Match Times: WWE Survivor Series 2013 Edition

WWE's Survivor Series 2013 event lasted 2 hours 43 minutes and 34 seconds (2h 43m 34s). Here is a breakdown of the timing for every single second of the show, in chronological order.

The matches are in bold. The "pre-match" segments include video packages, entrances, ring introductions, and any verbal promos that occur right before a match officially begins. The "post-match" segments include any celebrations, replays, angles, attacks, or promos that occur right after a match is finished.

• 0m 19s: WWE's "Then, Now, Forever" opening
• 1m 48s: HHH and Stephanie's ramp entrance and promo
• 2m 09s: Video hyping Survivor Series 2013
• 0m 54s: Opening pyro while Cole welcomes us to Survivor Series 2013
• 6m 24s: Pre-match for Rey/Usos/Cody/Goldust vs Shield/Cesaro/Swagger
• 23m 25s: Rey/Usos/Cody/Goldust vs Shield/Cesaro/Swagger
• 2m 31s: Post-match for Rey/Usos/Cody/Goldust vs Shield/Cesaro/Swagger
• 0m 31s: Commercial for WWE 2K14
• 1m 22s: Backstage segment with The Authority and Orton
• 0m 16s: Cole talks about Boston
• 0m 13s: Plug for PPV theme song
• 3m 01s: Pre-match for Langston vs Axel
• 5m 57s: Langston vs Axel
• 2m 03s: Post-match for Langston vs Axel
• 4m 37s: Pre-match for Total Divas vs True Divas (with a 2m 14s backstage segment with True Divas)
  
• 11m 30s: Total Divas vs True Divas
• 0m 42s: Post-match for Total Divas vs True Divas
• 1m 13s: Backstage segment with Orton and Charles Robinson
• 0m 18s: Cole plugs TLC 2013
  
• 0m 15s: Cole mentions the Kickoff Show and Miz's victory of Kingston
• 4m 07s: Pre-match for Ryback vs Henry (with a 1m 46s Ryback promo)
• 4m 48s: Ryback vs Henry
• 1m 10s: Post-match for Ryback vs Henry
• 0m 32s: Commercial for Kmart
• 1m 25s: Expert Panel Analysis with Hart, Foley, Booker T, and Josh Matthews
• 7m 36s: Pre-match for Cena vs Del Rio (with a 2m 22s video package)
  
• 18m 48s: Cena vs Del Rio
• 2m 00s: Post-match for Cena vs Del Rio
• 0m 21s: Commercial promoting Michael Strahan on Raw tomorrow
• 1m 28s: Backstage segment with WWE Power Slammers and John Laurinaitis
• 0m 14s: Cole talks about Boston
• 0m 14s: Cole corrects his mistake of labeling Natalya as the sole survivor
• 8m 02s: Pre-match for Punk/Bryan vs Rowan/Harper (with a 2m 47s video package)
  
• 16m 52s: Punk/Bryan vs Rowan/Harper
• 2m 44s: Post-match for Punk/Bryan vs Rowan/Harper
• 0m 58s: Commercial for Christmas Bounty starring The Miz
• 0m 48s: Backstage segment with The Authority, Cena, and Orton
• 7m 48s: Pre-match for Orton vs Big Show (with a 3m 08s video package)
  
• 11m 10s: Orton vs Big Show
• 3m 01s: Post-match for Orton vs Big Show

Pre-match Segments

The pre-match segments combined for a total time of 41m 35s, which is 25.4% of the show. This 25% threshold has only been reached three times this year, and it has now happened on back-to-back PPV events.

In addition to all the superstar entrances, the pre-match segment for The Shield's opening tag match also included a 1m 34s exchange between Zeb and Cody that centered around twerking. WWE also squeezed in quick introductions of both commentary teams as the competitors were making their entrances. When all of this is taken into account, the starting bell for this opening contest did not ring until 11m 34s into the show.

The pre-match segment for Langston's match included a 0m 18s plug for WWE's YouTube channel during Axel's entrance. They also aired a 0m 35s recap video showing how Langston won the Intercontinental Championship on Raw.

There was a backstage segment featuring AJ giving a long speech to her unhappy teammates that lasted 2m 14s. This counted towards the pre-match segment time for the divas match, as it took place right before the divas made their entrances. There was also a 0m 28s video highlight of Alicia and Eva Marie helping out at The Greater Boston Food Bank that aired towards the end of the the diva entrances.

The pre-match segment for Ryback's match included not only his 1m 46s promo and Henry's entrance, but also the 0m 51s introduction of the HOF expert panel that was immediately interrupted by Ryback.

Del Rio's entrance included a 0m 29s plug for Hulu Plus. The pre-match segment for his match also included a 0m 17s backstage peek at a doctor checking out Cena's arm.

The Wyatt Family entrance included a 0m 47s promo from Bray Wyatt right before they made their way out to the entrance ramp.

Orton's entrance included a 0m 18s plug for the upcoming TLC 2013 event in December.

This event included two matches with relatively large ratios of pre-match time to actual match time. In other words, these matches didn't last much longer than their associated pre-match segments. The pre-match segment for Ryback's match was 85.8% as long as the actual match time. The pre-match segment for Orton's match was 69.9% as long as the actual match time. These both rank in the top 10 for the year in this category, which is not a flattering characteristic when it comes to efficiency of PPV time.

