The complete list of survival times for the 2022 men’s Royal Rumble match

By Cain A. Knight Jan 30, 2022, 3:00pm EST

The 2022 men’s Royal Rumble match lasted 51 minutes and 14 seconds (51m 14s).

The survival time for a superstar is the time that lapses between the point when he steps foot into the ring and the time that his feet hit the floor to signal elimination. This does not include the time it takes for a superstar to make his way from the entrance ramp down to the actual ring.

The average superstar survival time for the 2022 men’s Royal Rumble match was 9m 15s and the median survival time was 7m 09s. The median value is less influenced by outliers at either extreme.

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

29m 06s: AJ Styles
22m 06s: Austin Theory
20m 46s: Dolph Ziggler
19m 47s: ~~Matt~~ Riddle
19m 17s: Drew McIntyre
19m 12s: Ridge Holland
17m 55s: Sheamus
11m 12s: Kevin Owens
11m 04s: Damian Priest
10m 46s: Happy Corbin
9m 09s: Montez Ford
9m 03s: Rey Mysterio
8m 52s: Otis
8m 16s: Chad Gable
7m 41s: Bad Bunny
6m 37s: Big E
5m 52s: Shinsuke Nakamura
5m 38s: Shane McMahon
4m 44s: Ricochet
4m 33s: Rick Boogs
4m 25s: Omos
4m 25s: Madcap Moss
3m 44s: Dominik Mysterio
3m 17s: Sami Zayn
2m 33s: Brock Lesnar
2m 22s: Randy Orton
2m 13s: Angelo Dawkins
1m 26s: Johnny Knoxville
0m 55s: Robert Roode
0m 21s: Kofi Kingston

Every listed time above should be viewed with a margin of error of about two seconds or so.

These survival times all fall within two seconds of the numbers listed on WWE’s web site, with one exception. WWE lists Ricochet as surviving for 4m 23s, whereas I have him at 4m 44s. I double checked his appearance in the match, and while I can see maybe a second or two being shaved off the time I have listed for him, it’s not clear how they came up with a number that is 21 seconds lower than mine.

There was about a one second delay between the time when McIntyre’s feet hit the floor to signal his elimination and when the bell rang to officially end the match. I added this extra second onto Brock Lesnar’s survival time.

Kofi Kingston’s annual spot where he saves himself from elimination was botched. As a result, he ended up with the worst survival time in the match, only lasting 21 seconds.

Kofi’s early exit may have changed whatever spots were also planned in the match for Big E, since they had nearly adjacent entry positions in the match. The former WWE champion’s survival time of 6m 37s fell below the median line. His elimination wasn’t particularly noteworthy, as RK-Bro tossed him out without much of a fuss.

Bad Bunny’s survival time (7m 41s) beat out half of the 30 man field, including Big E.

Hometown hero Randy Orton drew number 29 and only lasted 2m 22s, a bottom five survival time for the match. It’s as if WWE loves beating their hometown stars or something.

Sami Zayn (3m 17s) can brag that he had a longer survival time than Brock Lesnar (2m 33s). It’s fitting that these two Canadian alpha males rank right next to each other on the above list.

Only three wrestlers lasted longer than 20 minutes.

Raise your hand if you predicted that Dolph Ziggler would have a top three survival time in this match, or that Ridge Holland would have the 6th longest survival time. I don’t see any hands raised.

Even though Sheamus (17m 55s) and Kevin Owens (11m 12s) rank right next to each other on the list of survival times, there is a rather large gap between their actual times; no wrestler had a survival time fall within that range.

AJ Styles was the Iron Man of this match with a survival time of 29m 06s. The last time a Royal Rumble Iron Man had a survival time of under 30 minutes was when John Cena did it in 2010.

The overall match time of 51m 14s is relatively quick for a 30-person Rumble with at least 90 second intervals. The only shorter ones I can find are 1997 and 2010. This can be partially attributed to Brock Lesnar entering the match at number 30 and eliminating every remaining wrestler in less than three minutes to win it. His survival time of 2m 33s is the shortest ever for the Rumble winner.

So there you have it, Cagesiders. Which of the above numbers surprise you the most?

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