WCW Power Plant
The WCW Power Plant was a professional wrestling school in Atlanta, Georgia, owned and operated by World Championship Wrestling, a subsidairy of Time Warner.
The school was founded by wrestler Jody Hamilton, who opened the training center in 1989 in Lovejoy, Georgia. In 1991, it became the official school of WCW and relocated to Jonesboro, Georgia. By 1995, the school became known as the WCW Power Plant and relocated again, this time to Atlanta where Turner Broadcasting was headquartered. The school closed in March 2001 when WCW's assets were sold to the World Wrestling Federation.
While the school had several successful trainees—including Bill Goldberg, Kevin Nash and Diamond Dallas Page—it was not a highly regarded training center in the wrestling industry. Wrestler Bret Hart, who was injured by Goldberg during a match, characterized the training at the Power Plant as dangerous to your opponent. Journalist Dave Meltzer wrote in 1999 that the school was "a total flop" because of their training emphasis on physical appearance over personality. In 2001, wrestler Molly Holly told Live Audio Wrestling, "the Power Plant focused on push-ups, running, sit-ups, squats, and people yelling at you." Other trainees, including William Regal and Bob Sapp, had positive experiences at the Power Plant.
Operations
Jody Hamilton's school
The predecessor to the WCW Power Plant was a wrestling school founded in 1989 in Lovejoy, Georgia, by former wrestler Jody Hamilton. It became the official development school of World Championship Wrestling in 1991 and was relocated to Jonesboro, Georgia. Hamilton was employed by WCW until the company's dissolution in 2001. There was no tuition for the school. Hamilton would only train wrestlers who had a large physique or had already been trained in the fundamentals of working a match. Hamilton told Jeff Gelski of the St. Joseph News-Press in 1991 that he asked applicants just three questions to determine if they were worth training; their size, their age and their previous wrestling experience.Kevin Nash, who trained under Hamilton, described the training facility as "half of a quonset hut where the other side of the building was carpet remnants". Nash has said that Hamilton's age limited the maneuvers he could teach, so much of his training focused on ring psychology. Early students of Hamilton include Nash, Jim Steele and Bryant Anderson. In 1991, Hamilton trained wrestler Mike Winner, who would later join the training staff of WCW Power Plant. Mike Graham began training students at Hamilton's school by 1992. He stayed on as a trainer when the school became the WCW Power Plant and worked there until its closure in 2001. Two early students of Graham were Marcus Bagwell and Van Hammer.
WCW sent Hamilton and former wrestler Blackjack Mulligan to scout talent at promotions around the United States. In 1993, the pair went to scout Championship Wrestling from Florida wrestlers and hold tryouts at the Tampa Sportatorium in Tampa, Florida, for developmental contacts with WCW.
In 1993, WCW put on matches for small audiences at the Crystal Chandelier, a country western bar in Kennesaw, Georgia. The events gave students at Hamilton's school the opportunity to get in-ring experience before appearing on WCW television.
The school relocated near Atlanta, Georgia, in 1994. That year, Hamilton told Mark Binelli of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he received hundreds of phone calls a week from aspiring wrestlers. Hamilton explained his screening process, telling Binelli, "I really don't look at résumés a whole hell of a lot, except for size and experience. We get photos, we get videotapes. If I like them, they'll come in for a tryout." The interview was unique in that Hamilton partially broke kayfabe to explain the cooperative nature of professional wrestling maneuvers.
WCW Power Plant
The Power Plant was in operation as early as 1995. That year, WCW began charging students $2,500 in tuition. Prior to 1995, WCW covered the cost of training for wrestlers they wanted to develop. A segment for the television show Good Morning America on ABC was filmed from the Power Plant on June 18, 1995. WCW filed for the service mark for "Power Plant" on March 21, 1996. Paul Orndorff began managing the Power Plant in February 1998.WCW formed a development deal in 1995 with the United States Wrestling Association, which was based in Memphis, Tennessee. Power Plant trainees, including Ron Reis, were sent to Memphis to get in-ring and television experience, as the USWA had a 36 station syndication deal. Reis and fellow trainee Bobby Walker were also allowed to work a match together for the small Georgia based promotion Peach State Wrestling on September 15, 1995. WCW occasionally ran house shows in small Georgia towns to give Power Plant trainees in-ring experience, the first being held in Canton on April 27, 1996 in front of 125 people.
Before his death in 1999, Tony Rumble was in negotiations to make his promotion, NWA New England, an official developmental territory of the WCW. The following year, WCW signed a developmental deal with Heartland Wrestling Association, which was an independent wrestling promotion based in Cincinnati, Ohio, run by Les Thatcher. The deal allowed Power Plant trainees to get in-ring experience at HWA events before appearing for WCW. WCW signed another development deal with NWA Wildside, which an independent promotion based in Cornelia, Georgia, owned by Bill Behrens. The deal officially began on November 18, 2000 at a show in Cornelia that featured Power Plant trainees Sam Greco, Bob Sapp and Robbie Rage.
Inland Productions, who served as the video game developer for WCW Nitro and WCW/nWo Thunder, used the Power Plant to shoot the motion capture for the games as well as the promos featured on the character select screen.
