Did the waiting intervals actually last 90 seconds in the 2020 women’s Royal Rumble match?

WWE stated that there would be 90-second waiting intervals between each entrant in the 2020 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 - Mighty Molly
• 1m 32s: Buzzer 2 - Nikki Cross
• 2m 00s: Buzzer 3 - Lana
• 1m 33s: Buzzer 4 - Mercedes Martinez
• 1m 36s: Buzzer 5 - Liv Morgan
• 1m 38s: Buzzer 6 - Mandy Rose
• 1m 31s: Buzzer 7 - Candice LeRae
• 1m 59s: Buzzer 8 - Sonya Deville
• 2m 12s: Buzzer 9 - Kairi Sane
• 1m 32s: Buzzer 10 - Mia Yim
• 2m 24s: Buzzer 11 - Dana Brooke
• 2m 10s: Buzzer 12 - Tamina
• 1m 23s: Buzzer 13 - Dakota Kai
• 1m 20s: Buzzer 14 - Chelsea Green
• 2m 34s: Buzzer 15 - Charlotte Flair
• 1m 58s: Buzzer 16 - Naomi
• 1m 33s: Buzzer 17 - Beth Phoenix
• 1m 48s: Buzzer 18 - Toni Storm
• 1m 44s: Buzzer 19 - Kelly Kelly
• 1m 46s: Buzzer 20 - Sarah Logan
• 1m 31s: Buzzer 21 - Natalya
• 1m 34s: Buzzer 22 - Xia Li
• 1m 48s: Buzzer 23 - Zelina Vega
• 1m 44s: Buzzer 24 - Shotzi Blackheart
• 1m 49s: Buzzer 25 - Carmella
• 1m 53s: Buzzer 26 - Tegan Nox
• 1m 18s: Buzzer 27 - Santina Marella
• 1m 50s: Buzzer 28 - Shayna Baszler

Only eight of the 28 waiting periods fell within 5 seconds of the 90-second goal. 12 of the 28 waiting periods came within 10 seconds of the 90-second goal.

The average waiting period was 1m 45s, and the median time was 1m 44s.

Five of the waiting periods lasted at least two full minutes, so here is some context behind those intervals.

The first of these waiting periods was exactly two minutes in length, and included Nikki Cross entering the match. She and Bliss had a two-on-two battle with Mighty Molly and Bianca Belair, that culminated with all four superstars incapacitated on the ring mat. Once they were all down on the mat, the 10 second countdown clock appeared on the screen.

I guess WWE wanted them all down so that the focus could go to Lana’s mic work that followed in the next interval. Once Lana stopped talking, all four stars in the ring quickly made it to their feet.

The waiting period where Otis initially saved Mandy lasted 1m 59s. This was immediately followed by a 2m 12s interval where Sonya Deville entered the match. The spotlight was mostly on a one-on-one battle between Sonya and Mercedes Martinez, and it finished with Mandy helping Sonya to toss Martinez out of the ring. It appears the period was extended to wait for that elimination.

Mia Yim entered the match during a period that lasted 2m 24s. This interval included Belair’s elimination of Nikki Cross, and then the sequence where Mandy and Sonya were both eliminated after being tossed onto Otis.

This was immediately followed by a 2m 10s waiting period, which included Dana Brooke entering the match. This time consisted of a flurry of offense from Dana Brooke, and then saw the eliminations of LeRae and Sane. The 10 second countdown clock appeared once Sane was eliminated, so it looks like that was what they were waiting for.

The longest waiting period of the match lasted 2m 34s, and this is when Chelsea Green entered the ring. This interval included the eliminations of Dakota Kai, Chelsea Green, Dana Brooke, and Alexa Bliss. The whole point here was to clear the ring of everyone not named Bianca Belair, so that Belair could be waiting for Charlotte Flair at the start of the next period.

That period with Charlotte lasted 1m 58s, and her entrance alone took up roughly 1m 02s of that time.

The period where Naomi initially jumped from the steps to the barricade lasted 1m 49s, and this is when Shotzi Blackheart entered the match. It appears that Naomi was just hanging out on commentary tables for a few more intervals until Shayna Baszler came out, since that is when her elimination was going to occur.

The shortest waiting period of the match included Tegan Nox’s entrance into the match, and this interval lasted 1m 18s. Nox didn’t really have any story in the match because Dakota Kai was eliminated earlier, so it looks like they just wanted to move ahead to the upcoming Santina Marella bit that followed this interval. Nox quickly took a Glam Slam, and then Beth Phoenix essentially was the only superstar standing, because she was the one who would face off with Santina next. That period with Santina lasted 1m 50s.

The median entrance time for the women’s match was between 22 and 23 seconds, compared to the men’s median entrance time of 31 seconds.

In a perfectly timed match, the final buzzer (signaling Baszler’ entrance) would have gone off 42m 00s after the start of the match. In reality, this buzzer went off at 49m 10s. That means the match was extended roughly seven minutes due to inaccurately timed waiting periods.

Overall, WWE’s claim that a new superstar would come out every 90 seconds was mostly inaccurate, and the extent of the inaccuracy closely mirrored the results from the men’s match as well.