"Superfly" Jimmy Snuka
| Jimmy Snuka | |
|---|---|
Snuka in 2011
|
|
| Birth name | James Wiley Smith |
| Born |
May 18, 1943 Suva, Fiji |
| Died | January 15, 2017 (aged 73) Pompano Beach, Florida, United States |
| Cause of death | Stomach cancer |
| Spouse(s) | Sharon Snuka (divorced) Carole Snuka (m. 2004; his death 2017) |
| Children | 4, including Deuce and Tamina |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Jimmy Snuka Jimmy Kealoha Lani Kealoha Tami Snuka The Superfly Big Snuka Great Snuka |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Billed weight | 243 lb (110 kg) |
| Billed from | The Fiji Islands |
| Trained by | Danny Hodge |
| Debut | 1968 |
| Retired | 2015 |
James Reiher Snuka (born James Wiley Smith; May 18, 1943 – January 15, 2017), better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, was a Fijian professional wrestler and actor.
Snuka wrestled for several promotions from the 1970s to 2010s. He was best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in the early to mid-1980s and was credited with introducing the high-flying style of wrestling to the WWF. He was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1996. Snuka was the inaugural ECW Heavyweight Champion (a title he held twice) in Eastern Championship Wrestling (later Extreme Championship Wrestling). His children, Jimmy Reiher, Jr. and Tamina Snuka, are also wrestlers.
Snuka was indicted and arrested in September 2015 on third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, in relation to the May 1983 death of his girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, who died from injuries a coroner described as consistent with domestic violence. In the decades before the criminal charges, Argentino's suspected homicide was a cold case in which Snuka was the only suspect. Snuka pleaded not guilty, but was ultimately found unfit to stand trial in June 2016 due to being diagnosed with dementia. His health further declined, and in December 2016 his legal representative announced he had six months left to live due to his terminal illness. The charges were dismissed on January 3, 2017, when Snuka was deemed unfit to stand trial. He died twelve days later.
Snuka was born in Fiji on May 18, 1943 to Louisa Smith and Charles Thomas. Thomas was married to another woman, and Smith was engaged to Bernard Reiher. Before Snuka was born, his mother married Reiher. As a child, Snuka moved with his family to the Marshall Islands and then to Hawaii.
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