How much wrestling actually happened at WrestleMania 36?

WrestleMania 36 consisted of two nights of wrestling that were taped at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, and aired on Apr. 4 and Apr. 5, 2020.

The main card of Night One lasted 2 hours, 58 minutes, and 43 seconds (2h 58m 43s). Here is a sorted list of the bell-to-bell times for the eight matches that took place during this event, excluding the 24/7 title change:

• 18m 52s: Undertaker vs. AJ Styles
• 18m 31s: Morrison vs. Kingston vs. Uso
• 15m 20s: Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins
• 15m 02s: Kabuki Warriors vs. Bliss & Cross
• 9m 17s: Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan
• 8m 53s: Elias vs. King Corbin
• 8m 30s: Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler
• 2m 11s: Goldberg vs. Braun Strowman

These times add up to 1h 36m 36s, which is roughly 54.1% of the show.

I used the entrance music cues to determine the timing boundaries for Undertaker’s boneyard match. As soon as Undertaker’s entrance music ended, I started the clock. At the end of the match after he buried Styles, I stopped the clock when I heard the first gong.

Owens’ match with Rollins had two separate segments, that you could argue were actually two different matches. I added up the separate segment times (9m 58s, 5m 22s) to come up with an overall match time of 15m 20s.

Yes, Elias versus Corbin lasted longer than Lynch versus Baszler.

The main card of Night Two lasted 3 hours, 24 minutes, and 21 seconds (3h 24m 21s). Here is a sorted list of the bell-to-bell times for the eight matches that took place during this event, excluding the 24/7 title change:

• 36m 41s: Edge vs. Randy Orton
• 20m 27s: Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair
• 19m 17s: Bayley vs. Naomi vs. Evans vs. Tamina vs. Banks
• 13m 54s: John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
• 8m 11s: Otis vs. Dolph Ziggler
• 7m 16s: Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley
• 6m 23s: Street Profits vs. Garza & Theory
• 4m 27s: Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre

These times add up to 1h 56m 36s, which is roughly 57.1% of the show.

It was tricky to determine the starting point of John Cena’s match, especially because it could be easily argued that it wasn’t actually a match. I figured that a Firefly Fun House match can’t start until both wrestlers are in the house, so I started the clock when Cena arrived in the Fun House. The clock was stopped when Wyatt’s hand counted to three.

Edge’s Last Man Standing match with Randy Orton was the second longest match in the history of WrestleMania. Only seven matches have reached 30 minutes, spanning all 36 events, and here they are:

• 61m 53s: Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania 12)
• 36m 41s: Edge vs. Randy Orton (WrestleMania 36)
• 36m 28s: Triple H vs. The Rock vs. Big Show vs. Mick Foley (WrestleMania 16)
• 30m 50s: Undertaker vs. Triple H (WrestleMania 28)
• 30m 43s: Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania 25)
• 30m 33s: John Cena vs. The Rock (WrestleMania 28)
• 30m 05s: Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon (WrestleMania 32)

The main card of both nights taken together lasted 6h 23m 04s. The 16 match times add up to 3h 33m 12s, which is roughly 55.7% of the combined show time. For comparison’s sake, the overall match time percentage for all WWE PPVs since the start of 2013 is 54.1%.

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