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Jimmy Snuka

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Jimmy Snuka
BornMay 18, 1943
Fiji Islands
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)The Big Snuka
Superfly Snuka
Jimmy Snuka
Jimmy Kealoha
Lani Kealoha
The Great Snuka
Billed height6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Billed weight244 lb (111 kg)
Trained byDanny Hodge
Debut1969
Retired1993

James Reiher (born May 18, 1943 in Fiji) is an American professional wrestler, especially popular in the 1980s as Superfly Jimmy Snuka.

Career

His nickname "Superfly" apparently came from his acrobatic skills and moves, including his signature wrestling move, where Snuka would leave his stunned opponent laying on the mat, and then Snuka would climb on to a corner of the ring's ropes, stand up, and dive face down, landing on the opponent in pin position (unless the opponent revived and moved out of the way).

Jimmy Snuka (the character), like Reiher, was from Fiji. He would wrestle barefoot. He popularized the "I Love You" gesture, which he displayed as he jumped from the ropes in his signature move.

Equal parts athlete and showman, he was a favorite in professional wrestling. He was also successful, winning the Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW) Heavyweight title five times and the PNW Tag Team Championship six times. Snuka went on to wrestle in several other National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) regions.

In March 1980 Snuka entered the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a heel under the guidance of Captain Lou Albano. Snuka received several title shots at WWF champion Bob Backlund, the final being a famous steel cage match in which Snuka leaped from the top of the cage barely missing Backlund who managed to escape for the win. Even though Snuka was a heel, the Northeast fans started to cheer on Snuka and his athletic style. Eventually, Snuka and Albano split ways and Snuka became a face . Albano would bring in Snuka's former Mid Atlantic tag team partner Ray Stevens, to feud with him. Former Champion "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers became Snuka's manager. Rogers had also managed Snuka in the Mid Atlantic. Snuka was the top draw at the beginning of Vince McMahon's expansion and was a candidate for what would become Hulk Hogan's role in the company, but out of the ring issues and lack of mic skills relegated him to the midcard.

In 1983, Snuka encountered a personal crisis that would haunt him for many years to come. On May 10, 1983, after finishing his last match at the WWF TV taping at the Lehigh County Agricultural Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Snuka became the focal point of an investigation regarding the suspicious death of his girlfriend Nancy Argentino. In the early hours the morning after the Allentown event, Argentino was discovered semi-conscious in a hotel room next to a sleeping Snuka. Various accounts of the cause came to light from alleged abuse to a slip and fall caused by intoxication. Argentino was taken to nearby hospital and later died of a skull fracture. The death was ruled accidental.

After a few months of recovery from the loss of his girlfriend, Snuka's most famous career moment occurred in October 1983 when he fought longtime rival "Magnificent" Don Muraco in a steel cage match in Madison Square Garden in New York City. The match ended in a loss for the Superfly but he managed to drag Muraco back into the ring and this time connect with his most famous Superfly Splash ever off the top of the steel cage at MSG. This single act cemented Jimmy Snuka as the top WWF wrestler of 1983 as well as led the way for today's generation of high fliers in the squared circle. WWE superstar Mick Foley and ECW Star Tommy Dreamer were both in attendance at the event and both attribute this match as the reason they decided to aggressively pursue professional wrestling.

The following year began another highlight in his career with his fan favorite year long feud with "Rowdy Roddy Piper". After a segment on Piper's Pit where Piper was berating Jimmy by calling him a "big shot" and "monkey", Piper proceeded to smash a real coconut on Jimmy's head when he turned his back momentarily. This was followed by a beating with a belt and further humiliation before the WWF cut to a commercial. Their matches were played out over venues across the US and concluded with Snuka managing Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against Piper and Paul Orndorff (with Bob Orton in their corner) at the first ever WrestleMania in 1985.

After a stint in alcohol/drug rehab, Snuka resurfaced in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) replacing the injured Jerry Blackwell as Greg Gagne's partner in a tag team match against Bruiser Brody and Nord the Barbarian at WrestleRock '86. Snuka would split his time between the AWA and Japan throughout 1986 and 1987. His most notable feud in the AWA during that time was with Col. DeBeers (Ed Wiskoski).

Like many aging veterans before him, Snuka re-emerged to the WWF in 1989 to help put over younger stars, like Curt Hennig and Rick Rude. In 1991, he was the also first PPV singles opponent for The Undertaker who would be a top contender in the WWE for many years to come.

After leaving the WWF in 1991, Jimmy toured with various smaller organizations in the early 90's and played a role in the formation of Paul Heyman's ECW (Eastern Championship Wrestling) organization along with Don Muraco and Terry Funk. Snuka was ECW's first heavyweight champion and toured with the company in arguably the best shape of his life.

He was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1996. He also continued to spend much of his time with East Coast wrestling organizations through the late 1990's and into the 2000's. Snuka received a lifetime achievement award from the WWE in 2002 at Madison Square Garden and began to be thrust into skits by the WWE in 2004/2005.

In 2005, he appeared at the WWE Homecoming, in which he delivered a Superfly Splash to Rob Conway. He also took part in a backstage skit, chasing after a partially disrobed Mae Young with a wad of Ted DiBiase's money. He was a part of the 2005 Taboo Tuesday pay-per-view, where fans voted for him (ahead of Kamala and Jim Duggan) to team with Eugene against Rob Conway and Tyson Tomko. Snuka won the match, pinning Conway after a superfly splash.

Snuka continues to work in nostalgia bits for WWE as well as work for U.S. independent shows and conventions well into his 60's and seems to have no plans to retire. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife Carol. Superfly is truely a legend. 

