Jimmy Snuka

From 1973-78, he and Dutch Savage won six NWA Pacific Northwest tag team titles.

Entered the WWF as a "heel" in 1982, managed by Capt. Lou Albano, and quickly began a bloody feud with WWF World Champion Bob Backlund. It culminated in a steel cage match that June at Madison Square Garden in New York. Snuka had Backlund badly beaten and attempted to leap off the top of the cage (in executing his trademark Superfly leap) onto a prone Backlund. However, Backlund moved out of the way at the last second, and Snuka crashed to the mat. As he writhed in pain on the mat and held his stomach, Backlund easily held him for a three count by the referee, and stepped out of the cage still the WWF Heavyweight champ..

Jimmy Snuka is a classic example of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (formerly known as World Wrestling Federation (WWF)) bad guy who became a baby-face (a good guy) without trying. Originally a "heel", he came into the WWE under the guidance of heel manager Capt. Lou Albano. After receiving many title shots at the WWE Championship, which he never won, the final match between he and then-WWE Champion Bob Backlund was in Madison Square Garden in the famous "Steel Cage Match", in which Snuka did his trademark "Superfly Splash" off the top of the steel cage. Snuka attracted many fans with his acrobatic wrestling style. Soon he broke away from Albano and became a face. However, this wouldn't be the last time Snuka would see Albano, who brought in Snuka's former Mid-Atlantic tag team partner Ray Stevens to feud with him. With Albano in Stevens' corner, Snuka brought in former WWE Champion and WWE competitor "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers as his manager. At the top of his game after a year in the WWE, Snuka would face a personal crisis that haunted him for the next few years. In 1983, after he finished his last match, his girlfriend Nancy Argentino was found semi-conscious next to a sleeping Snuka. Argentino died at the nearby hospital. In court it was ruled that the death was accidental. After recovering from his girlfriend's death, Snuka's real shot at fame was when he feuded with Don Muraco, a former WWE Champion. In another famous "Steel Cage Match", Snuka faced Muraco but lost. However, he had gotten the last laugh by dragging Muraco back inside the cage, and that's when Superfly's proudest moment came. He climbed up to the top of the 20-foot steel cage and executed his "Superfly Splash". This became one of the most memorable moments in WWE history. Both wrestling veterans Mick Foley and Tommy Dreamer were there when it happened. Both also shot to fame in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), which Superfly first started and he later became the first ECW Champ (during that time it was formerly known as Eastern Championship Wrestling). Another fan favorite highlight came along when Snuka started feuding with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, which Piper called Snuka a "big shot" and a "monkey". After Snuka came out confronting Piper, Piper smashed Superfly's head with an actual coconut. The story line went through the first WrestleMania when Snuka was managing Hulk Hogan and TV veteran Mr. T in the main even against Piper and Paul Orndorff. With Snuka in Hogan and Mr. T's corner, Piper and Orndoff had Bob Orton. After a stint of alcohol/drugs rehab, Snuka went back into wrestling, but this time, in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) where he became a tag team partner with another wrestling veteran, Verne Gagne.

One of the most memorable moments in his career came in July of 1984, when Roddy Piper smashed a coconut over his head during a broadcast of "WWF Championship Wrestling;" Piper was already insulting the Fiji superstar. This incident sparked a memorable and personal feud between them.

After AWA, he went back into the WWE in 1989, to help younger wrestlers who would also become legends such as "Mr. Perfect" 'Curt Cunning' and "Ravishing" Rick Rude.

Then 1991, he started to feud with a much younger Mark Calaway (aka "The Undertaker) and lost to 'Taker at Wrestlemania VII, marking Snuka the first victim of Undertaker's 14-0 winning streak. After leaving WWE the same year, Snuka started touring with smaller wrestling promotions and also began working again with ECW, alongside Don Muraco and wrestling legend, Terry Funk.

In 1992 he was the very first ECW Heavyweight champion. At the time, the initials stood for Eastern Championship Wrestling; later it was re-named Extreme Championship Wrestling. He beat Wildman Bellomo in a final in Philadelphia and held the title for just one day, as he lost it to Johnny Hotbody the following evening.

He made an appearance on WCW Monday Nitro (1995), taking on Jeff Jarrett in a steel cage match. He lost the match but managed to deliver his famous "Superfly Leap" off the cage onto Jarrett.

Then in 1996, Snuka's biggest moment of his life came.

He became part of the class of 1996 to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He also was inducted with legends such as his former manager, Lou Albano, 'Killer Kowaski', and 'Pat Patterson'. He was inducted by former rival, Don Muraco. Recently, Superfly showed up at the WWE Homecoming, and was chosen by the fans that he would team up with newcomer Eugene (Nick Dinsmore), on Taboo Tuesday in a non-title tag team match against Rob Conway and Chris Master. Both Superfly and Eugene won by pin-fall when Snuka did his signature "Superfly Splash".

Still wrestles occasionally at independent wrestling shows. [2004]

In July 2014, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He had surgery which removed about three-fourths of his stomach, some lymph nodes and a section of his large intestine. It is believed that the anesthesia may have accelerated his dementia.

In January 2017 Lehigh County (PA) Judge Kelly Banach dropped all charges against him in the 1983 death of his girlfriend Nancy Argentino. Snuka was judged to be incompetent to stand trial due to medical records showing he was suffering from dementia and showing symptoms of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), the result of repeated head trauma. In December 2016 Snuka had been moved from in-home hospice to in-hospital hospice.