Jerry Lawler Compares Scott Coker to Vince McMahon, Says MMA Hasn’t Hurt Wrestling

Jerry Lawler spoke with MMA Fighting at his Hall of Fame Bar and Grill, where he hosted some pre-event festivities for tonight’s Bellator 162. Some highlights are below:

On his interest in MMA: “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. Just recently I was approached by the people from Bellator.”

On Memphis wrestling: “It’s amazing the history wrestling has in Memphis. Wrestling was so unique. 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.”

On Bellator President Scott Coker: “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.”

On if he’ll be at the show: “Well, I’m definitely going to be there cage side. I’ve told everyone I’ve been ringside for a million wrestling matches but I’ve never been up close and personal cage side at an MMA show.”

On his teaming with Jim Ross: “You’d be surprised how often I get told by fans that J.R. and I were their favorite broadcast team of all-time. I just did the New York Comic Con. I heard about 200 times that you and J.R. were the voices of my childhood. It’s an honor. I don’t know if I take it for granted, but I don’t really think much about it. But I should stop and realize what a big deal it has been for so many fans who have watched it for so many years.”

On being removed form weekly TV: “The date was set a long time ago and the decision was made that they’re going in a new direction. On this date, we’re going to change the WWE and it wasn’t as if we said we’re changing it for the better. They are changing for the sake of change, shuffling up the announcing crew, doing a brand split, doing Smackdown on Tuesdays and putting it on live. You have to realize WWE is looking way ahead in the future an the future of television is streaming video, the WWE Network. All our pay-per-views are on the WWE Network. What they did was try to make it more palatable, trying to build the shows on the networks and put together a Hall of Fame preshow with me, Booker T and Lita. We’re on before every Raw live, every Smackdown live and every pay-per-view”

On if he thinks MMA’s rise has hurt wrestling: “No I don’t. There’s no doubt about it, MMA has certainly been on the rise, but I don’t think it’s hurt wrestling at all. 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.”

On the value of competition: “I don’t think it’s better when it’s one dominant organization. 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.”

On his health since his heart attack: “I have not had one problem since that time, and I’ve wrestled 200 times, but WWE won’t give me clearance to wrestle there. It’s a P.R. thing. Even though I’ve wrestled so many times, my cardiologist gave me clearance, they feel there will be backlash that WWE is putting a guy who had a heart attack in the ring. I wish I could have a number of matches and a big sendoff, but I’m not going to lose any sleep if they don’t.”