyle and Reva, Sally and HB told the family that HB was really Kyle's father. However, Kyle still wanted to be with Reva, while Billy hated Kyle as much as ever. Meanwhile, Kyle's friend and assistant, David Preston, who was involved with music producer Suzette Saxon, wanted a piece of Kyle's success. David arranged for Kyle to be kidnapped and then demanded 10 million dollars from Reva and Kyle's staff. After a few weeks, Kyle, who did not know the identity of his kidnappers, was finally released after the money was paid, David temporarily hid the money in a juke box, which, unfortunately was found by Mindy. Mindy decided to keep the money for herself in retaliation for all pain Kyle caused the family. Later, however, Mindy was exposed and she was forced to return the money.

Meanwhile, Sally brought Kyle's old lover, Maeve Stoddard, to town to break up Kyle and Reva. Though he was able to resist Maeve, Reva ended the relationship after HB suffered a heart attack, so Kyle slept with Maeve on the rebound. Soon after, HB granted Reva a divorce and she and Kyle made plans to marry. Meanwhile, the nefarious Largo organization wanted to take over Sampson Industries and kill Kyle. To that end, Largo and David, who was also member of this organization, decided to use Billy's hatred to their advantage. Hypnotizing Billy with Largo's ring symbol during poker games at Blue Orchid, David programmed Billy to kill Kyle when he saw the logo (two rings which merge into one another). Ironically, this was the same logo that Beth Raines and Jackson Freemont had created for Lujack's music video. The stage was set for Kyle to be murdered by Billy during Mindy's wedding to Kurt. Although both Suzette and Lujack warned Kyle that David was a dangerous man, Kyle suspected nothing. Shortly before Mindy and Kurt's wedding, David drugged and kidnapped Suzette since he was forced by Largo to kill her, too. Finally, at the wedding, David placed Suzette in the trunk of a car-- where Lujack would find her. Finally, at the wedding reception, when Billy saw the logo during Lujack's music video, he aimed his gun at Kyle. At that moment, HB yelled at him and David was killed instead! Billy, with Ross Marler as his lawyer, was tried for David's murder and the attempted murder of Kyle. In the meantime, Kyle cooperated with Kurt and Lujack to destroy Largo's organization. While Kurt and Lujack rescued Beth Raines on the tanker, Kyle followed Largo and the tanker exploded, fatally injuring Lujack who died later in Cedars. Before Largo died in Kyle's arms, he told Kyle that Billy had wanted him dead. Kyle believed him and rejected all of Billy's apologies. Later, when Beth and Jackson Freemont, who knew of Largo's schemes, testified on Billy's behalf, Ross arranged for Billy to be hypnotized again. Billy was exonerated and, later, Suzette confessed to killing David.

After the trial, Kyle forgave Billy and merged Sampson Industries and Lewis Oil into Sampson-Lewis Oil. Meanwhile, since Reva still doubted that HB was Kyle's father, she investigated and found Billy's baby picture in Sally's room along with Billy's birth certificate that indicated that Sally was Billy's mother! Reva kept the truth from Kyle but broke down and told him the truth at the altar. After revealing that Kyle was not a Lewis, Reva ran off. Upon learning that Billy was Sally's son, the brothers bonded. Meanwhile, Maeve found out that she was pregnant with Kyle's baby, so, on New Year's Day 1986, Kyle married Maeve for the sake of the child.

At this point, reporter Fletcher Reade wrote a story about a woman called "Laura" who attempted suicide after losing her true love. When "Laura" was awarded with a prize at the Blue Orchid, Kyle was shocked to see that "Laura" was none other than Reva. Not long after, Reva was reunited with the mystery man who had pulled her out of the icy water during her suicide attempt. His name was Cain Harris, and he was now tattered and feverish. Reva let him stay at Reva Bend and pawned her engagement ring (the one from Kyle) to pay his medical bills at Cedars. Reva thought Cain was a decent fellow, but neither Kyle not Fletcher was convinced. Fletcher investigated and learned that Cain was a former Hollywood stunt director who was implicated in the murder of his starlet wife. After Cain/Harry had discovered his wife carrying on with a fellow actor, he orchestrated a stunt that ultimately killed her. As Kyle agonized over this stranger living in Reva's house, Claire Ramsey found out Kyle owned Reva Bend and tried to blackmail him into an affair. When he refused, Claire told Maeve that Kyle owned the place -- and that meant he must be having an affair with Reva. Claire then overheard Fletcher warn Reva that Cain/Harry was a murderer. Aware that several people in Springfield now had his number, Cain/Harry went completely insane and threw Claire off of the Springfield River Bridge, but fortunately, Kyle came along and rescued her.

Later, Cain kidnapped Reva, who was luckily rescued by Kyle. During his rescue of Reva, Kyle grappled with Cain/Harry, who fell to his death. When Kyle and Reva embraced each other, a now pregnant Maeve witnessed it and, unwilling to be with a men who loved another, she demanded a divorce. Kyle agreed and soon he and Reva reunited. About this time, while Kyle and Reva started searching for Kyle's real father, Sally's old friend, Cardinal John Malone, visited Springfield and Sally confirmed what Kyle suspected: he was Kyle's real father. Not wanting to damage the Cardinal's reputation, Sally had kept the pregnancy a secret. After that revelation, Kyle had a warm reunion with his father before he left town. Not long after, Reva started working for Alan Spaulding's newspaper, the Mirror, so she could keep tabs on him for Kyle. One of her first assignments was to shoot underwater photos of Stony Lake, which had become flooded. There she found Professor Blackburn's boat, which contained evidence inconsistent with Alan's claims that Beth was dead. Reva confronted Alan with her findings but agreed not to reveal them when he backed off on an article he was planning to write -- a slam piece on Kyle's parentage. However, Reva was about to make an even more dramatic discovery in the flooded waters: the Von Halkein gold! To Alan's horror, Kyle nobly gave the treasure to its rightful owner, the ambassador of Andorra.

Meanwhile, Maeve, who was temporarily out of town, gave birth to a son that she named Benjamin, but she told Kyle and Fletcher that she had suffered a miscarriage. She went on to claim that the baby with her was an orphan, the son of Dr. Louie Darnell's late cousin. Maeve had plans to "adopt" the child but Kyle thought she was too unstable after her miscarriage and took the baby to an orphanage. Meanwhile, Kyle and Reva got engaged again and when they were about to marry in a church, Maeve crashed the ceremony and told Kyle that hadn't had a miscarriage but that Ben was their son! Shaken by Kyle's schemes to get custody of Ben, Reva left him at the altar again and soon reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Josh Lewis. Kyle brought Ben back from the orphanage and, in January 1987, he tried to convince Reva that they belonged together and that she should leave Josh. When Josh arrived and saw him harassing Reva, he shoved Kyle, who grabbed a fire poker to use against him, but decided against it at Reva's urging. At this moment, a frustrated Kyle realized that he lost Reva forever. After leaving Ben in Maeve's care, Kyle said goodbye to a tearful Reva and left Springfield with Sally soon following him.