By Geno McGahee
In the 1980s, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka was a very big deal and was the biggest star that the WWE/WWF had in the pre Hulk Hogan era. The character that the audience saw in the ring was far different than the Snuka that the people closest to him encountered and we learn a lot about the man that was Snuka in the documentary DARK SIDE OF THE RING: JIMMY SNUKA AND THE DEATH OF NANCY ARGENTINO.
During the time in the WWE/WWF in the eighties, Snuka was a head case and was treated like one. He was given a handler to bring him back and forth to the arenas. That duty was eventually given to a girl that he met at the shows, Nancy Argentino. At the time he began dating her, he was still married with children and leading a double life. He also had a cocaine habit and a rage problem that was showing up with more regularity.
Snuka had a run-in with the law from a domestic incident where he beat Argentino, dragged her through hotel hallway by her hair and then beat some police officers and police dogs before he was eventually arrested. He got a slap on the wrist and continued his wrestling career and relationship with his girlfriend, but things would go sour in 1983 when she would end up dead in a hotel room and Snuka would be suspected in the death.
Despite the evidence against the Superfly, this case disappeared and many point to Vince McMahon as the reason why. In Snuka’s book, he noted a meeting where Vince came to a meeting with a suitcase, presumably full of money, and the implication is that the authorities were paid off to bury the case.
In DARK SIDE OF THE RING: JIMMY SNUKA AND THE DEATH OF NANCY ARGENTINO, we learn a lot about the case, the time where Snuka was the WWE/WWF’s biggest attraction, and the long road that the Argentino family took to try to get justice for their murdered loved one. This series is amazing and done incredibly well. I can’t get enough of this show. I highly recommend this if you’re a wrestling fan or just a fan of true crime shows like DATELINE.
