FanPost

Match Times: Elimination Chamber 2013

WWE's Elimination Chamber 2013 lasted for 2 hours 54 minutes and 9 seconds (2h 54m 09s). 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" includes video packages, entrances, ring introductions, and any verbal promos that occur right before a match officially begins. The "post-match" includes any celebrations, replays, angles, attacks, or promos that occur right after a match is finished.

Some matches have multiple "pre-match" or "post-match" entries because, for example, an unrelated video was inserted between a post-match celebration and a post-match promo.

  • 0m 20s: WWE's "Then, Now, Forever" opening
  • 3m 28s: Video hyping Elimination Chamber
  • 1m 00s: Cole welcomes us to Elimination Chamber
  • 4m 41s: Pre-match for ADR vs Big Show
  • 13m 05s: ADR vs Big Show
  • 2m 54s: Post-match for ADR vs Big Show
  • 0m 16s: Cole discusses New Orleans and the live attendance
  • 0m 51: Sneak peek for The Rock's upcoming GI Joe movie
  • 0m 40s: Pre-match for Cesaro vs Miz
  • 0m 49s: Matthews interviews cast of GI Joe during Cesaro's entrance
  • 1m 39s: Pre-match for Cesaro vs Miz
  • 8m 21s: Cesaro vs Miz
  • 1m 46s: Post-match for Cesaro vs Miz (including Miz kicking Cesaro in the testicles)
  • 1m 51s: Backstage segment with Bryan and Kane
  • 16m 03s: Pre-match for Elimination Chamber match
  • 31m 19s: Elimination Chamber: Bryan-Kane-Swagger-Henry-Orton-Jericho
  • 2m 05s: Post-match for Elimination Chamber match
  • 1m 37s: Commercial for WrestleMania 29
  • 7m 21s: Pre-match for The Shield vs Cena-Sheamus-Ryback
  • 14m 51s: The Shield vs Cena-Sheamus-Ryback
  • 1m 53s: Post-match for The Shield vs Cena-Sheamus-Ryback (replays)
  • 0m 36s: Video - Don't Try This At Home
  • 1m 02s: Post-match for The Shield vs Cena-Sheamus-Ryback (more replays)
  • 3m 01s: Pre-match for Ziggler vs Kingston (including a Ziggler in-ring promo)
  • 3m 56s: Ziggler vs Kingston
  • 2m 47s: Post-match for Ziggler vs Kingston (Langston attacks Kingston)
  • 0m 26s: Cole talks about New Orleans
  • 1m 02s: Cole plugs WWE App and shows how to download it
  • 0m 26s: Recap of pre-show match (Tons of Funk vs Rhodes Scholars)
  • 1m 31s: Tons of Funk play with action figures and dance backstage
  • 2m 41s: Pre-match for Kaitlyn vs Tamina (including a Kaitlyn pre-taped promo)
  • 3m 15s: Kaitlyn vs Tamina
  • 0m 55s: Post-match for Kaitlyn vs Tamina
  • 1m 01s: Commercial for WrestleMania 29
  • 11m 00s: Pre-match for The Rock vs CM Punk (including a 3m 57s video package)
  • 20m 56s: The Rock vs CM Punk
  • 2m 44s: Post-match for The Rock vs CM Punk

The seven matches combined for a total bell-to-bell time of 1h 35m 43s. That means that 55.0% of the total show time was devoted to in-ring action.

The pre-match pieces combined for a total time of 47m 06s, which is 27.0% of the total show time. This is the highest mark for all of WWE's 2013 PPVs, even besting WrestleMania 29's percentage of 23.5%. In fact when looking at the raw numbers, the 4-hour WrestleMania 29 extravaganza had 54m 15s of the show devoted to these pre-match pieces, while the Elimination Chamber's score of 47m 06s almost matches this mark even though the event was only 3 hours long.

While I normally include the entirety of a wrestler's entrance as part of the pre-match segment, I made an exception during part of Cesaro's entrance. The camera cut away from Cesaro and focused on Josh Matthews as he interviewed the cast of GI Joe sitting in the live crowd. The camera was on this interview the entire time and had nothing to do with the upcoming match, so I classified that time as part of the Miscellaneous category.