Post-match Segments

The post-match segments combined for a total time of 14m 11s, which is 8.7% of the show. This is the third smallest percentage of the year.

The post-match segments on this show were almost all comprised of straightforward celebrations and replays. The main exceptions to this were the 0m 40s promo delivered by Langston after his victory, as well as the end of the show which featured Cena facing off with Orton.

The post-match segment for the diva tag match lasted only 0m 42s, making it the second shortest post-match segment of the year. Miz versus Fandango from Night of Champions still ranks first with a post-match segment of only 0m 39s.

Match Times

The seven matches combined for a total bell-to-bell time of 1h 32m 30s. This means that 56.6% of the show was devoted to in-ring action.

The average match time at Survivor Series 2013 was 13m 13s. Here is the sorted list of match times for Survivor Series 2013. This also includes where each match currently ranks on the list of WWE's Longest PPV Match Times for 2013:

• 23m 25s: Rey/Usos/Cody/Goldust vs Shield/Cesaro/Swagger (9th longest out of 80 PPV matches)
  
• 18m 48s: Cena vs Del Rio (18th)
  
• 16m 52s: Punk/Bryan vs Rowan/Harper (21st)
  
• 11m 30s: Total Divas vs True Divas (40th)
  
• 11m 10s: Orton vs Big Show (43rd)
  
• 5m 57s: Langston vs Axel (71st)
  
• 4m 48s: Ryback vs Henry (77th)
  

The most glaring entry in this list is the main event match of Orton versus Big Show, as it was only the fifth longest match on the card. This is the first time all year where the main event match of a PPV was not among the two longest matches on the PPV card.

The next shortest PPV main event of the year was the 17m 33s match between Bryan and Orton at Night of Champions. The main event of Survivor Series 2013 didn't even fall within 6 minutes of that time.

The divas tag team match even lasted longer than the main event match. This divas match ended up being the longest divas PPV match of the year, supplanting AJ's championship victory against Kaitlyn at Payback.

This was the first PPV of the year where the opening bout of the night ended up as the longest match on the card. This opening match also lasted longer than 7 of the 11 PPV main events in 2013.

The Intercontinental Championship has been defended 5 times on PPV this year and Curtis Axel has been a competitor in every single one of these matches. The IC championship match at Survivor Series 2013 was the shortest of these 5 matches.

This card also marked the first PPV event of the year where the following wrestlers accumulated match time: Rosa, Aksana, Alicia, Nikki, Jojo, Eva Marie, Cameron, Harper, and Rowan.

This was also the 4th straight PPV that did not include Damien Sandow or Kane on the main card. Similarly, Dolph Ziggler and The Miz have not wrestled on the main card of the last 3 PPV events.

Miscellaneous Segments

That leaves about 15m 18s (9.4%) of the show for other miscellaneous things. This includes The Authority's promo that opened the show, a commercial for WWE 2K14, multiple backstage segments featuring The Authority, filler commentary, plug for the PPV theme song, Orton talking to Charles Robinson, commercial for Kmart, expert panel analysis, commercial promoting tomorrow's Raw featuring Michael Strahan, commercial for Christmas Bounty, and a backstage comedy segment promoting WWE Power Slammers that also included a cameo from Laurinaitis.

This was the third lowest percentage in this category so far for all 2013 PPV events.

Shortest PPV of the Year

Even though this PPV had the 5th highest match time percentage (56.6%) out of 11 total events this year, its total match time of 1h 32m 30s ranked only 8th out of 11 events. This is a direct result of the PPV ending much earlier than all other shows this year.

Survivor Series 2013 only lasted 2h 43m 34s, making it by far the shortest PPV of the year, trailing the Royal Rumble 2013's time of 2h 49m 49s. Only 1 out of 36 PPV events since the start of 2011 ended up shorter than this one, and that was Hell In A Cell 2011. 28 of these 36 shows lasted for at least 2h 49m 00s.

The median time on all of WWE's 3-hour PPV's during that span was 2h 50m 47s. This strongly suggests that something went awry with the timing of the Survivor Series 2013 event, as this card fell short of the typical PPV time by more than 7 minutes.

This time shortage can easily be directed at the unusually brief main event match. But did WWE really go into this event expecting that Big Show could wrestle a nearly 20-minute match? If the main event time actually did go as planned, then it isn't clear what else could explain the missing 7 minutes. Perhaps there was a backstage segment or two that was cut. Maybe Ryback's match with Henry was supposed to last longer than 5 minutes? Is it possible that WWE originally had another filler match planned to kill 10 minutes but there just wasn't enough time for it? Or perhaps several earlier matches on the show each fell a minute or two short of the planned time but the main event simply couldn't be stretched out to make up for this series of smaller time deficits. There aren't any rumors floating around out there yet to explain this significant timing gap for Survivor Series 2013.

Survivor Series 2013 will probably be most remembered for this disastrous main event match. Not only did this match fail to live up to typical time expectations of a main event match, but it also failed to deliver any quality action. Meltzer's rating of one star is the lowest of the year for any WWE PPV main event match.

The show also ended about 7 minutes earlier than the typical PPV event. When that is combined with a horrific main event and an excess of pre-match segment time, it certainly seems that WWE misfired with this annual extravaganza.

Final Results for Survivor Series 2013

Matches - 56.6% - 1h 32m 30s

Pre-match - 25.4% - 41m 35s

Post-match - 8.7% - 14m 11s

Miscellaneous - 9.4% - 15m 18s