WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Match Time and Statistics

The 2017 Royal Rumble match lasted 62 minutes and 8 seconds (62m 08s). This battle royal featured a ton of destruction from behemoths like Braun Strowman, Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, and Goldberg. The match was then capped off with a spectacular Roman Reigns troll job.

This text graphic captures much of the information discussed below. It gives time stamps for each superstar's arrival and exit from the match, as well as showing who the longest lasting superstars were as the match progressed.

This alternate text graphic is similar to the one above, except it is updated to reflect Chris Jericho’s absences from the ring while he was still officially active in the match.

For comparison's sake, here are other versions of this graphic for Royal Rumble matches from 1988, 1992, 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2013.

Survival Times

My definition of the Survival Time for a superstar is the time that lapses between the point when a superstar steps foot into the ring and the time that the superstar's feet hit the floor to signal elimination. This does not include the time it takes for a superstar to make his way from the entrance ramp down to the actual ring.

The average superstar survival time for the 2017 Royal Rumble match was 13m 34s and the median survival time was 7m 32s. If the adjusted time for Jericho is used, then the average survival time falls to 12m 31s and the median remains unchanged.

Here is the full list of survival times for all 30 superstars:

• 60m 13s: Chris Jericho (falls to 28m 43s when adjusted)
• 46m 54s: Sami Zayn
• 32m 46s: Baron Corbin
• 32m 41s: The Miz
• 26m 55s: Dean Ambrose
• 24m 09s: Bray Wyatt
• 22m 38s: Rusev
• 20m 54s: Randy Orton
• 16m12s: Kofi Kingston
• 13m 11s: Braun Strowman
• 12m 15s: Sheamus
• 9m 57s: Big Cass
• 9m 56s: Luke Harper
• 9m 49s: Big E
• 8m 18s: Kalisto
• 6m 46s: Cesaro
• 6m 15s: Mojo Rawley
• 5m 46s: Apollo Crews
• 5m 28s: Tye Dillinger
• 5m 05s: Roman Reigns
• 5m 03s: Undertaker
• 4m 47s: Xavier Woods
• 4m 31s: Brock Lesnar
• 4m 22s: Dolph Ziggler
• 3m 23s: Goldberg
• 3m 20s: Jack Gallagher
• 3m 17s: Mark Henry
• 1m 43s: Big Show
• 0m 19s: Enzo Amore
• 0m 14s: James Ellsworth

Chris Jericho’s title as iron man of the 2017 Royal Rumble match could perhaps be disputed based on the fact that he only spent 28m 43s inside the ring.

Jericho had 4 separate stints outside the ring that combined to last 31m 30s, so he spent more time outside the ring than inside of it.

His total survival time of 60m 13s roughly followed these timing guidelines, in chronological order:

• 9m 23s - inside the ring
• 5m 29s - outside
• 0m 17s - inside
• 13m 03s - outside
• 1m 06s - inside
• 10m 44s - outside
• 9m 56s - inside
• 2m 14s - outside
• 8m 01s - inside

Would you have believed that Kalisto finished (just barely) in the top half of the 30 survival times?

Only 3 participants survived for less than 2 minutes. The last time that happened was in 2007, though 2013 was pretty darn close as well.

Dolph Ziggler has failed to survive for more than 7 minutes in any Royal Rumble match since his iron man performance in 2013.

There was a ton of hype surrounding Goldberg, Undertaker, and Brock Lesnar as potential winners of this match. However they all finished among the ten shortest survival times, and their combined survival time was only 12m 57s. Braun Strowman survived longer than that all on his own.

Almost all of my listed survival times fall within 2 seconds of the corresponding times listed on WWE’s web site. However there are three notable exceptions. WWE’s survival times for Corbin and Rusev are each 7 seconds short of mine.

The biggest discrepancy comes with the Undertaker, who they claim lasted 8m 46s whereas I claim that he lasted 5m 03s. This is a rather gigantic gap that I have no idea how to explain right now.

The bell to end the match did not ring until about 1 second after Reigns was eliminated. I counted this extra second as part of Orton’s survival time.

Entrance Times

Here are the entrance times for each superstar involved. This is the amount of time that passed between an entrance buzzer going off and when the superstar finally stepped foot into the actual ring. The first two entrants (Big Cass, Jericho) are excluded because their entrances took place prior to the start of the match.

