Garvin joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1984. He became known as "The Man With the Hands of Stone." He feuded with Tully Blanchard and Black Bart. He also formed a tag team with Barry Windham and the duo won the WCW United States Tag Team Championship from Ivan Koloff and Kruscher Kruschev, before losing the belts to Koloff and Dick Murdoch.
In particular, Garvin feuded with Jim Cornette's Midnight Express team of "Lover Boy" Dennis Condrey and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton. At Starrcade '85, Garvin teamed with Jimmy Valiant to face the Midnight Express in an Atlanta Street Fight; for this match Garvin wrestled in drag as "Miss Atlanta Lively." Garvin also had a singles feud with Cornette's bodyguard, Big Bubba Rogers, to whom he lost a street fight at Starrcade '86.
In 1987, Windham and Garvin feuded with Cornette's Midnight Express (still composed of Condrey and Eaton) over the United States Tag Titles. During one televised match, after Cornette threw fire in Garvin's face, Garvin's "brother" "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin came to his rescue, turning both himself and his valet Precious babyface in the process. The Garvin "brothers" teamed for a while against the Midnight Express. In May 1987 Windham and Garvin reached the finals of a tournament for the vacant United States Tag Team Titles, but lost to the new Midnight Express lineup of Eaton and "Sweet" Stan Lane. The two teams continued to feud over the titles, with the Garvins getting pinfall wins in non-title matches, or disqualification wins when the titles were on the line.
The Garvins next entered in a feud with WCW World Champion Ric Flair in 1987 over Flair's lust for Precious. On one occasion, when Flair defeated Jimmy to win a date with Precious, he was instead ambushed by Ron Garvin once again in drag as Miss Atlanta Lively.
The feud with Flair took a new twist on September 25, 1987, when Garvin was able to defeat Flair for the title. Garvin held the title for two months before losing it back to Flair at Starrcade.
After the title loss, the Garvins entered into a feud with Kevin Sullivan and his Varsity Club. At the Great American Bash, the brothers teamed with The Road Warriors and Steve Williams and defeated Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, Russian Assassin and Ivan Koloff in a Tower of Doom match. Later that night however, Ron Garvin shocked fans when he became a heel by knocking Dusty Rhodes out with a punch to keep him from winning Windham's United States Heavyweight Title, thus reuniting the former United States Tag Team Champions as heels. Garvin was managed by Gary Hart, but left after only a few months as a heel before the August 12 card in Norfolk, Virginia.
In 1988, still as a heel, Garvin wrestled in the American Wrestling Association in late 1988 and feuded with Greg Gagne over the AWA International Television Championship.
Garvin next went to the World Wrestling Federation at the end of 1988, wrestling as a fan favorite under the name "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin. At the Royal Rumble, he competed in the Royal Rumble match but was eliminated by André the Giant. He lost to Dino Bravo at WrestleMania V on April 2, 1989. He then went on to feud with Greg Valentine. After a televised match between the two on April 22, 1989, which Garvin won, Valentine was interviewed immediately afterwards and challenged Garvin a retirement match the next week, which Valentine won. Garvin soon started portraying a referee, but during matches, he would fight with the wrestlers who would not listen to his orders, such as Dino Bravo and the Brooklyn Brawler. Despite warnings by WWF president Jack Tunney, Garvin punched Valentine during his match against Jimmy Snuka, which led to him being banned from refereeing.
At SummerSlam, Garvin served as special ring announcer for Valentine's match against Hercules. Garvin stated during his foe's introduction that Valentine was underweighing himself by 30 pounds, and had two left feet. When Valentine pinned Hercules with his feet on the ropes, Garvin announced Hercules as the winner. Valentine knocked him out of the ring, but Garvin came back and punched him out. Irate at Garvin's antics, Valentine asked that Garvin be reinstated so that he could get his hands on him. For the next four months, the two had house show matches all over the country, trading victories in the process. The two then battled at the 1990 Royal Rumble in a submission match, which Garvin won to end the feud. Before that match, at Survivor Series 1989, Garvin competed in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series elimination match, where he was a member of The 4x4s (Jim Duggan, Bret Hart, Garvin and Hercules), but they were defeated by The King's Court (Randy Savage, Canadian Earthquake, Dino Bravo and Greg Valentine). After his feud ended with Valentine, Garvin was about to feud with Rick Martel. They cut promos on each other, but a televised match between the two never happened. They did, however, wrestle at house shows. Garvin left the WWF in November 1990.