Match Times: WWE Royal Rumble 2014 Edition

WWE's Royal Rumble 2014 event lasted 2 hours 44 minutes and 0 seconds (2h 44m 00s). 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 20s: WWE's "Then, Now, Forever" opening
• 2m 23s: Video hyping Royal Rumble 2014
• 0m 49s: Opening pyro as Cole welcomes us to Royal Rumble 2014
• 4m 56s: Pre-match for Bryan vs Wyatt
• 21m 32s: Bryan vs Wyatt
• 1m 38s: Post-match for Bryan vs Wyatt
• 1m 38s: Renee Young interviews Paul Heyman
• 0m 16s: Commercial for Totino's Pizza Rolls
• 0m 33s: Ben Roethlisberger is in attendance
• 2m 20s: Expert panel analysis with Josh, Duggan, HBK, Flair
• 6m 18s: Pre-match for Lesnar vs Big Show (with 3m 14s assault from Lesnar)
• 2m 02s: Lesnar vs Big Show
• 7m 57s: Post-match for Lesnar vs Big Show
• 0m 31s: Commercial for Jackson-Hewitt
• 1m 56s: Backstage Shield promo
• 1m 53s: Renee interviews Randy Orton
• 0m 42s: Video - WrestleMania XXX is 70 days away
• 0m 14s: Cole talks about Pittsburgh
• 0m 15s: Plug for PPV theme song
• 0m 18s: Filler commentary
• 9m 38s: Pre-match for Orton vs Cena (with a 3m 35s video package)
• 20m 56s: Orton vs Cena
• 5m 10s: Post-match for Orton vs Cena
• 1m 10s: Commercial for WWE Network, commentators plug WWE Network
• 2m 20s: Renee interviews New Age Outlaws
• 0m 16s: Commercial for Totino's Pizza Rolls
• 0m 31s: Commercial for WWE's Elimination Chamber 2014
• 0m 17s: Commentators plug WWE's Elimination Chamber 2014
• 6m 43s: Pre-match for Rumble (with a 1m 44s video of wrestler promos and a 1m 20s expert panel analysis)
• 55m 09s: Royal Rumble match
• 3m 19s: Post-match for Royal Rumble match

Pre-match Segments

The pre-match segments combined for a total time of 27m 35s, which is 16.8% of the show. This is a lower percentage in this category than any WWE PPV from 2013.

The pre-match segment for Bryan vs Wyatt included a 0m 34s introduction of both commentary teams during Bryan's entrance. During Wyatt's entrance, there was also a 0m 50s video recap of Bryan turning on Wyatt inside the steel cage.

The pre-match segment for Lesnar vs Big Show included a 1m 20s video recap of Big Show tossing Lesnar around from a recent episode of Raw. This was shown during the Big Show's entrance.

During Lesnar's entrance, there was a 0m 10s plug for the WWE's YouTube channel. Lesnar's pre-match assault of the Big Show went on for 3m 14s, which was longer than the actual match.

There was a 0m 17s plug for Jackson-Hewitt that aired towards the end of Orton's entrance. Cena's entrance included a 0m 18s plug for the upcoming Elimination Chamber 2014 event.

Punk's entrance included a 0m 17s ad for Hulu Plus.

The pre-match segment for the Royal Rumble match also included a 0m 39s explanation of the rules from Justin Roberts.

Here is a sorted list of the amount of entrance time allocated to each superstar on the PPV, not counting entrances within the Royal Rumble match.

• 2m 11s: Big Show
• 2m 11s: Randy Orton
• 2m 04s: Bray Wyatt
• 1m 36s: Daniel Bryan
• 1m 36s: CM Punk
• 1m 30s: John Cena
• 0m 59s: Seth Rollins
• 0m 52s: Brock Lesnar

That adds up to a total time of 12m 59s for these pre-match wrestler entrances.

Post-match Segments

The post-match segments combined for a total time of 18m 04s, which is 11.0% of the show. For comparison's sake, 10.1% of all 2013 PPV time was devoted to post-match segments.

The post-match segment for Lesnar's match lasted 7m 57s, and so it was the primary contributor to this category. This mark was longer than the post-match segment time for any match on WWE PPV in 2013. This post-match onslaught was almost 4 times as long as the actual match.

