James Ware (born June 20, 1957) is a retired American professional wrestler from Union City, TN who competed from the 1970s through the start of the 21st century as Koko B. Ware. He started in the territories, working in Georgia, Mid-South, Memphis and elsewhere. He was primarily a midcarder, though he held several regional titles. He arrived in WWE in 1986, where, despite being very popular, he was pretty much stuck forever in midcard Jobber mode, including being the first-ever televised victim for The Undertaker, at Survivor Series 90. He stuck around until 1994, though WWE's interpromotional relationship with Jerry Lawler's USWA led to him defeating Kamala for the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Title
, and then winning it a second time from Lawler himself. He went into semi-retirement in 1995, and eventually retired for good in 2009, being inducted in WWE's Hall of Fame in the same year.
"Hi-flying tropes":
- Animal Companion: Frankie, his precious blue Macaw.
- Animal Motif: Exotic birds, of course.
- Arch-Enemy: His biggest feuds (All of them in Memphis), were with Jimmy Valiant, Bobby Eaton and The Fabulous Ones.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.
- Bash Brothers: With Owen Hart as High Energy
- Charlie Brown from Outta Town: As Stagger Lee in Memphis.
- Combat Parkour: One of the earliest examples in pro wrestling. Sturdy enough to flip over his average opponents and not falling on the Fragile Speedster category.
- Cool Shades: From time to time he was seen sporting colorful "Venetian blinds".
- Dance Battler: Type II with just the nice, funny parts of type IV.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: "Piledriver", it was even the "flagship" tune that gave name to the second WWF's Wrestling album.
- Face–Heel Turn: When he joined Jimmy Hart's stable the First Family and renamed himself Sweet Brown Sugar.
- Finishing Move: The Ghost Buster (Brain Buster) and Top-rope Missile Dropkick.
- Friend to All Children: Yeah, kids of all age everywhere loved him!
- Fun Personified: After placing Frankie on his perch and give him some yummies while he waited, Koko entered to the ring walking in slow motion and "flapping" his arms as if he was showing to the audience he could fly... and he did!
- Identity Impersonator/Played for Laughs: Koko did it twice, once while teaming with "The Killer Bees" (Impersonating "Jumping" Jim Brunzell) and once when he was trying to help prove that "The Rocket", his former Tag Team partner wasn't "The Blue Blazer" (He was). Neither time worked, the joke being that Koko; an african american, was trying to replace an evident caucasian.
- Irony: His single, greatest contribution to his whole WWF stint wasn't a memorable match or an innovative, breathtaking move... but his singing voice.
- Incidentally... he was never known for performing an actual piledriver.
- Jobber: The bulk of his WWE run was this. Along with the Taker's example, Yokozuna Squashed him in the opening match of the debut episode of Raw.
- Leitmotif: The Time's "The Bird".
- Lightning Bruiser: Believe it or not, Koko held a good number of squash matches under his belt here and there. On his top, his average match was won and over in 4 minutes or less.
- Mysterious Middle Initial/Punny Name: Really his full name was a Fun with Homophones for "Oh, oh ...beware!" due to his daring Hi-Fly stunts, but if you want to find a meaning for his middle "B"... "Birdman"... maybe?
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: His Tag Team with Norvell Austin, The Pretty Young Things, (Renamed The P.Y.T. Express later), based their image on Michael Jackson, as part of their "Pretty Boy" image.
- Power Stable:
- The Pringle Dynasty
- The First Family
- Neidhart's Raiders (A breakaway group led by The Anvil)
- Red Baron: "The Holy Ghost", "The Birdman" and "Union City's Best".
- Signature Move: Cartwheel flip/Leapfrog evade-Dropkick combo, several Crossbody variants as well.
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Spiritual Successor: For every Hi-Fly style performers after him, but is worth to notice that many of his traits were inherited by a future Super Star, one who rose to win several titles and established a new way to watch entrtaining and awesome wrestling matches in the States: Rey Mysterio.
