How much wrestling actually happened at Royal Rumble 2019?

WWE featured seven total matches on the main card of Royal Rumble 2019 (Sun., Jan. 27) from Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

The main card of this pay-per-view (PPV) lasted 4 hours, 53 minutes, and 16 seconds (4h 53m 16s). Here is a sorted list of the bell-to-bell times for the seven matches that took place during this event:

• 71m 24s: Women’s Royal Rumble
• 57m 24s: Men’s Royal Rumble
• 24m 32s: Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles
• 17m 08s: Asuka vs. Becky Lynch
• 13m 47s: Ronda Rousey vs. Sasha Banks
• 13m 22s: The Bar vs. Miz & Shane McMahon
• 8m 37s: Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor

These times add up to 3h 26m 14s, which is roughly 70.3% of the show. For comparison’s sake, the overall match time percentage for all WWE PPVs since the start of 2013 is 54.3%.

Not surprisingly, a show that includes two hour long matches far exceeds the average match time percentage. This event joins Royal Rumble 2018 as the only two PPVs in my data set that surpassed a match time percentage of 70%, with both shows scoring 70.3%. This year’s percentage just barely eclipses last year’s mark before rounding, but the difference falls within a reasonable margin of error.

Are you surprised by any of these results, Cagesiders? Which of these matches received less (or more) time than you hoped for?

Don’t forget to keep it here at Cageside Seats for a full breakdown of the timing for the entire Royal Rumble 2019 PPV later this week!