Women’s Royal Rumble 2018 Match Time and Statistics

By Cain A. Knight Feb 3, 2018, 4:00pm EST

The 2018 women’s Royal Rumble match lasted 59 minutes and 00 seconds (59m 00s). This match included many surprise stars from the past, yet none of them were ready for Asuka.

This text graphic provides 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.

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 her way from the entrance ramp down to the actual ring.

The average superstar survival time for the 2018 Women’s Royal Rumble match was 10m 08s and the median survival time was 5m 41s.

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

54m 46s: Sasha Banks
30m 55s: Becky Lynch
23m 12s: Natalya
19m 24s: Asuka
17m 42s: Nia Jax
16m 57s: Carmella
16m 14s: Nikki Bella
16m 12s: Sarah Logan
11m 49s: Brie Bella
11m 16s: Ruby Riott
8m 24s: Michelle McCool
8m 02s: Mickie James
6m 33s: Naomi
6m 19s: Sonya Deville
5m 54s: Ember Moon
5m 28s: Lita
5m 20s: Trish Stratus
4m 53s: Liv Morgan
4m 44s: Kelly Kelly
4m 40s: Bayley
4m 29s: Kairi Sane
3m 48s: Molly Holly
3m 28s: Mandy Rose
2m 44s: Dana Brooke
2m 41s: Torrie Wilson
2m 33s: Lana
1m 59s: Beth Phoenix
1m 27s: Jacqueline
1m 19s: Tamina
0m 58s: Vickie Guerrero

Many of these times differ greatly from their counterparts on WWE.com’s official list of survival times. It seems like WWE’s web site must also include a superstar’s entire entrance time as part of the survival time because most of their times are north of mine by 20 seconds or so.

Then there is a case like Carmella or Natalya, where their listed time is about two minutes apart from mine. In these cases, WWE must be counting the time they were lying on the ground prior to ever entering the ring.

That’s not to say my times are perfect. Every listed time should be viewed with a margin of error of about 3 seconds or so.

The bell to end the match did not ring until about 1 second after Nikki was eliminated. I counted this extra second as part of Asuka’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 (Sasha, Becky) are excluded because their entrances took place prior to the start of the match.

1m 51s: Carmella
1m 43s: Natalya
0m 29s: Vickie Guerrero
0m 27s: Jacqueline, Bayley
0m 26s: Mandy, Lita
0m 25s: Torrie, Beth
0m 24s: Sonya, Mickie
0m 23s: Lana, Ember
0m 22s: Asuka
0m 21s: Sane, Morgan
0m 20s: Logan, Kelly
0m 19s: Ruby Riott
0m 18s: Dana, Molly, Naomi, Trish, Nikki
0m 17s: Tamina, McCool, Jax
0m 11s: Brie Bella

Carmella’s entrance time includes the time she spent on the ground after Vickie Guerrero attacked her with the Money in the Bank briefcase.

Natalya’s entrance time includes the time she spent on the ground after Carmella attacked her.

Follow the Buzzers

WWE stated that there would be 90-second waiting intervals between each entrant in the 2018 women’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 30s: Buzzer 1 - Sarah Logan
1m 49s: Buzzer 2 - Mandy Rose
1m 42s: Buzzer 3 - Lita
2m 29s: Buzzer 4 - Kairi Sane
1m 44s: Buzzer 5 - Tamina
1m 58s: Buzzer 6 - Dana Brooke
1m 28s: Buzzer 7 - Torrie Wilson
1m 50s: Buzzer 8 - Sonya Deville
1m 35s: Buzzer 9 - Liv Morgan
1m 23s: Buzzer 10 - Molly Holly
1m 30s: Buzzer 11 - Lana
1m 21s: Buzzer 12 - Michelle McCool
1m 49s: Buzzer 13 - Ruby Riott
1m 30s: Buzzer 14 - Vickie Guerrero
1m 44s: Buzzer 15 - Carmella
1m 22s: Buzzer 16 - Natalya
1m 21s: Buzzer 17 - Kelly Kelly
1m 25s: Buzzer 18 - Naomi
1m 40s: Buzzer 19 - Jacqueline
1m 26s: Buzzer 20 - Nia Jax
1m 56s: Buzzer 21 - Ember Moon
2m 03s: Buzzer 22 - Beth Phoenix
2m 39s: Buzzer 23 - Asuka
1m 51s: Buzzer 24 - Mickie James
1m 22s: Buzzer 25 - Nikki Bella
2m 00s: Buzzer 26 - Brie Bella
1m 20s: Buzzer 27 - Bayley
1m 26s: Buzzer 28 - Trish Stratus

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

The average waiting period was 1m 41s and the median time was between 1m 37s and 1m 38s.