 ==The Founding Father of Ring Intensity?==   
   
From what history has shown the wrestling world, Jimmy Snuka was indeed the founding father of modern-day extreme level ring intensity.  The definition of ==intensity== is energy flux.   If you were to watch a whole history of wrestling videos of every single year, decade after decade, you will see that it was Snuka who started modern-day high-speed and high-energy ring intensity, and really was the person who helped build a great future of ring intensity for many of the modern-day wrestlers like Mick Foley, The Rock, Raven, Tommy Dreamer, Rikishi, Shane McMahon, Sabu, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, and the later careers of Terry Funk, Von Erich family, Randy Savage, ECW and even Ricky Steamboat; in fact, Snuka's ring intensity was even the kind of intensity Ricky Steamboat would later show to the world in his epic matches with Randy Savage and Ric Flair. The definition of intensity really has a lot to due with energy vectors and how their velocity (speed and direction) and magnitudes work. Snuka truly was the first wrestler to use a lot of speed- from what archives will show you- while performing in the ring by running with high speed in specific directions in the wrestling ring before his entire body, and its size, would splash and nail his opponents with great power, and could do it no matter the opponent's size, large or small, and could even take down the very large David Schultz and nail him with great power during some matches in 1984 as well; this is not really only one's point of view, but is also proven through the observance of an entire list of Snuka's very intense matches with Bob Backlund and Don Muraco he had between 1982 and 1983. If you watch these matches, you will see that Snuka did indeed take ring performances to levels they had never even been before and showed himself to be the founding father of modern day ring intensity- which is the kind of ring intensity Paul Heyman based ECW to be- from the risky-business moves he displayed in the ring, and could probably even out-master a giant, tree-climbling gorilla in some ways to from what he had shown to the fans in these matches, such as still performing with great speed and velocity against Bob Backlund and Don Muraco- whom he could even splash and defeat after even building suspense with the fans by flashing them the "I love you" sign- even after he got injured after barely failing to splash Bob Backlund from atop a steel cage in 1982. It is not only through one's point of view, but is proven logically after watching many various old wrestling videos and studying their every move, compared to now-a-days Mick Foley and Terry Funk risky actions, where it is proven that Jimmy Snuka indeed was the Founding Father of Modern Day Ring Intensity- from which ECW was based upon, in order to gain viewers- and its current-day concept; Snuka proved this by giving Bob Backlund the matches of his life with modern-day ring intensity, speed, and energy even after he even got greatly injured after barely failing to splash Bob Backlund. Snuka still continued to show this great intensity, that ECW later followed, in his 1983 list of successful matches with Don Muraco too, and boasted it further by splashing Don Muraco from atop a steel cage on October 17, 1983.

- - Snuka didn't win this cage match, but his feud with Don Muraco also showed that the intensity he used against Bob Backlund in 1982 was now even more dominant over his opponents and was now also shown to be at a greater energy performance level than it ever was before. This explained why Rowdy Roddy Piper had a good reason to envy Snuka the following year on Piper's Pit as well. This classic wrestling feud between Snuka and Piper can really all begin with the way Piper was obviously not letting him speak on Piper's Pit due to envy of Snuka's unique modern-day intensity. Not that Toombs in anyway showed envy towards Snuka in real live, but it was really creative for the WWE to make his very hated wrestling character Rowdy Roddy Piper feud with him out of jealously as well. The Ultimate Warrior has proven to be wrong when he claims he is "Your Founding Father of Ring Intensity," when Snuka showed in his early 1982 and 1983 WWE videos that he founded high velocity mph speed and impact before Warrior even debuted as a wrestler in 1985; this is not bias due to the fact that it is the truth that what Warrior has said on his website is false, and he had no right to say this without even checking through the history of wrestling.

Trivia

  • Snuka was the first ECW World Heavyweight Champion. (The ECW referenced here stands for "Eastern Championship Wrestling", the Philadelphia, PA promotion run by Tod Gordon and predecessor of what would become Extreme Championship Wrestling in mid-1994.)
  • Snuka is the uncle of The Rock, Rikishi, Umaga, Rosey, and Samu the Headshrinker.
  • Snuka was at one time married to The Rock's aunt.
  • Snuka's popular "I Love You" hand gesture was incorporated into hip-hop culture in the early 1980s.
  • Snuka was the first "victim" to the The Undertaker's undefeated Wrestlemania winning streak. He is also partially, if not entirely, responsible for the Undertaker being known as the "Phenom". During his Wrestlemania match with the Undertaker, Gorilla Monsoon referred to Snuka as "The Phenom, Superfly Jimmy Snuka."

finishing & signature moves

Championships/Accomplishments

National Wrestling Alliance

American Wrestling Association

World Class Championship Wrestling

Eastern/Extreme Championship Wrestling

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • 1981 Tag Team of the Year (with Terry Gordy)
  • 1981 Best Flying Wrestler

Other titles

  • 1-Time WWWA Heayvweight Champion
  • 1-Time USA Pro Heavyweight Champion
  • 1-Time Tri-State Heavyweight Champion
  • 1-Time USA New York Champion
  • Member of WWE Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996)
  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him #29 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003. He was also ranked #41 of the best tag teams during the "PWI Years" with Ray Stevens.
  • Snuka won the PWI Tag Team of the Year Award in 1980 with Ray Stevens and the 1983 PWI Most Popular Wrestler Award. He was involved in the 1982 Match of the Year (vs. Bob Backlund).
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