Acrylic and spray paint on 24″ x 24″ wood
The two-time USWA World Champion Koko B Ware is one of those guys that makes me smile every time I see him. When I was two or three my mom bought me a paper mache macaw parrot that hung from the ceiling. I called it Perry the Parrot, and I’ve still got it hanging in my place now! So, here’s this flamboyant guy that would come out to the ring in his gold jacket while Morris Day’s “The Bird” played, and he had a REAL macaw on his arm! As a kid that was all I needed, man. Koko would wave his arms like a bird and Frankie the macaw would flap his wings with him, and the crowd just ate it up every time. As gimmicks go, it’s kind of amazing it ever worked, but boy howdy it really did and it’s one of the most memorable from that era of so many gimmicks that just flat didn’t work.
Koko’s career in the WWF pretty much consisted of him being a jobber to the stars, but folks who saw him in the USWA or other territories knew that he could go in the ring and bring a variety of emotions out of the crowd. He worked successfully as both a face and a heel, and got over with audiences large and small!