Power station

A power station (also referred to as a generating station, power plant, powerhouse, or generating plant) is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Most power stations contain one or more generators, a rotating machine that converts mechanical power into electrical power. The relative motion between a magnetic field and a conductor creates an electrical current. The energy source harnessed to turn the generator varies widely. Most power stations in the world burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to generate electricity. Others use nuclear power, but there is an increasing use of cleaner renewable sources such as solar, wind, wave and hydroelectric.

History

The world's first power station was designed and built by Lord Armstrong at Cragside, England in 1868. Water from one of the lakes was used to power Siemens dynamos. The electricity supplied power to lights, heating, produced hot water, ran an elevator as well as labor-saving devices and farm buildings.

WCW Power Plant

The WCW Power Plant is a former professional wrestling school located at 1030 Carrol Drive in Atlanta, Georgia. It was owned and operated by World Championship Wrestling. The Power Plant was in operation throughout the 1990s. It stopped holding contests in December 1999 and closed in March 2001 when WCW's assets were sold to the World Wrestling Federation.

Gym

The Power Plant was World Championship Wrestling's training gym located in a warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia. It was in operation as early as 1995. In February 1998, Paul Orndorff began managing the Power Plant.

Criteria for entry

The Power Plant was advertised on WCW Monday Nitro. Once a month, open tryouts were held for applicants between the ages of 18 and 29. If the applicants were suitably impressive, 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 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) tall and 180 lb (82 kg) in weight.

Training routine

To succeed at the Power Plant, a trainee was required to display a great deal of strength and stamina, with less focus on basic wrestling skills. Bret Hart, who was forced to retire when a stiff kick from Power Plant graduate Bill Goldberg tore a muscle in his neck and gave him post-concussion syndrome, blamed the end of his career on the Power Plant training regime, saying "I don't think it was a priority to protect your opponent."

WWF Championship Wrestling

WWF Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling television program produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It aired from 1972 to 1986 and was the original television show of the WWF. Originally produced under the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) banner, Championship Wrestling featured all the stars of the WWF, interviews and championship matches. It was the flagship program of the WWWF/WWF's syndicated programming until it was replaced by Superstars of Wrestling in 1986.

History

Run in syndication

This was the first WWF program to be shown on national broadcast television. Vince McMahon built the syndicated network in part by persuading local stations to pay for the rights to air the program. Stations like KPLR-TV in St. Louis and KHJ-TV (now KCAL) in Los Angeles reportedly paid $100,000 to air the show.

In its early years, the show was taped at the Philadelphia Arena and later at the Allentown Agricultural Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Typically, three weeks of television were taped in one night. The final taping in Allentown took place on June 19, 1984, with the episodes airing June 30, July 7, and July 14. The tapings then moved to the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York until the final taping took place on August 5, 1986, with the final episode airing on August 30. The following week, WWF Superstars of Wrestling replaced Championship Wrestling as the WWF's new flagship syndicated program. In contrast to Championship Wrestling, the tapings for Superstars of Wrestling moved around the country and took place at larger arenas.

World Championship Wrestling

World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion company based in Atlanta, Georgia. It began as a regional (mid-Atlantic U.S.), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)-affiliated "territory" promotion – Jim Crockett Promotions – until November 1988, when Ted Turner (through his Turner Broadcasting System business) bought the promotion, whose struggle to compete with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) had left it near bankruptcy. Immediately after the buyout, the promotion was renamed the Universal Wrestling Corporation (UWC) and consisted of Crockett's business assets; however, it was soon renamed again: World Championship Wrestling (the title of the promotion's weekly TV series, which had aired on TBS for many years prior).

In the mid-1990s, WCW dramatically improved its economic performance, largely due to the promotion of Eric Bischoff to Executive Producer (to guide the overall direction of the on-screen product); the strategy of quickly hiring former WWF main eventers who often brought large fanbases with them; the introduction of the Monday Nitro series on cable TV, and the resultant Monday Night Wars with the WWF's Monday Night Raw; the successful creative and marketing execution of the New World Order (nWo) brand/stable of wrestlers; and other innovative concepts. WCW also had a popular and successful cruiserweight division (an acrobatic, faster-paced, lucha libre-inspired style of wrestling).

World championship

A world championship is generally an international sports competition open to elite competitors from across the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport or contest.

The title is usually awarded through a combination of specific contests or, less commonly, ranking systems (e.g. the ICC Test Championship), or a combination of the two (e.g. World Triathlon Championships in Triathlon). This determines a 'world champion', who or which is commonly considered the best nation, team, individual (or other entity) in the world in a particular field, although the vagaries of sport ensure that the competitor recognised at the best in an event is not always the 'world champion' (see Underdog).

Certain sports do not have a world championship, instead they may organise a world cup competition, or they may organize both. Often, the use of the term cup or championship in this sense is just a choice of words. Some sports have multiple champions because of multiple organizations such as mixed martial arts, boxing and wrestling.