Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler: Scott Coker reminds me of Vince McMahon Jr

Comparisons are frequently drawn between UFC president Dana White and WWE founder Vince McMahon Jr. They are rational given that when ZUFFA acquired the UFC, a model for the league was sought and found. Should the UFC business structure be modeled after NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL? After boxing? After rock concerts?

The answer was WWE.

However Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and said the MMA promotion boss who reminds him of McMahon is not White, it’s Bellator MMA CEO Scott Coker.

Lawler, now 76, has been wrestling professionally for 46 years. He currently serves a color commentator for the WWE, and still wrestles. How longer wrestles in the WWE however, as he suffered a heart attack four years ago, shortly after an exhibition bout, and the WWE keeps him behind the mic.

Bellator 162 is broadcast tonight from Memphis, Tennessee, where Lawler has ever been, well, The King. Lawler will be cageside, for only the second time in his life.

“It’s amazing the history wrestling has in Memphis. Wrestling was so unique,” said Lawler, as transcribed by Dave Meltzer for MMA Fighting. “For years, we didn’t have any professional sports in town. We had no sports, pro wrestling was it. We had a live 90-minute show for 35 years straight that people watched growing up, and we’d do live matches at the Mid South Coliseum every Monday night. Everyone in Memphis grew up with me and with wrestling. The Bellator people saw the tie-in with Bobby Lashley, and asked if I wanted to be a part of this. I jumped on it immediately.”

“I’ve been a big MMA fan for a long time, especially the crossover guys, Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, all the way back to Ken Shamrock. That natural tie-in heightened my interest in it.”

“Scott Coker, the President of Bellator MMA reminds me so much of Vince McMahon, especially with the new signings. We had the brand split, and are calling it a new era, bringing in young guys and new women from NXT, the new training facility. All these guys are making that jump. It’s the same thing with Bellator MMA. A ton of new guys have been signed by Scott Coker. It reminds me so much of the same type of building things up and the enthusiasm we have in WWE.”

Lawler also said competition between leagues is good for the sport.

“I don’t think it’s better when it’s one dominant organization,” he said. “Competition is good for anything. Even Vince McMahon would tell you the most exciting and most fun time for WWE, and for wrestling in general, was during the late 90s, the Monday Night Wars. It brings out the best in everybody when there’s competition. For the UFC and Bellator, it brings out the best in the fighters. The fighters know, `The better I do, the better I look, I’ll be able to go to the best and highest paying company’ I owned a wrestling company with Jerry Jarrett for 20 years and I can look at it from both sides of the fence. I can look at it from an owners standpoint. Free agency is something they’d rather not deal with. But from a wrestler and fighters standpoint, it’s a great thing. It helps everyone’s position in their careers.”

He also said the rise of the UFC has not come at the expense of the WWE.

“There’s no doubt about it, MMA has certainly been on the rise, but I don’t think it’s hurt wrestling at all,” he said. “WWE just had their biggest quarter financially in history, something like $199 million that they made. They’re doing okay, actually better than ever and you can’t knock success.”

(3:09:44 mark)