Match Times: WWE TLC 2013 Edition

WWE's TLC 2013 event lasted 2 hours 46 minutes and 25 seconds (2h 46m 25s). 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 18s: WWE's "Then, Now, Forever" opening
• 3m 05s: Entrance ramp promo from The Authority
• 1m 56s: Video hyping TLC 2013
• 0m 59s: Opening pyro as Cole welcomes us to TLC 2013
• 3m 37s: Pre-match for Punk vs The Shield
• 13m 41s: Punk vs The Shield
• 1m 49s: Post-match for Punk vs Shield
• 3m 49s: Pre-match for AJ Lee vs Natalya (with a 1m 32s backstage AJ promo)
• 6m 35s: AJ Lee vs Natalya
• 1m 13s: Post-match for AJ Lee vs Natalya
• 0m 47s: Cole discusses Cena vs Orton; tweet from Sammartino
• 2m 18s: Video hyping the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship
• 2m 41s: Pre-match for Langston vs Sandow (with a 0m 44s Sandow promo)
  
• 6m 28s: Langston vs Sandow
• 0m 54s: Post-match for Langston vs Sandow
• 0m 32s: Backstage segment with Vince and Orton
• 0m 31s: Commercial for Wingstop
• 1m 03s: Cole talks about Houston; tweet from Steve Austin
• 1m 29s: Expert Panel Analysis with Foley, Booker T, and Josh Matthews
• 5m 01s: Pre-match for Tag Team Elimination Fatal 4-Way
• 21m 07s: Tag Team Elimination Fatal 4-Way
• 1m 17s: Post-match for Tag Team Elimination Fatal 4-Way
• 2m 22s: Backstage comedy segment promoting WWE Brawlin' Buddies
• 2m 43s: Pre-match for Brodus Clay vs R-Truth
• 6m 02s: Brodus Clay vs R-Truth
• 0m 43s: Post-match for Brodus Clay vs R-Truth
• 0m 35s: Backstage segment with Vince and Cena
• 1m 56s: Pre-match for Kingston vs Miz
• 8m 01s: Kingston vs Miz
• 0m 36s: Post-match for Kingston vs Miz
• 0m 56s: Commercial for WWE Tribute to the Troops
• 0m 56s: Cole discusses Cena vs Orton; Tale of the Tape
• 5m 19s: Pre-match for Bryan vs The Wyatt Family (with a 1m 38s video package)
  
• 12m 25s: Bryan vs The Wyatt Family
• 1m 50s: Post-match for Bryan vs The Wyatt Family (replay, celebration)
• 0m 30s: Video - Don't Try This At Home
• 0m 11s: Post-match for Bryan vs The Wyatt Family (commentators discuss match)
• 0m 30s: Cole discusses Cena vs Orton; tweet from The Rock
• 0m 14s: Plug for PPV theme song
• 1m 39s: Expert Panel Analysis
• 8m 55s: Pre-match for Cena vs Orton (with a 3m 23s video package)
• 24m 35s: Cena vs Orton
• 4m 17s: Post-match for Cena vs Orton

Pre-match Segments

The pre-match segments combined for a total time of 34m 01s, which is 20.4% of the show.  This is the 5th shortest percentage of the year.

The pre-match segment for Punk's match included a 0m 14s introduction of Cole's commentary team as well as a 0m 15s introduction of the Spanish announce team.  There was also a 0m 28s recap of Punk's feud with The Shield that led to this match.

AJ was involved in a 1m 32s backstage interview immediately before the start of the Divas match.  There was also a 0m 17s plug for Wingstop and WWE Brawlin Buddies that ran at the end of Natalya's entrance.

Sandow's entrance included a 0m 44s promo.  Langston's entrance included a 0m 15s plug for the upcoming Royal Rumble 2014 event.

The pre-match segment for the tag team championship match was crammed with several extras.  There was a 0m 17s Smackdown video recap of the Real Americans defeating The Rhodes Brothers, a 0m 20s Smackdown video recap of Rybaxel defeating The Rhodes Brothers, and a 0m 20s plug for Hulu Plus.

TLC 2013 actually aired two separate video recaps of the TLC Kickoff altercation between Kingston and Miz, which combined for 0m 44s.

The Miz's entrance included a 0m 22s plug for WWE's YouTube channel.

The pre-match segment for R-Truth's match included a 0m 35s video recap of the feud brewing between Brodus Clay and Xavier Woods.

The pre-match segment for the main event match lasted 8m 55s, which was the 13th longest pre-match segment on WWE PPV this year.  This does not include the earlier moments from the show where Cole was hyping the main event match by showing tweets from various wrestling legends like Bruno Sammartino.

Post-match Segments

The post-match segments combined for a total time of 12m 50s, which is 7.7% of the show.  This is the second smallest percentage of the year, trailing only the Royal Rumble.  The Royal Rumble card only included 4 total matches however, so TLC 2013 certainly averaged the least amount of post-match segment time per match in 2013.

Here is the full list of each PPV's average amount of post-match segment time per match, rounded to the nearest second:

• 3m 12s: Payback
• 3m 02s: Royal Rumble
• 2m 56s: Extreme Rules
• 2m 52s: WrestleMania 29
• 2m 48s: SummerSlam
• 2m 36s: Money In The Bank
• 2m 18s: Elimination Chamber
• 2m 09s: Hell In A Cell
• 2m 09s: Night of Champions
• 2m 02s: Survivor Series
• 1m 51s: Battleground
• 1m 36s: TLC

Note that the last 5 PPV events of the year comprise the final 5 slots on this list.

