James Manley (born January 4, 1958) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Jim Powers.

[5] Powers was discovered and brought into the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in late 1984 by Big John Studd who also had a hand in training him.

He then made his televised debut on the December 8, 1984, edition of Georgia Championship Wrestling, teaming with Jose Luis Rivera in a match against Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik.

While still working for World Class, Powers made a one off return at a house show in Wildwood, NJ on August 3, 1985, facing Jim Neidhart.

He formally jumped back to the promotion on September 9, 1985, teaming with SD Jones in a losing effort to The Bobby Heenan Family (Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy) in a match that aired on Championship Wrestling on October 5th.

Powers would wrestle almost exclusively on television tapings for the remainder of the year, facing Adrian Adonis, Gino Carabello, The Hart Foundation, The Dream Team, and others in losing efforts.

[9] Powers gained his first victory in his return on March 1, 1986 when he defeated Barry O on Prime Time Wrestling in Baltimore, MD.

Five days later he wrestled three times on another house show in Sunbury, PA, defeating Rene Goulet and AJ Petrucci and also participating in a nine man battle royal.

[11] He arguably reached the peak of his career in the WWF when Powers, on March 11, 1987, along with another preliminary wrestler Paul Roma, formed a tag team called The Young Stallions.

[17] The team was dominant and announcer Bobby Heenan was stunned when Roma unleashed an off the top rope sunset flip.

That night Powers scored perhaps the greatest upset of his career to date when he pinned the future WWF World Champion.

[19] That momentum seemed to end in January 1988 when the Stallions faced The Islanders in a best two out of three falls match in the final bout of the inaugural Royal Rumble.

From this point on, he was unable to move up the card, although he narrowly lost to Jerry Lawler in April 1993 on WWF Monday Night Raw and defeated Repo Man on house shows.

His final television appearances came in July 1994, when he faced Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett on WWF Superstars and Wrestling Challenge.

Powers ended his WWF career on a winning streak, defeating Abe Schwartz at Madison Square Garden on October 29 and again in Scranton, Pennsylvania the following night.

[21] A month later on July 20 at the Silo Nightclub in Reading, Pennsylvania, he faced former nemesis Jeff Jarrett for the vacated PCW Americas Championship.

Two days, Powers returned the favor, gaining the PCW Americas championship after defeating Jarrett on July 22 in Wind Gap, PA.[23] Powers joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW), making his initial appearance on the June 10, 1996 WCW Monday Nitro in Wheeling, West Virginia in a match against Diamond Dallas Page.

Six days later he appeared in the live pre-show for the Great American Bash, which aired on Main Event, this time losing to VK Wallstreet.

He was scouted and then managed for a brief time by Teddy Long as well as being scheduled to form a mid-card stable with “Desperado" Joe Gomez and The Renegade but nothing ever came of it.

On July 22, the Teddy Long stable of Powers, Gomez, Renegade, and Alex Wright defeated The Dungeon of Doom quartet of Kevin Sullivan, The Leprechaun (Buddy Lee Parker), Hugh Morrus, and The Barbarian.

[25] Still managed by Teddy Long, Powers entered 1997 by facing Hugh Morrus on the January 6th episode of Monday Nitro in Monroe, LA, but was defeated.

[27] Now a singles wrestler, Powers then earned his first individual victory in over a year when he defeated Horshu on the February 17 episode of WCW Saturday Night.

Powers said in recent interviews that he almost left his then-current job to work with the WWE, and also said Laurinaitis told him there weren't any places available in the developmental territories, but would call him if there was one.