James William "Jimmy" Reiher (May 18, 1943 – January 15, 2017) was a Fijian professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Originally from Fiji, Snuka wrestled for several promotions in the 1970s and 1980s. Snuka was the first NWA ECW Heavyweight Champion
and held the title on two occasions. He is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the early to mid-1980s and is credited with introducing the high-flyer style of wrestling to the WWF. His children Jimmy Reiher, Jr. (Deuce of Deuce N Domino) and Sarona Reiher (Tamina Snuka) are also wrestlers. He has competed for WWE, ECW, various National Wrestling Alliance territories, the AWA, All Japan Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, AAA, FMW, Juggalo Championship Wrestling, and MANY, MANY independents and other promotions around the world.
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996, but he was removed from it when legal troubles cropped up (See Unperson below). After the charges were dropped and he passed away, he was seemingly put back in, though his bio remains removed from the WWE's Website.
Not to be confused with Super Fly.
"Brudda, these are tropes associated with the Superfly, brudda!":
- Arch-Enemy: Don Muraco, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Jesse "The Body" Ventura (in the Pacific Northwest Wrestling promotion in Portland)
- Bash Brothers: Had several tag team partners of note throughout his career, most notable probably being future enemy "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff whom he held the NWA Tag Team Titles with in the late 70s, and the infamous Bruiser Brody with whom he won the 1981 All Japan World Tag League, one of the most prestigious wrestling tournaments in the world.
- Biography: His autobiography, Superfly: The Jimmy Snuka Story.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: His promos are famous for A, barely making any sense; B, having only the flimsiest connection to whatever was going on in the story; and C, sounding awesome.
- Death from Above: The Superfly Splash - especially considering that, for a guy that used a top-rope move as a finisher, Snuka was not a small guy.
- Legacy Character: Has several currently in WWE - not only his daughter, Tamina, but The Usos, who are the sons of Rikishi but actually look and wrestle a lot more like Snuka.
- Power Stable:
- Rogers' Army in Mid-Atlantic, led by Buddy Rogers, who was replaced by Gene Anderson, who renamed it Anderson's Army.
- Hot Stuff International in ECW, led by Eddie Gilbert, which was renamed the Dangerous Alliance after Paul E. Dangerously joined forces with Gilbert.
- Devastation Inc. in USA Pro.
- Red Baron: "Superfly"
- Ring Oldies: He had his final wrestling match at age 71.
- Running Gag: There was a long stretch during the 1990s of him defeating The Metal Maniac every single time they faced each other in a variety of promotions.
- Tag Team: Several, as noted above with Paul Orndorff and Bruiser Brody, but also with Fabulous Freebird Terry Gordy, and Ray Stevens.
- The South Pacific Connection, with Ricky Steamboat.
- Un-person: He was arrested for the death of his girlfriend in September 2015note and, much like Hulk Hogan, the WWE was quick to terminate his contract and remove any references to him from their website. The case was dropped in January 2017 because he was diagnosed with dementia and declared unfit for trial, and he passed away shortly after. WWE.com would post an article about it, "WWE Hall Of Famer Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka passes away," effectively Re-Personing him posthumously.
- Unrelated Brothers: Bookers in the states would often bill Sivi Afi with some kind of relation to him.
- Wild Samoan: Not in the traditional "eat raw fish, speak in nothing but grunts, kill everything with my forehead" kind of way, but he was billed as a Pacific islander and acted as a strange speaking savage nonetheless.
- Wrestling Family: His son and daughter are wrestlers as well. Their mother (his second wife) is the daughter of a Samoan tribal chief who, like Peter Maivia, had become blood brothers with The Wild Samoans' father. Due to this, Afa, the patriarch of the Samoan Anoa'i wrestling family, counts the Snukas as members of the family as well.
