Jimmy Snuka

James Wiley Heron ( born May 18, 1943 in Fiji as James Wiley Smith ) is a retired Fijian professional wrestler. He was primarily known by his ring name " Superfly " Jimmy Snuka. Heron is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame since 1996.

Career

Background in sports

Heron was bodybuilder before he was trained by Verne Gagne as a wrestler.

Beginnings / National Wrestling Alliance

He made his debut in 1969 in the rather late age of 26 years in Hawaii. In the following years he performed in various regions of the Federation NWA before he came 1982 on the World Wrestling Federation.

Heron Wrestling style was very influenced by Samoan wrestling. However, he also ruled, for his time, technically sophisticated actions and above all, various jumps from the corner posts of the ring which should make him stand out from the crowd.

World Wrestling Federation

In the former World Wrestling Federation heron quickly became a contender to the WWF Championship title, which was held at this time by Bob Backlund. One of their matches took place in a ring surrounded by a steel cage instead. Herons rose to the top of the cage and jumped from there to the fallen Backlund. Although he missed the title holder and lost the match, but his notoriety increased tremendously by this action. The match was elected by the critical wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated match of the year.

At that time acted as a villain with Lou Albano heron as a manager. But he was so popular with fans that the WWF leadership was forced to make him a crowd favorite. However, the WWF Champion title was denied to him in his entire career. This was due to his lack of skills on the mic and some incidents behind the scenes. Other well-known feuds heron took place against Don "The Rock" Muraco and Roddy Piper. In the course of Muraco feud he jumped his Superfly Splash from a 5 m high steel cage. In 1985, he appeared as an accompaniment of Hulk Hogan and Mr. T in the main fight of the very first Wrestlemania before he left the WWF in August of this year.

American Wrestling Association / National Wrestling Alliance

After he took from 1986 to early 1989 for the American Wrestling Association, he came in March of the year back to the WWF. Henceforth, he helped new superstars to be known, as well as the Undertaker Mark Calaway became known as 1991 at Wrestlemania VII, when he had to lose to him.

NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling

1992 NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling was founded and herons became the first NWA ECW Heavyweight Champion. In total, he held that title twice before he had given the title after a feud with Don Muraco to this program. Herons left the promotion in 1993.

Independent / guest appearances

Then herons appeared in legend matches in independent promotions and nowadays rare.

In 1996 he was part of the Survivor Series team of Savio Vega, Yokozuna and also belonged to the Flash radio. Their opponents were Fake Diesel Fake Razor Ramon, Farrooq and Vader. It succeeded herons Fake Razor Ramon to eliminate, but the match ended in a no contest after that.

At Royal Rumble 2008, he took part in the 30 Men Battle Royal. He came as number 18 in the ring, but was shortly afterwards eliminated by Kane.

2009 was Snuka part of WrestleMania XXV. Along with Roddy Piper and Ricky Steamboat he took, accompanied by Ric Flair, in a 1 on 3 Handicap Match in the elimination - style against Chris Jericho in part and was eliminated first.

Achievements

  • National Wrestling Alliance
  • Extreme Championship Wrestling
  • 2x NWA ECW Heavyweight Champion
  • 1x ECW Television Champion
  • Other titles and awards

Others

  • Heron is the son of an affair of Louisa Vitu Smith and Charles Thomas, but his mother, Bernard herons, which was Jimmy's stepfather married. His real father, he first learned as a teenager know.
  • Heron is the adoptive father of wrestler James Reiher Jr., under his former ring name Sim Snuka is better known in WWE and was under contract. His daughter Sarona Reiher is currently under the ring name Tamina Snuka at WWE contract.
  • He is considered to blood brotherhood as a " cousin " or " uncle" the Samoan wrestler Afa the Wild Samoan family in order, because the blood brotherhood among the peoples of the South Seas still has a great importance. Both, however, are not related to each other, but come from different tribal groups.
  • Snuka is said to have killed the 1983 groupie Nancy Argentino in noise. The case has not been clearly clarified. To his disadvantage was Snuka from a monster push, the WWE was because of this case, Hulk Hogan.
  • He inspired Mick Foley, wrestler to be.
Jimmy Reiher, Jr.
428404
de