WCW briefly assigned some Power Plant trainees to NWA Nashville in 2000. After a month in Nashville, WCW recalled their trainees to the Power Plant for an evaluation by Keiji Muto, who was scouting talent on behalf of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Dusty Rhodes' promotion Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, which was founded in 2000 and based in Marietta, Georgia, used a number of former WCW wrestlers and Power Plant trainees at their early events. Ray Lloyd, who trained at the Power Plant and was known best as Glacier in WCW, was the first TCW Heavyweight Champion.
Power Plant trainees would often appear on WCW programming as jobbers. They would sometimes feature prominently on the c-show WCW Saturday Night, as was the case with Chuck Palumbo in 2000. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, trainees were required to work security at WCW Monday Nitro events and train at the Power Plant five days a week. They could sometimes be seen on-camera during Bill Goldberg's entrances.
The Power Plant was not only used by WCW to train new talent, but it also gave management the ability to bring veteran wrestlers in to rehab while contracts were negotiated. Wrestlers who regularly appeared on WCW programming could go to the Power Plant to test new maneuvers and use the training equipment. The Power Plant was also where wrestlers could go to run through matches they had scheduled for television or pay-per-view. When WCW brought in celebrities to wrestle, they were often sent to the Power Plant for training, as was the case with National Basketball Association players Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman. WCW used the Power Plant to develop their cruiserweight division in 1999.
| Territory | Location | Year |
| United States Wrestling Association | Memphis, TN | 1995–96 |
| NWA Nashville | Nashville, TN | 2000 |
| Heartland Wrestling Association | Cincinnati, OH | 2000 |
| NWA Wildside | Cornelia, GA | 2000–01 |
In late 2000, Figure Four Weekly reported that the contracts of Chuck Palumbo, Allan Funk, Elix Skipper, Reno and Johnny the Bull were effectively voided and they were put back on development deals. WCW also sought to recoup Power Plant tuition from the wrestlers.
The Power Plant was advertised on WCW Monday Nitro. Once a month open tryouts were held for applicants aged 18 to 29. If the applicants made it through the three day try-out phase they would earn an invitation to join the school at a cost of $3,000 for six months training. Male applicants had to be at least tall and in weight.
While researching professional wrestling for a BBC documentary, journalist Louis Theroux visited the Power Plant. He volunteered to take part in some training in an effort to show respect for the business, but when he asked DeWayne Bruce questions about kayfabe, he was forced to do a strenuous exercise routine. At one stage, Bruce encouraged the other trainees to call him a cockroach while Theroux was struggling to regain his breath. Theroux was later shown vomiting on camera. Theroux later recalled, "Yes. I vomited while interviewing some wrestlers at the WCW Power Plant training academy. They had pressured me into a workout that I was patently unequipped to handle. I had had a greasy breakfast and pushed myself to the point of 'blowing chunks'—that's the term they used. And what was funny was Sarge, the head wrestler who was shouting at me, and who had been totally unimpressed by my physical efforts, was equally disappointed in my puking. He seemed to think it was too watery. He kept saying: 'That ain't nothing, blow chunks'."
Racial discrimination lawsuit
As part of a racial discrimination lawsuit filed in 2000 against WCW by wrestler Ricky Reeves, former Power Plant trainer Pez Whatley gave a deposition in which he claimed African American trainees had fewer opportunities within the company as compared to their Caucasian counterparts. Whatley recalled telling African American trainees upon entering the Power Plant that they would have to put in twice the effort as Caucasian trainees to get ahead. According to Whatley, J. J. Dillon prevented the careers of African American trainees from advancing within the company. WCW production staffer Moses Williams also claimed to observe bias against African American trainees.Power Plant founder Jody Hamilton's alleged racist conduct was cited in the lawsuit as part of the institutional barriers African Americans faced at WCW. Hamilton's former assistant Brenda Smith, retired wrestler Thunderbolt Patterson, trainee Tony Carr and Whatley supplied depositions in which they claim Hamilton held bias against African Americans. Hamilton denied the accusations and claimed that Smith held racist bias against caucasians. Hamilton wrote in his autobiography, Assassin: The Man Behind the Mask, that Smith "thought that every black person in the world should have the same attitude, especially towards white people."
Former WCW referee Randy Anderson supplied a deposition in which he alleged Power Plant manager Paul Orndorff "hated" African Americans. Anderson, Carr and Sonny Ono said Orndorff used racial slurs to describe African American wrestlers.
Former Turner Broadcasting human resources manager Timothy Goodly identified a lack of diversity among WCW wrestlers and brought it to the attention of company president Eric Bischoff, who Goodly said assured him would be addressed by bringing in more minority trainees to the Power Plant. Goodly did not believe that any effort was subsequently made by Bischoff or WCW management to bring in more diverse trainees.
Wrestler Harrison Norris, who trained at the Power Plant and wrestled in WCW as Hardbody Harrison, also sued the company for racial discrimination. He alleged he paid the tuition and graduated from the Power Plant, but was not offered a long-term contract with WCW. Instead he was occasionally used as a jobber and worked on the ring crew, the latter Norris said he was not compensated for.