6 different waiting periods lasted under 1m 25s.

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

The longest waiting period was 2m 39s, and this featured Beth’s entry into the match and her entire situation with Natalya’s betrayal.

The 2m 29s waiting period is where Lita entered the match and eventually eliminated Mandy Rose.

The 2m 03s waiting period included Naomi using Maria Menounos’ chair to save herself from elimination.

The 2m 00s waiting period is where Nikki Bella entered the match and she eliminated Carmella.

The interval that lasted 1m 58s is where Lita performed many of her trademark moves, including a moonsault onto Sasha and Becky. Becky eliminated Lita, and then the 10-second countdown clock appeared.

Nia Jax entered the match in the 1m 56s waiting period and she eliminated 3 superstars. She then tossed Naomi outside the ring and this led to Naomi being stranded on the barricade.

In a perfectly timed match, the final buzzer (signaling Trish’s entrance) would have gone off 42m 00s after the start of the match. In reality, this buzzer went off at 47m 13s.

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 5h 04m 10s. Given that the match lasted a total of 59m 00s, that comes out to an average of 5.2 competitors in the ring at any given second. That would make this the 21st most crowded Royal Rumble match ever out of all 32 matches.

These numbers have not been adjusted to account for ring absences of active superstars like Sasha Banks or Nia Jax. There seemed to be a ton of that going on in this match and it will be quite an ordeal to track it all, so it’s on my list of things to investigate at a later date. Therefore when I talk about how many superstars were “in the ring” I’m counting all active superstars, whether they are literally inside the ring or not.

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

2018 Women’s Royal Rumble Ring Crowdedness

Active Wrestlers	Total Time	% of Match Time	Cumulative %
Active Wrestlers	Total Time	% of Match Time	Cumulative %
1	0m 01s	0.0	0.0
2	4m 22s	7.4	7.4
3	4m 09s	7.0	14.5
4	11m 03s	18.7	33.2
5	15m 46s	26.7	59.9
6	12m 09s	20.6	80.5
7	6m 58s	11.8	92.3
8	2m 32s	4.3	96.6
9	2m 00s	3.4	100.0

This chart shows that the were 4 or fewer active women for 33.2% of the match, and 6 or fewer active women for 80.5% of the match.

The number of active superstars ranged between 4 and 6, inclusive, for 66.0% of the match.

The number of active superstars in the ring only surpassed 7 for a total time of 4m 32s (or 7.7%) in this match.

The ring reached its maximum depth of 9 superstars when the final entrant, Trish Stratus, entered the ring.

There was a 25m 38s stretch, between the time stamps of 27m 13s and 52m 51s, where the number of active superstars was at least equal to 5. This streak started when Carmella entered the ring and ended when Trish was eliminated, leaving the Rumble with its final four participants. During this time the average ring crowdedness was equal to 6.5 active superstars at any given second.

The longest time span without any eliminations was 5m 21s, between the time stamps of 44m 10s and 49m 31s, bound by the eliminations of Carmella and Mickie James. Three new competitors (Nikki, Brie, Trish) entered the match during this time.

End of the Match

Once Trish Stratus entered the ring, the match essentially turned into a 9-woman Battle Royal to the finish between Sasha, Natalya, Jax, Asuka, Mickie, Nikki, Brie, Bayley, and Trish.

This final segment of the 2018 women’s Royal Rumble match lasted 11m 29s, and at that point Asuka emerged as the winner of the match.

That's all you need to know about the timing of the 2018 Women’s Royal Rumble match. Which numbers do you find to be the most interesting?

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