The 2023 men’s Royal Rumble match lasted 71 minutes and 40 seconds (71m 40s).
This text graphic provides timestamps for each superstar’s arrival and exit from the match, as well as showing who the longest lasting superstars were as the match progressed.
For comparison’s sake, here are other versions of this graphic for Royal Rumble matches from 1988, 1992, 2003, 2007, 2009, and 2013.
Survival Times
The survival time for a wrestler 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 wrestler to make his way from the entrance ramp down to the actual ring.
The average superstar survival time for the 2023 men’s Royal Rumble match was 13m 19s and the median survival time was 7m 29s. The median value is less influenced by outliers at either extreme.
Here is the full list of survival times for all 30 superstars:
71m 40s: GUNTHER
52m 32s: Sheamus
39m 09s: Drew McIntyre
37m 17s: Seth Rollins
29m 57s: Johnny Gargano
25m 45s: Dominik Mysterio
15m 39s: Austin Theory
15m 07s: Cody Rhodes
14m 51s: Kofi Kingston
11m 13s: Braun Strowman
10m 57s: Logan Paul
10m 28s: Xavier Woods
9m 14s: Ricochet
8m 42s: Chad Gable
7m 45s: Finn Balor
7m 13s: Bobby Lashley
4m 56s: Santos Escobar
4m 23s: The Miz
4m 12s: Karrion Kross
4m 03s: Damian Priest
3m 17s: Angelo Dawkins
3m 07s: Otis
2m 28s: Brock Lesnar
2m 27s: Omos
1m 04s: Edge
0m 44s: Montez Ford
0m 41s: Booker T
0m 39s: Elias
0m 07s: Baron Corbin
0m 00s: Rey Mysterio
Every listed time above should be viewed with a margin of error of about two seconds or so.
These survival times all fall within one second of the numbers listed on WWE’s web site, with one exception. WWE lists Angelo Dawkins as surviving for 2m 28s, whereas I have him at 3m 17s. I double checked his appearance in the match, and I am very confident that my time is accurate. It looks like a simple typo on WWE’s end; they list Dawkins and Brock Lesnar in adjacent entries and accidentally assigned Lesnar’s survival time of 2m 28s to both wrestlers.
I decided to count Rey Mysterio as a participant in the match with a survival time of 0m 00s, even though he never made it out to the ring. This is similar to what happened with Macho Man Randy Savage’s spot in the 1991 Royal Rumble and with Skull in the 1998 Rumble. If Rey is excluded, the remaining 29 wrestlers had an average survival time of 13m 47s and a median time of 7m 45s.
The overall match time of 71m 40s is second longest Royal Rumble match ever, only trailing the 50-man Greatest Royal Rumble. That’s right, this 30-man Rumble with 90 second intervals lasted longer than the 40-man version in 2011 and all of the Rumbles with official waiting intervals of two minutes.
GUNTHER was the Iron Man of this match with a survival time of 71m 40s. It’s the second longest survival time ever, only trailing Daniel Bryan’s performance from the Greatest Royal Rumble.
The top six wrestlers on the list all surpassed a survival time of 25 minutes. They are also the only wrestlers in the match who lasted more than 16 minutes. Of these six men, I’d say Johnny Gargano was the quietest, in terms of not really doing a whole lot given how long he was in there.
Even though Cody Rhodes was the last man to enter the match, his survival time of 15m 07s ranked eighth longest. That’s because his final one-on-one showdown with GUNTHER lasted 7m 15s.
This is the second consecutive year where Brock Lesnar’s survival time was less than three minutes. That was good enough to win it all last year, but not so much this time around.
Logan Paul’s survival time of 10m 57s includes the 3m 55s break he took outside the ring, before he ran back in to eliminate Seth Rollins.
Edge, Montez Ford, Booker T, and Elias all failed to survive long enough to make it to the next buzzer after theirs.
Even though Baron Corbin only survived for seven seconds, he actually did make it into the next waiting period. That’s because Brock Lesnar immediately laid him out with an F5 before he could enter the ring. He remained unconscious outside the ring until the next entrant (Rollins) came out and tossed him into the ring to start the clock on his survival time.
You can find information on the elimination order here.
Entrance Times
Here are the entrance times for each superstar involved. This is the amount of time that passed between an entrance buzzer going off and when the superstar finally stepped foot into the actual ring. The first two entrants (GUNTHER, Sheamus) are excluded because their entrances took place prior to the start of the match.
3m 04s: Baron Corbin
2m 10s: Dominik Mysterio
1m 35s: Austin Theory
1m 21s: Seth Rollins
1m 14s: Cody Rhodes
1m 07s: The Miz, Omos
0m 56s: Brock Lesnar
0m 51s: Braun Strowman
0m 49s: Karrion Kross
0m 46s: Booker T
0m 45s: Finn Balor
0m 44s: Montez Ford
0m 39s: Edge
0m 38s: Johnny Gargano
0m 36s: Otis
0m 35s: Elias
0m 34s: Logan Paul
0m 33s: Gable, McIntyre, Lashley
0m 31s: Santos Escobar
0m 26s: Kingston, Priest, Ricochet
0m 18s: Xavier Woods
0m 16s: Angelo Dawkins
0m 00s: Rey Mysterio
The way I record this data is that the entrance time for a wrestler ends when his survival time begins. The exception to this is Rey Mysterio, who never made it to the ring and never accrued any survival time despite being one of the 30 official competitors in the match. I recorded his entrance time as 0m 00s.
