Allen returned to the World Wrestling Federation in early 1988 as Bad News Brown, and it was during this time that he achieved his greatest notoriety. While the roster was mostly filled with ultra-virtuous babyfaces and cowardly and monster heels, Bad News was something entirely different; a tough loner who stood on his own and fought to his last breath. While other heels had hitherto largely displayed some form of affinity to one another, Bad News was reclusive; as such, he respected nobody - not even the other heels - as he showed when abandoning his teams at the Survivor Series of 1988 and 1989. Some memorable moments from his WWF tenure included winning the battle royal at WrestleMania IV by eliminating Bret Hart after a sneak attack, a brief feud with then-champion Randy Savage in early 1989 which led to matches in the main event, feuding with Roddy Piper (starting before the 1990 Royal Rumble and culminating at WrestleMania VI) and with Jake "The Snake" Roberts (where Bad News had a sewer rat against Jake's snake) and attacking WWF President Jack Tunney on The Brother Love Show. Bad News also had a brief run challenging Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship. Bad News eventually left the WWF after SummerSlam 1990, claiming Vince McMahon failed to live up to his promise to make him the company's first black champion.
As written in the autobiography of the Dynamite Kid, his well-known toughness was accentuated in a confrontation involving André the Giant, who had made a racist comment on a tour bus for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Coage overheard it and made the driver stop the bus, walking off and yelling at the Giant to get off and fight him one on one. In one of the few times anyone can remember him backing down from someone, André did not move from his seat and later apologized for the remark.