James Manley

is an American retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name Jim Powers He is best known for his appearances with WWE from 1987 to 1994 Manley was born in Washington Heights Manhattan and grew up watching wrestling at Madison Square Garden Jim Powers returned to wrestling for an independent promoter on March 9 2007 Since returning to wrestling Powers has wrestled for several independent based organizations and has appeared pairing back up with Young Stallions partner Paul Roma at several wrestling fan fests meeting his fans and signing their autographs In 2007 Powers was contacted by WWE to be a part of their developmental territory and train wrestlers there Despite meeting facetoface with WWE booker John Laurinaitis Powers never received a contract with the promotion Powers said in recent interviews that he almost left his thencurrent job to work with the WWE and also said Laurinaitis told him there werent any places available in the developmental territories but would call him if there was one Powers said Laurinaitis repeated this so many times he didnt believe him anymore On November 15 2008 he defeated Johnny LeDoux at FCW Broken Bones 2008 He then embarked on the Wrestling Legends Tour 2009 facing Joe E Legend and Tatanka in March 2009 After a fourteenyear absence he had appeared on several shows in 1995 Powers rejoined NWA New Jersey Teaming with Danny Inferno as the tagteam Fire Power the duo defeated The Spirit Squad Kenny Dykstra and Mike Mondo to win the NWA New Jersey TagTeam Championship Powers final appearances came at IWF Winter Warfare for the Independent Wrestling Federation His last match saw him team with Chachi to defeat Chris Steeler Damian Adams on January 23 2010 in West Paterson New Jersey On February 3 2010 Powers announced his retirement In 2012 Powers was hospitalized and had two hip surgeries In July 2016 Manley was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that the company concealed the risks of injury The suit is litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant dismissed the lawsuit in September 2018 Powers has been a resident of East Rutherford New Jersey