Koko debuted in 1978 and became widely popular in 1986. He later went on to the World Wrestling Federation, where he went from strong mid-carder to jobber to the stars. "The Birdman" came to the ring with a blue-and-yellow macaw named Frankie, both flapping and dancing before and after his matches. Before joining the WWF, he was in several tag teams, most notably with Bobby Eaton in Memphis and with Norvell Austin (The Pretty Young Things aka The PYT Express) in several promotions. In the first match on the very first episode of Monday Night Raw on January 11, 1993, he was defeated in a squash match by Yokozuna. In 2009 he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Bright outfits, colorful sunglasses, a constant smile and his vibrato singing voice made Ware popular, especially with the younger crowd that the WWF mainly catered to during the 1980s. Ware also sang the title track of the 1987 WWF album Piledriver, which then became his entrance music. The song's video featured top wrestlers of the day like Hulk Hogan and The Honky Tonk Man, as well as WWF owner Vince McMahon wearing a red "Hulkamania" shirt and hard hat.

Ware often lost to bigger stars, such as Butch Reed, Hercules, Greg Valentine, and The Big Boss Man. From 1987 to 1993, Ware appeared on several WWF PPVs (including WrestleMania III where he lost to Reed) and editions of Saturday Night's Main Event, being used mainly to make established or rising stars look good. Ware was the first wrestler on television to fall victim to the perfect-plex of newcomer Mr. Perfect on the January 7, 1989, episode of Saturday Night's Main Event XIX, while at the 1990 Survivor Series, Ware became the first wrestler to fall victim to The Undertaker's tombstone piledriver in the Undertaker's WWF debut match. In a precursor to what would become a regular team years later, Ware occasionally teamed with Owen Hart, wrestling as The Blue Blazer at the time, throughout 1988 and 1989. In 1992, Ware teamed up with Owen Hart to form the high-flying team known as High Energy, well known in wrestling circles for their gigantic baggy brightly colored pants and checkered suspenders. High Energy feuded with (and generally lost to) The Nasty Boys, The Headshrinkers, and Money Inc.

In March 2002, Ware would sadly lose his world-beloved trademark Macaw, Frankie, in a house fire. According to Ware, he was summoned to the house during church after someone told him his home was burning down. A neighbor who he never met approached him, crying that they couldn't save his "child," having mistaken the sounds of distress and repeated calls of "Let me out" from Frankie for those of a small child. Ware kept Frankie for 15 years, and was devastated by the loss. Initially presented to him in a photograph from his wife who met Frankie while passing a pet shop, she thought it would be a major boost to his in-ring gimmick, as he had at that time already been known as "The Birdman" in his performances. He kept the picture, and while in his talks with Vince McMahon during his hiring, McMahon asked if there were anything else he would like to add to his gimmick, to which Ware replied by pulling the picture out of his pocket and saying he wanted the pictured bird, which was then found and given to him. Ware considered Frankie a close personal friend, and it would distress him to travel to shows and appearances without him.

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