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July 30, 2013
I have incomplete, but I believe largely accurate, information on a controversial promotional appearance by Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, along with other WWE performers, at the Midnight Mania event of the Circle Hyundai car dealership in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, on July 1. The incident is significant because it points to how the new bad press surrounding Snuka’s role in the 1983 death in Pennsylvania of his girlfriend Nancy Argentino is beginning to affect the image of the 70-year-old Snuka as he settles into retirement in the Garden State.
Circle Hyundai’s widely publicized event did come off, as scheduled, and I’m pretty sure that Snuka was part of it, as advertised. However, a source told me that the owners of Circle Hyundai received beforehand at least one complaining call from a local woman who had read the story in Cherry Hill’s Courier-Post, by Randy Miller, detailing how Argentino’s mysterious death — which many believe was unindicted manslaughter — had cast a shadow over both the last three decades of Snuka’s life and his future legacy as a WWE Hall of Famer.
The female caller (whose name I got but have been unable to confirm) reportedly threatened to picket the Circle Hyundai event. But either she didn’t carry through or the whole thing got no coverage.
Circle Hyundai’s Donald DeFelice, Paul DeFelice, and Robert DeFelice have not responded to Concussion Inc.’s email and phone requests for comment. The WWE office has not responded to my question on whether it routinely books appearances for former stars Snuka, Marty Jannetty, King Kong Bundy, Nikolai Volkoff, and others, and whether it specifically handled the Circle Hyundai gig.
Irv Muchnick