Superfly: the Jimmy Snuka story

241 Pages·2012·184.691 MB·English

by  Snuka, Jimmy;Chattman, Jon

Praise for
Jimmy “suPerfly” snuka
“The Jimmy Snuka legacy will always be not what he did in the
ring but what he did above the ring. His body splash off the top
of a steel cage is the most impressive move I’ve ever seen. It was
his signature. Others tried it. Mick Foley. Shawn Michaels. Even
Hulk Hogan tried to splash the Big Boss Man from the top of the
cage. But nobody—and I mean nobody—could do it as gracefully
and effectively as Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka.”
—Mean Gene Okerlund, WWE announcer and Hall of Famer
“I can’t say Jimmy Snuka is the best of all time, but he was the
best of his time. At that point, wrestling needed somebody like
him, and what he brought to the table was blowing fans’ minds.
He wasn’t a rushed wrestler. He took his time, but he knew when
to do the high-flying spots. There has never been anybody like
him. The Jeff Hardys and RVDs are awesome wrestlers, but there
will never be another Jimmy Snuka. He’s one of a kind.”
—Kurt Angle, Impact Wrestling and
former WWE star and Olympic gold-medalist
“I was senior editor and photo editor at a pro wrestling magazine
when I first saw him. I hadn’t seen him in person, but when I saw
a picture of him in midair, high above the ring in a match against
‘Alaskan’ Jay York, I was amazed. I had never seen anyone like
this. We started running stories on him right away. When I did
meet him in New York, he was always grateful we ran a story. He
sold magazines whenever we put him on the cover.”
—Bill Apter, wrestling journalist
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“Jimmy was the only guy in the business who could watch
someone do something in the ring and then be able to go out
there and do the same thing.”
—Matt Borne, the original Doink the Clown
“Everyone would talk about Jimmy’s great athletic ability, but
workers within the industry always knew what a great wrestler he
was. He was a great draw wherever he went, whether he was a
babyface or a heel. I was fortunate to grow up in New York, and I
paid a lot of money to see Jimmy Snuka on the card.”
—Tommy Dreamer, former ECW, WWE, and TNA Wrestling star
“Look where he’s from, and look where he ended up. He was
one of the best workers in the business, and he did it the old-
fashioned way: he earned it. Nothing was given to him. He made
his own legacy.”
—Paul Orndorff, WWE Hall of Famer
“When Jimmy Snuka jumped off the cage, it made me do what I
want to do. I was a daredevil. I didn’t do any cliff jumping, but in
elementary school, I would always jump from the highest limb on
the tree. Snuka started all of that, and I can’t thank him enough.
He started something, and I’ve made my living off of it.”
—Jeff Hardy, TNA and former WWE star
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“I remember seeing Jimmy Snuka in his prime. He was my
favorite wrestler when I was a kid…. He’s the kind of guy who,
if you saw him at a bar, you’d just be like, ‘Hey Jimmy!’ He’s
got that vibe. There are not a lot of guys who were like that. He
had this earthy quality to him that’s so rare, and certainly fans
connected with that.”
—Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins founder/lead singer and
RESISTANCE Pro Wrestling creative director
“He had a mystery about him…well, it seemed that way when
I was 10. We, of course, used to imitate him and his signature
move from the top rope. I remember him being a ‘good guy’ but
you almost never knew what he was gonna do.”
—Constantine Maroulis, Tony-nominated
Broadway star and American Idol finalist
“My brother and I watched Jimmy Snuka wrestle on TV in North
Carolina in the 1970s, and we were obsessed with him. When
he would climb up to the top rope, we would howl, ‘From the
top rope…’ And then when he launched himself into the air
like a muscle-bound bat and crush some villainous opponent,
we’d scream, ‘Superfly!’ Then we’d pull old mattresses into the
backyard and have neighborhood smackdowns.”
—Clark Gregg, co-star of Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers
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suPerfly
The Jimmy snuka story
Jimmy Snuka
with Jon Chattman
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Copyright © 2012 by Jimmy Snuka and Jon Chattman
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys-
tem, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the publisher, Triumph Books LLC, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago,
Illinois 60610.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Snuka, Jimmy, 1943–
Superfly : the Jimmy Snuka story / Jimmy Snuka with Jon Chattman.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-60078-758-4 (hardback)
1. Snuka, Jimmy, 1943- 2. Wrestlers—Fiji—Biography. 3. Wrestlers—
United States—Biography. I. Chattman, Jon. II. Title.
GV1196.S68 2012
796.812092—dc23
[B]
2012027034
This book is available in quantity at special discounts for your group or
organization. For further information, contact:
Triumph Books LLC
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
[phone]
www.triumphbooks.com
Printed in U.S.A.
ISBN: 978-1-60078-758-4
Design by Amy Carter
Photos courtesy of the author and WWE unless otherwise indicated
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i would like To dedicaTe This book To
my beauTiful angel, my wife, my everyThing
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conTenTs
Foreword by Rowdy Roddy Piper xi
introduction by mick Foley xvii
Preface xxi
1. a Real-Life tarzan 1
2. Body of work 33
3: under the Bright Lights 75
4. homeward Bound 117
5: Gaining my independence 135
6: a new Lease on Life 153
Epilogue 177
afterword by Carole Snuka 181
appendices 185
acknowledgments 207
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