• 2m 17s: James Ellsworth
• 1m 09s: Dean Ambrose
• 1m 07s: Roman Reigns
• 1m 03s: Goldberg
• 1m 01s: Bray Wyatt
• 0m 58s: Big Show
• 0m 52s: Enzo Amore
• 0m 49s: Mark Henry
• 0m 44s: Brock Lesnar
• 0m 41s: Big E
• 0m 37s: Braun Strowman
• 0m 36s: Tye Dillinger
• 0m 35s: The Miz
• 0m 32s: Undertaker
• 0m 31s: Rusev
• 0m 30s: Luke Harper
• 0m 29s: Randy Orton
• 0m 27s: Kalisto
• 0m 23s: Baron Corbin
• 0m 23s: Jack Gallagher
• 0m 22s: Dolph Ziggler
• 0m 21s: Mojo Rawley
• 0m 20s: Sami Zayn
• 0m 19s: Kofi Kingston
• 0m 18s: Sheamus, Cesaro
• 0m 16s: Xavier Woods
• 0m 15s: Apollo Crews

Ellsworth never entered the ring throughout his waiting period due to his fear of Strowman, so that entire time outside the ring counted as part of his entrance.

Ambrose’s entrance was the next longest one because he spent some time tricking Ellsworth to join the fray and then Ambrose watched Strowman destroy Ellsworth before finally entering the ring.

These numbers add up to about 17m 34s of total entrance time out of the entire 62m 08s match. That means for about 28.3% of the match, at least one superstar was in the midst of his entrance.

If Ellsworth’s entrance is magically reduced to 0m 24s, which is how long it took him to stop in his tracks at the sight of Braun Strowman, then this percentage would drop to 26.3%.

This excessive entrance time was largely due to the extra long entrance ramp and perhaps was a chief factor in convincing WWE to use 2-minute waiting intervals this year rather than 90-second waiting intervals.

Follow The Buzzers

Jojo stated that there would be 2-minute waiting intervals between each entrant. How well did WWE stick to that claim? Here are the waiting times between all 28 buzzers, in chronological order:

• 1m 31s: Buzzer 1 - Kalisto
• 1m 38s: Buzzer 2 - Mojo Rawley
• 1m 34s: Buzzer 3 - Jack Gallagher
• 2m 01s: Buzzer 4 - Mark Henry
• 2m 00s: Buzzer 5 - Braun Strowman
• 2m 22s: Buzzer 6 - Sami Zayn
• 1m 52s: Buzzer 7 - Big Show
• 2m 58s: Buzzer 8 - Tye Dillinger
• 1m 39s: Buzzer 9 - James Ellsworth
• 1m 38s: Buzzer 10 - Dean Ambrose
• 2m 05s: Buzzer 11 - Baron Corbin
• 2m 05s: Buzzer 12 - Kofi Kingston
• 1m 37s: Buzzer 13 - The Miz
• 2m 33s: Buzzer 14 - Sheamus
• 1m 52s: Buzzer 15 - Big E
• 1m 48s: Buzzer 16 - Rusev
• 1m 49s: Buzzer 17 - Cesaro
• 1m 50s: Buzzer 18 - Xavier Woods
• 1m 46s: Buzzer 19 - Bray Wyatt
• 2m 20s: Buzzer 20 - Apollo Crews
• 1m 47s: Buzzer 21 - Randy Orton
• 1m 52s: Buzzer 22 - Dolph Ziggler
• 1m 35s: Buzzer 23 - Luke Harper
• 2m 15s: Buzzer 24 - Brock Lesnar
• 1m 54s: Buzzer 25 - Enzo Amore
• 1m 55s: Buzzer 26 - Goldberg
• 3m 00s: Buzzer 27 - Undertaker
• 2m 39s: Buzzer 28 - Roman Reigns

5 of the 28 waiting periods fell within 5 seconds of the 2-minute goal. 3 of those 5 accurate waiting periods fell right on the 5-second boundary.

The average waiting period was 2m 00s and the median time was 1m 52s.

In a perfectly timed match, the final buzzer (signaling Roman’s entrance) would have gone off 56m 00s after the start of the match. In reality, this buzzer went off at 55m 55s. WWE managed to come extremely close to the right number here even though the individual waiting times were all over the place.

The first waiting period of the night was also the shortest, and with a time of 1m 31s it seemed like WWE was still in 90-second mode for that one. In fact the first 3 waiting periods were all under 1m 40s, and ranked among the 6 shortest waiting periods of the match.

