Wrestler Jimmy (Superfly) Snuka Dead At 73

Jimmy (Superfly) Snuka, the high-flying wrestling legend who spent his last years battling criminal charges, died Sunday — just days after getting a murder charge dropped in the decades-old death of his mistress. He was 73.

Dwayne Johnson, the actor formerly known as WWE star The Rock, broke the news on behalf of Snuka’s daughter Tamina.

“Our family @TaminaSnuka asked me to share the sad news that her dad Jimmy Snuka has just passed away. Alofa atu i le aiga atoa,” Johnson tweeted, using a Samoan phrase translating to “Love the family.”

The daughter, herself a WWE star, posted an Instagram photo of her holding her father's frail hands.

“I LOVE YOU DAD,” she said.

WWE stars chimed in with praise for their fallen fighter. “RIP Superfly,” Hulk Hogan tweeted. “Only love.”

The WWE, which cut ties with Snuka after his murder charge and deleted his page from its website, confirmed his death in a terse statement calling him “the pioneer of high-flying offense.”

The cause of death was not immediately announced. Snuka, who died in Pompano Beach, Fla., had been battling terminal stomach cancer and dementia.

The one-time ring king saw charges dismissed Jan. 3 for the 1983 death of his mistress Nancy Argentino in a Pennsylvania hotel room. He evaded charges for more than 30 years until a local newspaper raised fresh questions about whether Snuka told the truth in the case.

Born James Wiley Smith in Fiji, Snuka grew up in Hawaii, started wrestling in the ’70s and joined the company then known as the World Wrestling Federation in 1982.

Stepping into the ring with Tarzan garb and bare feet, Snuka soon drew fame for his acrobatic battling style.

His signature move, the Superfly Splash, saw him climbing to the top of the ropes, stretching out his hair and flinging his body onto an opponent. His splash from the top of a 15-foot steel cage in Madison Square Garden, in 1983, remains one of the WWE’s most famous moments.

Snuka jumped between the WWE and other wrestling leagues through the late ’90s and made occasional forays back into the ring as late as 2014. The WWE inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1996.

Outside the ring, he fought a cocaine habit — and lingering rumors about his role in Argento’s death.

The married man’s 23-year-old girlfriend had been found dead in an Allentown hotel bed in May 1983, her body covered in cuts and bruises. Her death was ruled an accident, something Snuka supported in interviews and in his 2012 memoir “Superfly.”

But a 2013 report in Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper noted that an autopsy ruled Argentino's death a homicide, and that Snuka gave conflicting statements to police about what happened to her.

According to police records, Snuka told detectives Argentino slipped and hit her head. But he told a responding police officer he shoved her.

Snuka was charged in 2015 with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

But Snuka’s failing health brought the case to a halt. In June 2016, Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach declared the wrestler incompetent to stand trial. By the end of the year, Snuka’s doctor said his battle with cancer left him with only months to live.

The charge was dismissed three days into 2017. No other suspects have been named in Argentino’s death.

Remarking on the case last year, Banach said, “Justice suffers after 30 years because everything decays.”

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