WWE Survivor Series 2016 match times stats breakdown

WWE's Survivor Series 2016 lasted for 3 hours 26 minutes and 3 seconds (3h 26m 03s). 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.

Start	End	Description	Duration
0m 00s	0m 22s	Then Now Forever	0m 22s
0m 22s	2m 39s	Video hyping Survivor Series 2016	2m 17s
2m 39s	3m 30s	Opening pyro	0m 51s
3m 30s	12m 11s	Pre-match for Raw women's team vs SD women's team	8m 41s
12m 11s	30m 03s	Raw women's team vs SD women's team	17m 52s
30m 03s	32m 51s	Post-match for Raw women's team vs SD women's team	2m 48s
32m 51s	33m 49s	Commercial for WWE 2K17	0m 58s
33m 49s	34m 36s	Commercial for WWE Story Time	0m 47s
34m 36s	37m 33s	Backstage with James Ellsworth	2m 57s
37m 33s	37m 50s	Cole talks about Toronto	0m 17s
37m 50s	42m 16s	Pre-match for The Miz vs Sami Zayn	4m 26s
42m 16s	56m 22s	The Miz vs Sami Zayn	14m 06s
56m 22s	58m 15s	Post-match for The Miz vs Sami Zayn	1m 53s
58m 15s	59m 50s	Backstage with Shane, Ambrose, and Styles	1m 35s
59m 50s	1h 00m 21s	Commercial for WWE Crash Cage Playset	0m 31s
1h 00m 21s	1h 00m 52s	Commercial for Kay Jewelers	0m 31s
1h 00m 52s	1h 01m 24s	Commercial for Hulu	0m 32s
1h 01m 24s	1h 11m 00s	Pre-match for Raw tag teams vs SD tag teams	9m 36s
1h 11m 00s	1h 29m 54s	Raw tag teams vs SD tag teams	18m 54s
1h 29m 54s	1h 32m 25s	Post-match for Raw tag teams vs SD tag teams	2m 31s
1h 32m 25s	1h 34m 12s	Backstage with Stephanie and Foley	1m 47s
1h 34m 12s	1h 35m 13s	Commercial for Moana	1m 01s
1h 35m 13s	1h 36m 16s	Hype for TLC 2016	1m 03s
1h 36m 16s	1h 40m 51s	Pre-match for Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto	4m 35s
1h 40m 51s	1h 53m 08s	Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto	12m 17s
1h 53m 08s	1h 54m 37s	Post-match for Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto	1m 29s
1h 54m 37s	1h 56m 17s	Kickoff panel discussion	1m 40s
1h 56m 17s	1h 57m 05s	Backstage with Bryan and Corbin	0m 48s
1h 57m 05s	1h 57m 36s	Commercial for Incarnate	0m 31s
1h 57m 36s	1h 58m 37s	Hype for Roadblock: End of the Line	1m 01s
1h 58m 37s	2h 02m 21s	Pre-match for Raw men's team vs SD men's team	3m 44s
2h 02m 21s	2h 02m 51s	Hype for Survivor Series 2017	0m 30s
2h 02m 51s	2h 14m 07s	Pre-match for Raw men's team vs SD men's team	11m 16s
2h 14m 07s	3h 06m 58s	Raw men's team vs SD men's team	52m 51s
3h 06m 58s	3h 08m 33s	Post-match for Raw men's team vs SD men's team	1m 35s
3h 08m 33s	3h 09m 21s	Commercial for WWE Story Time	0m 48s
3h 09m 21s	3h 10m 46s	Hype for WWE Network	1m 25s
3h 10m 46s	3h 20m 46s	Pre-match for Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar	10m 00s
3h 20m 46s	3h 22m 13s	Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar	1m 27s
3h 22m 13s	3h 26m 03s	Post-match for Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar	3m 50s

Match Times

The 6 matches combined for a total time of 1h 57m 27s. This means that 57.0% of the show was devoted to bell-to-bell action. This is the 14th highest percentage in this category out of the 50 WWE pay-per-view (PPV) events in my data set, which begins with Royal Rumble 2013.

Here is the sorted list of match times for Survivor Series 2016. This also includes where each match time ranks out of all 358 matches in my data set.

• 52m 51s: Raw men's team vs SmackDown men's team (5th longest out of 358 matches)
• 18m 54s: Raw tag teams vs SmackDown tag teams (79th)
• 17m 52s: Raw women's team vs SmackDown women's team (91st)
• 14m 06s: The Miz vs Sami Zayn (141st)
• 12m 17s: Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto (176th)
• 1m 27s: Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar (349th)

These approximate times always come with a 2 or 3 second margin of error, and so I don't question anybody who officially lists the time of Goldberg's match as 1m 25s or 1m 26s.  At the end of a match I try to always wait for a bell to ring before stopping the clock, rather than using the visual cue of the referee's hand hitting the mat for the third time.  That could possibly add a second to my time.  I also start the clock as soon as I hear the opening bell, rather than waiting for the third chime of the opening bell.  That could also possibly add a second to my time.

Ultimately my time for Goldberg's match clocked in at 1m 26s and a fraction of a second that was closer to 1m 27s than 1m 26s.  So I rounded up and used 1m 27s as my official time for that match.

