Did the waiting intervals actually last 90 seconds in the 2018 men’s Royal Rumble match?

WWE stated that there would be 90-second waiting intervals between each entrant in the 2018 men’s Royal Rumble match. How well did WWE stick to that claim? Here are the waiting times between all 28 buzzers, in chronological order:

• 1m 31s: Buzzer 1 - Rhyno
• 1m 36s: Buzzer 2 - Baron Corbin
• 1m 54s: Buzzer 3 - Heath Slater
• 1m 24s: Buzzer 4 - Elias
• 2m 17s: Buzzer 5 - Andrade Almas
• 1m 39s: Buzzer 6 - Bray Wyatt
• 1m 51s: Buzzer 7 - Big E
• 1m 53s: Buzzer 8 - Sami Zayn
• 2m 00s: Buzzer 9 - Sheamus
• 1m 40s: Buzzer 10 - Xavier Woods
• 1m 38s: Buzzer 11 - Apollo Crews
• 1m 25s: Buzzer 12 - Shinsuke Nakamura
• 1m 36s: Buzzer 13 - Cesaro
• 1m 23s: Buzzer 14 - Kofi Kingston
• 1m 28s: Buzzer 15 - Jinder Mahal
• 1m 32s: Buzzer 16 - Seth Rollins
• 2m 55s: Buzzer 17 - Woken Matt Hardy
• 1m 35s: Buzzer 18 - John Cena
• 1m 34s: Buzzer 19 - The Hurricane
• 1m 33s: Buzzer 20 - Aiden English
• 1m 25s: Buzzer 21 - Adam Cole
• 1m 30s: Buzzer 22 - Randy Orton
• 1m 28s: Buzzer 23 - Titus O’Neil
• 1m 33s: Buzzer 24 - The Miz
• 1m 32s: Buzzer 25 - Rey Mysterio
• 1m 42s: Buzzer 26 - Roman Reigns
• 2m 38s: Buzzer 27 - Goldust
• 1m 24s: Buzzer 28 - Dolph Ziggler

12 of the 28 waiting periods fell within 5 seconds of the 90-second goal.

The average waiting period was 1m 42s and the median time was between 1m 34s and 1m 35s.

4 different waiting periods lasted 2m 00s or longer.

The 2m 55s waiting period is the one where Kofi was saved with the power of pancakes but then eliminated by Almas. As soon as Kofi was eliminated, the 10-second countdown clock appeared.

Roman’s entry into the match occurred during the 2m 38s waiting period. This is where Reigns and Rollins teamed up to eliminate the Miz, and the Miztourage got involved too. Reigns then tossed Rollins out, and the 10-second countdown clock appeared a few seconds later.

The 2m 17s waiting period is where Elias came out playing his guitar and wasting time in the ring.

The 2m 00s interval is where Owens and Zayn beat up Tye Dillinger backstage and then stole his spot.

There was a 1m 54s waiting period that occurred during Baron Corbin’s entry. This included his elimination and assault on all the wrestlers remaining in the match.

In a perfectly timed match, the final buzzer (signaling Dolph’s entrance) would have gone off 42m 00s after the start of the match. In reality, this buzzer went off at 47m 36s.

Overall, WWE didn’t do too well with sticking to the 90-second rule.