("Purely Sexy")[3] Hayes and for his role as an announcer under the name "Handsome" Dok Hendrix in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

Hayes was chosen by the fans to be the special guest referee during the Ric Flair-Kerry Von Erich NWA World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match at Christmas Star Wars.

As this later cost him the title, it triggered the legendary feud between The Fabulous Freebirds and The Von Erichs and ended a good respectful friendship between both groups.

They had used the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Free Bird" and Willie Nelson's version of "Georgia on My Mind" up to that point and would on occasion in the future.

The Freebirds interfered in the match where the Warriors lost the belts to Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal, and subsequently returned to Texas.

[4] In 1986, Hayes appeared in the opening credits of Highlander alongside The Fabulous Freebirds, working his Purely Sexy gimmick on the turnbuckle while writhing free of his ring robe.

[4] Hayes returned to World Class Championship Wrestling to find that his former Freebird partners Gordy and Roberts, in alliance with Iceman Parsons and The Angel of Death, had resumed their feud with the Von Erichs.

Subsequently, Hayes and Gordy reunited as babyfaces and feuded with Roberts and his Samoan Swat Team as well as old Freebird enemies Devastation Inc, of whom Parsons was now a member.

[4] While all this was going on, Hayes continued with his music career, often playing concerts with his Badstreet Band at the Dallas Sportatorium, World Class's main arena.

Inevitably, the music career overlapped with World Class' storylines when, at one such concert, Roberts appeared onstage and hit Hayes over the head with a guitar.

[4] At Clash of the Champions VII, on June 14, 1989, Jimmy Garvin showed up as the newest Freebird and he and Hayes won the tournament and titles (thus reuniting their old tag team from JCP circa 1987).

He went back to Dallas to the Global Wrestling Federation and reunited with Garvin and Gordy as The Freebirds, whom he managed them to win their Tag Team Championship, before the company folded that September.

[9] However he retired from active competition due to a serious back injury he suffered while in WCW and after the NWA's Dallas promotion ended, and debuted on April 14 instead as Dok Hendrix, WWF Action Zone co-host with Todd Pettengill.

Hayes also worked as a color commentator in 1995 with Vince McMahon on WWF Superstars and on the In Your House 1 and the 1995 King of the Ring pay-per-view events and replaced Jerry Lawler for the last two matches at SummerSlam 1995.

The Hardy Boyz lost the Tag Team Titles to The Acolytes at Fully Loaded when Hayes was pinned in a handicap match.

[17] On August 1, 2014, Hayes appeared in a short segment on the online series JBL and Cole Show in which he stared at a "Free Birds, call to enquire" flier.

[18] In February 2015, Hayes partook in a WWE.com interview alongside Arn Anderson with Michael Cole to discuss Triple H and Sting's match at WrestleMania 31.

[20][21] In 1998, Hayes returned to the ring for the first time in four years working in the independents reuniting with Terry Gordy at Bad Boys of Wrestling in Wyoming.

The July 1988 issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated (written circa March 1988) contained a (possibly kayfabed) column by writer Dave Rosenbaum in which he visited the box office for a Badstreet Band show and surveyed what sort of people would actually go to Hayes' concerts.

[22] In 1992, Hayes performed a duet with music producer Darwin Conort called "Freebird Forever" on the WCW album, Slam Jam 1.