Here are the survival times for each of the participants in the three traditional Survivor Series tag team matches:

• 17m 52s: Charlotte, Bayley, Becky Lynch
  
• 14m 07s: Alexa Bliss
• 13m 34s: Nia Jax
• 12m 00s: Natalya
• 10m 19s: Sasha Banks
• 8m 22s: Naomi
• 6m 46s: Alicia Fox
• 6m 24s: Carmella

• 18m 54s: Cesaro, Sheamus, The Usos
• 13m 25s: Enzo and Big Cass
• 12m 46s: Heath Slater and Rhyno
• 12m 38s: Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson
• 10m 38s: American Alpha
• 8m 09s: Shining Stars
• 5m 08s: Hype Bros
• 1m 07s: New Day
• 0m 42s: Breezango

• 52m 51s: Orton, Wyatt, Reigns
• 49m 28s: Seth Rollins
• 46m 00s: AJ Styles
• 37m 02s: Shane McMahon
• 30m 19s: Chris Jericho
• 29m 19s: Kevin Owens
• 21m 11s: Braun Strowman
• 15m 57s: Dean Ambrose

Pre-match Segments

The pre-match segments combined for a total time of 52m 18s, which is 25.4% of the show. This is the 13th highest percentage in this category out of the 50 events in my data set.

Here is the sorted list of pre-match segment time for all 6 matches. For some context, keep in mind that the median pre-match segment time in my data set is 5m 19s and the average time is 5m 55s.

• 15m 00s: Raw men's team vs SmackDown men's team
• 10m 00s: Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar
• 9m 36s: Raw tag teams vs SmackDown tag teams
• 8m 41s: Raw women's team vs SmackDown women's team
• 4m 35s: Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto
• 4m 26s: The Miz vs Sami Zayn

Three matches received the special treatment of a dedicated video package right before superstar entrances. The videos hyping Kendrick's match (2m 05s), Shane's match (3m 27s), and Goldberg's match (4m 26s) combined to take up 9m 58s of the pre-match segment time.

Goldberg's entrance lasted 1m 56s.

Post-match Segments

The post-match segments combined for a total time of 14m 06s, which is 6.8% of the show. This is the 46th highest percentage in this category out of the 50 events in my data set.

Here is the sorted list of the post-match segment time for all 6 matches. For some context, keep in mind that the median post-match segment time in my data set is 1m 57s and the average time is 2m 26s.

• 3m 50s: Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar
• 2m 48s: Raw women's team vs SmackDown women's team
• 2m 31s: Raw tag teams vs SmackDown tag teams
• 1m 53s: The Miz vs Sami Zayn
• 1m 35s: Raw men's team vs SmackDown men's team
• 1m 29s: Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto

Miscellaneous Segments

That leaves about 10.8% (22m 12s) of the show for everything else. This is the 35th highest percentage in this category out of the 50 events in my data set.

Most of these miscellaneous segments are crammed into the time after one post-match segment ends and before the next pre-match segment begins. Survivor Series 2016 included 6 different blocks of miscellaneous segments. Here is how long each block lasted, in chronological order:

• Block 1: 3m 30s (Then Now Forever; Opening hype video and pyro)
• Block 2: 4m 59s (Ads for WWE 2K17 and WWE Story Time; Backstage with Ellsworth)
• Block 3: 3m 09s (Backstage with Shane; Ads for WWE toys, Kay Jewelers, and Hulu)
• Block 4: 3m 51s (Backstage with Steph and Foley; Ad for Moana; Hype for TLC 2016)
• Block 5: 4m 30s (Kickoff panel; Corbin backstage; ads for Incarnate and future PPVs)
• Block 6: 2m 13s (Ad for WWE Story Time; hype for WWE Network)

Every PPV seems to include at least one backstage segment.  The 4 backstage segments at Survivor Series 2016 combined to take up 7m 07s, which is more time than on any other PPV of the year, including the nearly 5-hour WrestleMania 32 card.

Summary

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. This list also includes where each total time ranks among the 358 entries in my data set.

• 69m 26s: Raw men's team vs SmackDown men's team (3rd longest out of 358 entries)
• 31m 01s: Raw tag teams vs SmackDown tag teams (79th)
• 29m 21s: Raw women's team vs SmackDown women's team (90th)
• 20m 25s: The Miz vs Sami Zayn (171st)
• 18m 21s: Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto (189th)
• 15m 17s: Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar (241st)

Now here is a look at the "Match Time Percentage" for each match. For any given match, this percentage shows how the match time compares to the combined pre-match and post-match segment time. For some context, it's good to know that the median result here since 2013 is 62.8%.

(Here's an example calculation: an entry with a match time of 6m 00s, pre-match time of 3m 00s, and a post-match time of 1m 00s has a score of 60.0%, because the match time of 6m 00s is 60% of the total sum of 10m 00s for all three components.)

• 76.1%: Raw men's team vs SmackDown men's team
• 69.1%: The Miz vs Sami Zayn
• 66.9%: Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto
• 60.9%: Raw tag teams vs SmackDown tag teams
• 60.9%: Raw women's team vs SmackDown women's team
• 9.5%: Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar

_________________________________________

Survivor Series 2016 was a show of extremes; it featured the longest non-Rumble match in my data set as well as the shortest main event match. Approximately 33% of the show (69.5 minutes) was allocated to the men's traditional Survivor Series tag team match. The other two elimination tag team matches were essentially treated as equals to each other, with each match landing in the neighborhood of 30 minutes of total show time.

This event fell short of the advertised 4-hour mark by more than 30 minutes. It's possible that WWE intentionally used that 4-hour expectation to deceive the audience into thinking that Goldberg and Lesnar were going to have the typical back-and-forth lengthy main event match, thus making the quick squash even more shocking.

Final Results for Survivor Series 2016

Match - 57.0% - 1h 57m 27s

Pre-match - 25.4% - 52m 18s

Post-match - 6.8% - 14m 06s

Miscellaneous - 10.8% - 22m 12s