Match Times

The 4 matches combined for a bell-to-bell time of 1h 39m 39s. This means that 60.8% of the show was devoted to in-ring action.

Last year, the Royal Rumble 2013 event was the only PPV that cleared the 60% boundary in this category. With the Royal Rumble 2014 also passing that mark, it will be interesting to see if any other PPV this year will provide as much bell-to-bell match time as what WWE seems to deliver at these specific events.

The average match time at Royal Rumble 2014 was 24m 55s. Here is the sorted list of match times for Royal Rumble 2014:

• 55m 09s: Royal Rumble match
• 21m 32s: Bryan vs Wyatt
• 20m 56s: Orton vs Cena
• 2m 02s: Lesnar vs Big Show

A full break down of the timing of the Royal Rumble match can be found by clicking here.

Brock Lesnar's match is an immediate candidate for shortest PPV match of the year. Only one 2013 PPV match was shorter than this one, and that was the 0m 08s cash-in match where Randy Orton defeated Daniel Bryan at SummerSlam.

AJ Lee's streak of accumulating match time on 8 consecutive PPV events came to an end. This was the first WWE PPV since Extreme Rules 2013 that did not include any Divas match at all.

Dolph Ziggler gained match time on the main card of a PPV for the first time since Night of Champions 2013.

Prior to this event, the last time Kane wrestled on PPV was SummerSlam 2013. The same can be said for Lesnar.

This also marked the first time Sheamus gained match time on a PPV since Money In The Bank 2013.

I've got some bad news for Wade Barrett: he has now gone through 7 straight PPV events without accumulating any match time. The same can be said for Chris Jericho.

In 2013, there were 9 superstars whose only PPV match time for the entire year came from the 2013 Royal Rumble match. This includes Bo Dallas, Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, Drew McIntyre, Sin Cara, Tensai, Zack Ryder, David Otunga, and The Godfather. None of these men appeared in the 2014 Royal Rumble match.

Miscellaneous Segments

That leaves about 18m 42s (11.4%) of the show for other miscellaneous things.

This includes things like backstage interviews (with Heyman, Orton, New Age Outlaws, Shield), commercials for Totino's Pizza Rolls, showing Ben Roethlisberger in the audience, commercial for Jackson-Hewitt, commercial for Elimination Chamber 2014, an expert panel analysis segment, ad for WWE Network, plug for PPV theme song, and some filler commentary between matches.

The backstage interview with the New Age Outlaws included a 0m 41s video recap of the NAO vs. Rhodes Brothers match from the pre-show.

Due to the extremely long Royal Rumble match, WWE crammed every single one of these miscellaneous segments into the first 100 minutes of the show. When these miscellaneous segments were chained together with pre-match or post-match segments, it made for some very long waiting times in between bell-to-bell action. Here is how much time lapsed between the closing bell of one match and the opening bell of the next match:

• 12m 43s: Time between Bryan vs Wyatt and Lesnar vs Big Show
• 23m 24s: Time between Lesnar vs Big Show and Orton vs Cena
• 16m 27s: Time between Orton vs Cena and the Royal Rumble match

Summary

Last year showed that the Royal Rumble is an unusual event when it comes to timing WWE PPVs. Match time increases thanks to the lengthy Royal Rumble match, while pre-match and post-match time are likely to decrease to compensate for that change. This year, the post-match time did not decrease thanks to Lesnar's barrage of chair shots in the aftermath of his match. That extra time was taken away from miscellaneous segments this year.

It is also worth noting that only one 2013 PPV (Survivor Series) went off the air earlier than this one.

Here is a listing of how much total show time was allocated for each match when you add up all 3 components: pre-match time, match time, and post-match time.

• 65m 11s: Royal Rumble match (39.7% of the total show time)
  
• 35m 44s: Orton vs Cena (21.8%)
  
• 28m 06s: Bryan vs Wyatt (17.1%)
  
• 16m 17s: Lesnar vs Big Show (9.9%)

Final Results for Royal Rumble 2014

Match - 60.8% - 1h 39m 39s

Pre-match - 16.8% - 27m 35s

Post-match - 11.0% - 18m 04s

Miscellaneous - 11.4% - 18m 42s