Not surprisingly, several post-match segments at TLC 2013 ranked among the shortest of the year.  In fact, the post-match segment for Kingston versus Miz lasted only 0m 36s, which set the record for the shortest post-match segment on any 2013 PPV.  The post-match segment for Brodus Clay's match with R-Truth wasn't much longer, clocking in at 0m 43s.  This was the 4th shortest post-match segment out of 88 total PPV matches this year.  It should be noted that both of these matches were not announced prior to the TLC Kickoff show, and so it isn't surprising that these filler matches did not even get a replay of the finish shown after the match was finished.

The post-match segment for Langston's match lasted 0m 54s.  This ranked as the 7th shortest post-match segment of the year.

The only post-match segment that ranked among the 40 longest of the year was Orton's celebration of his victory with the McMahon family.  Roughly one-third of the total post-match segment time for TLC 2013 came from this main event match.

Match Times

The eight matches combined for a bell-to-bell time of 1h 38m 54s.  This means that 59.4% of the show was devoted to in-ring action.  This is the second highest percentage for all WWE PPV's in 2013.

The average match time at TLC 2013 was 12m 22s.  Here is the sorted list of match times for TLC 2013.  This also includes where each match ranked on the list of WWE's Longest PPV Match Times for 2013:

• 24m 35s: Cena vs Orton (6th longest out of 88 total matches)
  
• 21m 07s: Tag Team Elimination Fatal 4-Way (16th)
  
• 13m 41s: Punk vs The Shield (37th)
  
• 12m 25s: Bryan vs The Wyatt Family (42nd)
  
• 8m 01s: Kingston vs Miz (62nd)
  
• 6m 35s: AJ Lee vs Natalya (75th)
  
• 6m 28s: Langston vs Sandow (76th)
  
• 6m 02s: Brodus Clay vs R-Truth (78th)

CM Punk's match time of 13m 41s was his shortest PPV match of the year out of 11 total matches, including two matches with Ryback.

This was the only PPV of the year that did not include a match featuring Alberto Del Rio.

TLC 2013 was the 4th straight PPV event that did not include Dolph Ziggler as a competitor on the main card.  It was the 6th straight PPV event that did not include Wade Barrett on the main card.

Every performer that wrestled at TLC 2013 also accumulated match time on an earlier PPV event in 2013.  However if the Royal Rumble match was excluded from consideration, then this would have been the only PPV where Brodus Clay was given match time.

The tag team elimination match had a duration of 21m 07s.  Rybaxel was eliminated at the 6m 09s mark of the match.  The Real Americans were eliminated at the 14m 40s mark of the match.

This is the second straight PPV event where Jack Swagger's match lasted longer than Daniel Bryan's match.

The TLC match between Orton and Cena was the third longest PPV main event of 2013, trailing only the main events from Money In The Bank and SummerSlam.

TLC joins Hell In A Cell as the only PPV events of the year that each included at least three matches that were under 7 minutes in length.  And that isn't even counting the very short TLC Kickoff match between Ziggler and Fandango, which profightdb and wikipedia both list as 4m 21s.

Miscellaneous Segments

That leaves about 20m 40s (12.4%) of the show for other miscellaneous things.  This is the 5th largest percentage in this category out of 12 total PPV events in 2013.

This includes The Authority's promo from the entrance ramp that opened the show, video hyping both the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship, filler commentary, tweets from wrestling legends, commercial for Wingstop, backstage segments with Vince McMahon, both expert panel analysis segments, comedy segment promoting WWE Brawlin' Buddies, commercial for WWE Tribute to the Troops, plug for PPV theme song, and a Don't Try This At Home video.

Several of these miscellaneous segments were used primarily to hype the main event match.  This includes not only tweets from wrestling legends like The Rock and Steve Austin, but also a Tale of the Tape, a video package devoted to a history of the major championships on the line in the main event, and Vince McMahon meeting with both Cena and Orton backstage.  The Authority's promo that opened the show was also chiefly focused on hyping the main event match.  Most of the latter expert panel analysis segment was also spent predicting the outcome of the main event match.  When the times for all of these related miscellaneous segments are added up, it results in roughly 13 minutes of additional hype for the main event that did not count as part of the pre-match segment for Cena versus Orton.

Summary

TLC 2013 cut some time off of WWE's usual PPV standards for pre-match and post-match segment time, and most of that time was redistributed into the match time.  Perhaps this surplus time would have been better off used to add a little more to Punk or Bryan's match rather than presenting two consecutive filler matches.  Nonetheless, this is a welcome result and shows that WWE can cram in nearly 1h 40m 00s of action into a regular PPV if they are willing to cut down slightly on pre-match and post-match segments.  And considering that there was over 13 minutes of hype for the main event scattered throughout the show, as well as the fact that this was the second shortest PPV of the year, there was still plenty of time left to include even more bell-to-bell match time.

Speaking of total PPV length, the final two PPV events of the year ended up being the two shortest events of the year, with Survivor Series clocking in at 2h 43m 34s and TLC ending at 2h 46m 25s.  In contrast, the nine remaining 3-hour PPV events in 2013 averaged a duration of 2h 52m 33s.   As 2014 approaches, it will be interesting to see if WWE trends back in this direction of PPV events ending at around 2h 45m 00s, or if the times will bounce back closer to the 2013 norm of more than 2h 52m 00s.

Final Results for TLC 2013

Matches - 59.4% - 1h 38m 54s

Pre-match - 20.4% - 34m 01s

Post-match - 7.7% - 12m 50s

Miscellaneous - 12.4% - 20m 40s