Kiniski wrestled a few times for the WWF at their frequent Madison Square Garden shows as well as at the Boston Garden, including wins over Steve Lombardi, Frenchy Martin, Jimmy Jack Funk and Les Thornton in late 1986 and early 1987. He was featured on WWF's television shows at least once - including a very competitive match against WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage, which he only narrowly lost, on the December 27, 1986 edition of WWF Superstars of Wrestling.
Kiniski joined the American Wrestling Association in late 1986. He formed a heel tag team with Kevin Kelly called The Perfect Tag Team to contend for the AWA World Tag Team Championship. The duo was managed by Sherri Martel. Martel left the AWA in July 1987 and was replaced by Madusa Miceli as the team's manager. They eventually pursued singles careers as Kiniski left the team.
The last promotion where Kiniski wrestled was World Class Championship Wrestling. He started his WCCW stint in 1987 and feuded with the Von Erichs.