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Eric Bischoff Foresees Bellator’s Scott Coker Beating New UFC Management To Become Top MMA Promotion

The latest episode of former WCW President Eric Bischoff’s podcast Bischoff on Wrestling was released this past Wednesday!

You can find a portion of Eric’s comments from the latest episode regarding the possibility that Bellator could overtake UFC as the top MMA promotion in the world transcribed below:

Eric’s full, in-depth comments can be heard in the embedded audio player at the top of the post.

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EB: The thing about Scott (Coker) is that I’ve seen him and known him since he was probably eight years old. I’ve watched him over the years as he’s come up in MMA and become an executive. First he did it with Strike Force and he was extremely successful with that and now here he is in Bellator. Scott is a very pragmatic guy. It’s just, “Slow and steady wins the race.” He’s not a Vince McMahon he’s more like a surgeon. He’s not going to do anything big and bold prematurely. He’ll do big and bold but not prematurely. He’s very practical. He just puts one foot in front of the other, “keep moving in the direction you’re going,” not necessarily at break neck speed but just stay steady. I think in the long term because he is such a solid guy, he’s got Viacom behind him, he’s building on his successes steadily and slowly I do think he will be in a position to do so. At the same time you’ve got WME-IMG and a whole bunch of Hollywood actors and actresses who want to sit front row, ring side. You’re going to get a lot of that influence in UFC and as soon as that cart starts to tip a little bit to the wrong side that’s when it gets ugly. It’s great right now with UFC and WME-IMG, they’re still in the honeymoon phase but the minute that cart starts to tip then you’ll see the shift. That’s when you’re going to really feel the effects of top heavy management. Especially management that doesn’t understand the business they are in. That would create an opportunity for a guy like Scott Coker who is just slow and steady, keeping the course, making progress going each and every month. That’s when Scott will really be able to make some great progress as it relates to comparing themselves to UFC. He’s making great progress now. He’s doing extremely well right now. In terms of market share I think Scott will be able to really increase his market share over UFC once their cart starts to tip a little bit.

You can submit your own question for Eric to answer on Bischoff on Wrestling by using the hashtag #BischoffOnWrestling on Twitter.

Related: Eric Bischoff Advocates For Samoa Joe To Beat Brock Lesnar; Warns WWE Not To Be So Focused On Their Plans

This week’s episode of Bischoff on Wrestling features Eric and Nick talking about a wide variety of pro wrestling news headlines from the past week. Including:

  • Vince Russo’s retraining order against Jim Cornette
  • Samoa Joe choking out Brock Lesnar on RAW
  • Cody Rhodes as the new ROH World Champion
  • WrestleCircus and EVOLVE’s Gabe Sapolsky going after each other on social media
  • WWE’s new show in India “WWE Sunday Dhamaal”
  • Mauro Ranallo’s return to WWE commentary
  • More…

Eric also takes some time at the end of the show to answer a slew of fan questions. Some of the topics that Eric addresses in the #BischoffOnWrestling mailbag are:

  • Which pro wrestling funerals Eric has attended
  • The first match Eric did play by play for
  • Who does the podcast intro
  • What the business impact of WWE moving RAW and Smackdown to the WWE Network would be
  • Whose idea it was for the “I’m Back” entrance theme
  • The movie Top Gun and it’s upcoming sequel
  • If there is anywhere to get a transcript of the BoW episodes
  • What fans can do to get unblocked by Eric
  • If unique viewers of the instant-replay of Nitro factored into the ratings at all
  • Josh Matthews as an announcer
  • Who Vince will sell or hand the company over to when the time is right

You can find a special Bischoff on Wrestling Overrun on IRWNetwork.com featuring Eric chatting with the Executive Producer of Capitol Wrestling, Matthew Ryan. Matt chats candidly with Eric about the history of the company, what sets it apart, how to be different in a cluttered independent wrestling scene and more…

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