The waiting periods leading to the entrances of Ellsworth and Ambrose also lasted less than 1m 40s.

The longest waiting period (3m 00s) occurred when Goldberg made his lengthy entrance and then eliminated Brock Lesnar.

The waiting period that included Big Show entering and facing off with Strowman lasted 2m 58s. Once Big Show’s feet hit the floor to signal elimination, the WWE countdown clock for Tye Dillinger began to tick down from 10.

The waiting period that featured Undertaker’s entrance lasted 2m 39s, and this is where Undertaker eliminated Goldberg.

The next longest waiting period lasted 2m 33s, preceding the entrance of Sheamus, and this is where Kofi pulled off his annual elimination escape spot.

The waiting period where Braun cleared the ring, leading to Zayn’s entrance, lasted 2m 22s.

Bray Wyatt’s entrance marked the start of a waiting period that lasted 2m 20s, and this also included his brief callback with Xavier Woods.

Starting with the entrance of Sheamus at Buzzer 14, 10 of the next 12 waiting periods lasted under 2 minutes.

Ring Crowdedness

I also wanted to take a look at how the ring filled up with superstars as the match progressed. If you add up each wrestler's survival time, it results in a total survival time of 6h 47m 07s. Given that the match lasted a total of 62m 08s, that comes out to an average of 6.6 competitors in the ring at any given second. That would make this the 8th most crowded Royal Rumble match ever.

If the numbers are adjusted to account for the absences of Jericho while he was still officially in the match, that number drops to 6.0 competitors in the ring at any given second. That’s more in the range of the 12th through 14th most crowded Royal Rumble matches ever.

Here is a more accurate way to understand how many men were in the ring at any given time. This chart shows the total time that the ring was filled with an exact number of discrete superstars at once. This is using the unadjusted data.

And here is the same chart, now adjusted for Jericho’s departures from the ring.

The ring crowdedness for this match can be broken up into two parts based on Braun Strowman’s elimination point, which occurred at 22m 32s.

The ring depth peaked at 6 men during the first 22m 32s. On average there were 3.9 active competitors (or 3.4, if you adjust for Jericho) at any given second during that early portion of the match.

Meanwhile from 22m 32s through the end of the match, the ring averaged 8.0 competitors (or 7.6, if you adjust for Jericho) at any given second. That’s nearly 40 minutes with a packed ring.

The table for the unadjusted data shows at least 8 active competitors for 39.5% of the match, but also 4 or fewer active competitors for 31.8% of the match.

The match began with an 8m 36s stretch without any eliminations; during this time, Cass and Jericho were joined in the ring by Kalisto, Mojo Rawley, Jack Gallagher, and Mark Henry.

Strowman thinned the crowd for much of his survival time, but as soon as he was eliminated the ring depth began to rise incredibly fast. 17m 22s lapsed after Strowman’s elimination until the next elimination (Kofi) finally took place. During that time the following 9 entrants joined the fray: Kofi, Miz, Sheamus, Big E, Rusev, Cesaro, Woods, Wyatt, and Apollo Crews.

Apollo’s entry into the match helped the ring achieve its max depth of 13 (or 12, if you adjust for Jericho) for a grand total of 0m 41s. If you don’t mind counting Jericho’s full survival time, that would make this the 7th Royal Rumble match to ever reach a depth of 13 men. The 2006 and 2009 Royal Rumble matches are the only ones to ever exceed a max depth of 13 superstars.

However that max depth of 13 superstars took a major blow in the form of New Day, Cesaro, and Sheamus all being eliminated in a span of about 0m 12s, dropping the ring depth to 8 in sudden fashion.

The crowd in the ring rose back up to the 10 or 11 range for Brock Lesnar’s entry into the match, and once Ambrose and Ziggler were disposed of, the ring depth remained around 9 or 10 until shortly after Undertaker entered the ring.

End of the Match

Once Roman Reigns entered the ring, the match essentially turned into a 7-man Battle Royal to the finish between Jericho, Zayn, Miz, Wyatt, Orton, Undertaker, and Roman Reigns.

This final segment of the 2017 Royal Rumble match lasted 5m 06s, and at that point Randy Orton emerged as the winner of the match.

That's all you need to know about the timing of the 2017 Royal Rumble match. Which numbers do you find to be the most interesting?

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