WrestleMania 37 consisted of two nights of matches that took place on Apr. 10 and Apr. 11 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
The main card of Night One lasted 3 hours, 37 minutes, and 45 seconds (3h 37m 45s). Here is a sorted list of the bell-to-bell times for the seven matches that took place during this event:
- 18m 20s: Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre
- 17m 16s: Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair
- 15m 02s: Bunny & Priest vs. Miz & Morrison
- 11m 38s: Tag Team Turmoil
- 11m 28s: Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon
- 11m 27s: Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins
- 9m 47s: New Day vs. Styles & Omos
These times add up to 1h 34m 58s, which is roughly 43.6% of the show.
I included the rain delay as part of the overall show time, which brings down the overall match time percentage. The delay lasted either 20m 20s or 24m 33s, depending on whether or not you count the video package for Lashley vs. McIntyre as part of it. If you magically chop the latter time of 24m 33s off the card, the overall match time for Night One increases to 49.2%.
Here are the individual times for the four matches from Tag Team Turmoil, in chronological order:
- 2m 20s: Lana & Naomi vs. Carmella & Billie Kay
- 2m 06s: Riott Squad vs. Carmella & Billie Kay
- 3m 25s: Riott Squad vs. Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose
- 3m 47s: Riott Squad vs. Tamina & Natalya
The way I calculate the time for the overall Turmoil match is to add up the separate match times, which excludes entrances (or post-match angles, in some cases) between the falls. If you instead treated the Turmoil match as one block of time, from the opening bell of the first match to the closing bell of the final match, the overall match time increases from 11m 38s to 14m 05s.
The main card of Night Two lasted 3 hours, 18 minutes, and 14 seconds (3h 18m 14s). Here is a sorted list of the bell-to-bell times for the seven matches that took place during this event:
- 21m 41s: Reigns vs. Bryan vs. Edge
- 14m 20s: Baszler & Jax vs. Tamina & Natalya
- 13m 27s: Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley
- 10m 51s: Riddle vs. Sheamus
- 9m 16s: Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
- 6m 50s: Big E vs. Apollo Crews
- 5m 54s: The Fiend vs. Randy Orton
These times add up to 1h 22m 19s, which is roughly 41.5% of the show.
It appears that Apollo Crews and Big E drew the short straw here, just like they did last month at Fastlane. And Randy Orton kept up his streak of competing in the ring for less than 10 minutes on each PPV so far in 2021.
Night One included three matches that received at least 15 minutes, and not surprisingly, those three matches are generally regarded among the best of the night. Cesaro & Rollins is the only match under 15 minutes from that night that also worked its way into that Match of the Night conversation.
Only one match on Night Two reached 15 minutes in length. Match time isn’t everything, but it felt like several of the matches on this card (Owens, Riddle, Big E) could have benefited from at least a couple more minutes to really have a chance to kick into that next gear. Looking in the other direction, it could also be argued that 14 minutes for Baszler’s match was a bit much.
It looks to me like the time allocation for the matches on each night played a key role in why Night One is regarded by many more fans as the better night of WrestleMania 37.
The main card of both nights taken together lasted 6h 55m 59s. The 14 match times add up to 2h 57m 17s, which is roughly 42.6% of the combined show time. If the 24m 33s rain delay from Night One is removed, the overall match time percentage for the two nights of WrestleMania 37 increases to 45.3%.
For comparison’s sake, the overall match time percentage for all WWE PPVs since the start of 2013 is 54.0%.
WrestleMania events always include a lower percentage of match time than the average PPV (unless the event takes place inside an empty warehouse). This is due to elaborate entrances, Hall of Fame recognition, live music performances, attendance announcements, speaking time for the host(s), extra video packages or backstage segments, etc.
With that context in mind, here are the match time percentages for all of the WrestleMania events going back to 2013:
- 49.7%: WrestleMania 29
- 51.0%: WrestleMania 30
- 41.2%: WrestleMania 31
- 47.5%: WrestleMania 32
- 44.8%: WrestleMania 33
- 42.0%: WrestleMania 34
- 45.1%: WrestleMania 35
- 54.1%: WrestleMania 36 Night One
- 57.1%: WrestleMania 36 Night Two
Only one event on this list includes a lower match time percentage than Night Two of WrestleMania 37.
Are you surprised by any of these results, Cagesiders? Which of these matches received less (or more) time than you hoped for?