The pre-match segment for The Shield's match included a brawl that occurred at ringside between all six combatants before the bell rang. This brawl endured for roughly 48 seconds before the bell finally rang to signify the official beginning of the match.

The pre-match segment for the Elimination Chamber match clocked in at 16m 03s. This was longer than 5 of the 7 matches on the show. Here is a more detailed breakdown of this very lengthy pre-match segment:

  • 37s: Lowering the Elimination Chamber while commentators discuss the upcoming match
  • 2m 18s: Video package hyping the Elimination Chamber match
  • 51s: Lilian explains the rules of the match
  • 1m 19s: Beginning of the wrestler entrances
  • 3m 03s: Colter and Swagger promo
  • 7m 55s: Remainder of the wrestler entrances

The post-match pieces combined for a total time of 16m 06s, which is 9.2% of the total show time.

That leaves 15m 14s (8.7%) of the show for other miscellaneous things. This includes commercials, videos, filler commentary, playing with action figures, an interview of the cast of GI Joe, and so forth.

The average match time at Elimination Chamber was 13m 40s. Three of the seven matches eclipsed this mark. Here is a listing of the seven matches, sorted by match time:

  • 31m 19s: Elimination Chamber: Bryan-Kane-Swagger-Henry-Orton-Jericho
  • 20m 56s: The Rock vs CM Punk
  • 14m 51s: The Shield vs Cena-Sheamus-Ryback
  • 13m 05s: ADR vs Big Show
  • 8m 21s: Cesaro vs Miz
  • 3m 56s: Ziggler vs Kingston
  • 3m 15s: Kaitlyn vs Tamina

This event featured the two shortest PPV matches of the year so far in Kaitlyn vs Tamina and Ziggler vs Kingston. It is not even close either, as the next shortest PPV match of the year was the 6m 18s match at WrestleMania 29 featuring Team Hell No versus the team of Ziggler and Langston. The video package for the Punk vs Rock match even clocked in longer than these two matches.

The Ziggler match was not announced prior to the start of this show and was perhaps just a filler match used to quickly showcase the MITB briefcase holder, Dolph Ziggler.

This was an extremely top heavy event. The match, pre-match, and post-match segments for the big two matches (Rock vs Punk; Elimination Chamber match) took up a total of 1h 24m 07s, which is 48.3% of the total show time.

The Elimination Chamber match itself was the second longest PPV match of the year so far, trailing only the Royal Rumble match. Here are the sorted ring times for each participant in the match:

  • 31m 14s: Chris Jericho
  • 27m 18s: Jack Swagger
  • 18m 42s: Randy Orton
  • 16m 36s: Daniel Bryan
  • 10m 01s: Kane
  • 7m 20s: Mark Henry

It should be noted that Henry's time increases to 9m 59s if you include the additional time he spent kicking everyone's ass after he was eliminated.

Finally, let's see how well WWE stuck to Lilian's announced rule of a new participant entering the match "approximately every four minutes."

3m 52s elapsed between the initial bell ring and the first timer counting down to zero. It then took 9 seconds for the light to land on Swagger's pod.

4m 08s elapsed between the light landing on Swagger's pod and the next timer reaching zero. Actually, their timer never reached zero (it froze at the five second mark) so I just followed my own timer for the final five seconds of this one. 12 seconds then passed before the light landed on Kane's pod.

4m 07s elapsed between the light landing on Kane's pod and the next timer reaching zero. 9 seconds then passed before the light landed on Orton's pod.

Finally, only 3m 23s elapsed between the light landing on Orton's pod and the timer reaching zero for the final pod. This is the only one that doesn't really fall into the "approximately every four minutes" designation.

The most interesting thing to follow this up with is that the final timer reached zero at exactly 16m 00s into the match. This is exactly where it should happen if you count every 4-minutes from the opening bell, if you ignore the required 9 to 12 second waiting time between a timer reaching zero and the light landing on someone's pod.

Is this just a coincidence, or does WWE always force that last timer to reach zero at this point, even if it short-changes one of the 4-minute periods? Researching previous Elimination Chamber matches would be the best way to investigate this situation.

Final Results for Elimination Chamber 2013

Matches - 55.0% - 1h 35m 43s

Pre-match - 27.0% - 47m 06s

Post-match - 9.2% - 16m 06s

Miscellaneous - 8.7% - 15m 14s


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