The median entrance time in the men’s Royal Rumble was 38.5 seconds.
Baron Corbin actually made it close to the ring by about 28 seconds after his entrance began, but that’s when he was attacked by Brock Lesnar before he could enter the match. Corbin remained unconscious on the outside until Seth Rollins rolled him into the ring, ending his entrance time at 3m 04s.
It took Dominik about 1m 15s just to make his way to ringside. He then cowardly walked around the ring for a while before entering, bringing his entrance time up to 2m 10s. Nobody else came out during this time despite more than 90 seconds lapsing.
Austin Theory’s long entrance time of 1m 35s coincided with the part where Edge was already eliminated and brawled up the walkway with the rest of The Judgment Day, culminating with Beth Phoenix spearing Rhea Ripley. Theory waited out that entire scene before entering the ring.
Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes also had entrance times north of 70 seconds. They just took a very long time to walk to the ring.
The non-overlapping parts of these entrance times add up to 18m 53s, which means that a wrestler was in the midst of his entrance for approximately 26.3% of the match.
Follow the Buzzers
WWE stated that there would be 90-second waiting intervals between each entrant in the 2023 men’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 28s: Buzzer 1 – The Miz
1m 46s: Buzzer 2 – Kofi Kingston
1m 40s: Buzzer 3 – Johnny Gargano
2m 18s: Buzzer 4 – Xavier Woods
1m 49s: Buzzer 5 – Karrion Kross
2m 12s: Buzzer 6 – Chad Gable
1m 39s: Buzzer 7 – Drew McIntyre
1m 55s: Buzzer 8 – Santos Escobar
1m 59s: Buzzer 9 – Angelo Dawkins
2m 04s: Buzzer 10 – Brock Lesnar
2m 15s: Buzzer 11 – Bobby Lashley
1m 48s: Buzzer 12 – Baron Corbin
1m 44s: Buzzer 13 – Seth Rollins
1m 48s: Buzzer 14 – Otis
1m 33s: Buzzer 15 – Rey Mysterio
1m 40s: Buzzer 16 – Dominik Mysterio
2m 24s: Buzzer 17 – Elias
1m 39s: Buzzer 18 – Finn Balor
2m 11s: Buzzer 19 – Booker T
1m 46s: Buzzer 20 – Damian Priest
1m 37s: Buzzer 21 – Montez Ford
1m 50s: Buzzer 22 – Edge
2m 19s: Buzzer 23 – Austin Theory
2m 00s: Buzzer 24 – Omos
1m 57s: Buzzer 25 – Braun Strowman
2m 45s: Buzzer 26 – Ricochet
2m 48s: Buzzer 27 – Logan Paul
2m 25s: Buzzer 28 – Cody Rhodes
The average waiting period was 1m 59s, and the median time was 1m 53s.
Only two of the 28 waiting periods fell within five seconds of the 90-second goal. 7 of the 28 waiting periods came within 10 seconds of the 90-second goal. One of the intervals lasted less than than 90 seconds, according to these results.
In a perfectly timed match, the final buzzer (signaling Cody’s entrance) would have gone off 42m 00s after the start of the match. In reality, this buzzer went off at 55m 19s.
10 of the 28 waiting periods lasted longer than 2m 00s, with six of these lengthy intervals occurring in the latter half of the match. Here is context behind some of those times, in chronological order:
The period where Johnny Gargano entered the match lasted 2m 18s. The purpose of this period was to eliminate The Miz from this match. As part of that process, Banger Bro Sheamus pounded Miz’s chest 20 times with the fans counting along. Once Miz was gone, the clock for the 10 second countdown appeared on screen.
The period where Karrion Kross entered the match lasted 2m 12s. Nothing of note really happened here. It took Kross 49 seconds to get into the ring, which was longer than most. Then he just exchanged some blows with Xavier Woods, GUNTHER, and Sheamus.
The period where Angelo Dawkins entered the match lasted 2m 04s. This is where Kofi Kingston’s failed save spot took place. Once the spot was botched and he was eliminated, the 10 second countdown clock appeared on screen.
The very next period lasted 2m 15s, and this is when Brock Lesnar joined the match. His entrance took 56 seconds, and then he needed some time to eliminate three guys and have a confrontation with GUNTHER.
The period where Dominik Mysterio entered the match lasted 2m 24s. He took his time during his entrance to show off his father’s stolen mask. Dom was then was afraid to get in the ring due to Sheamus waiting on him. By the time Dom got in the ring, the interval was already 2m 10s in length. Very soon after he stepped into the ring, the 10 second countdown clock appeared on screen.
The period where Finn Balor entered the match lasted 2m 11s. It seemed like the goal for this period was to eliminate Gargano from the match. After a back-and-forth sequence between Gargano, Balor, and Dominik, Johnny was eliminated. Balor and Dominik then had a confrontation with the Banger Bros when the countdown clock appeared.
The period where Edge entered the match lasted 2m 19s. This was a busy segment where Edge tossed out Balor and Damian Priest. The Judgment Day members then teamed up to get Edge out of the match.
The period where Braun Strowman entered the match lasted 2m 45s. This is where Braun had a monster fight with Omos, but the period still went on for a bit after Omos was eliminated.
The very next period lasted 2m 48s, the longest of the night, and this is when Ricochet joined the match. The big thing they were waiting for here was the double elimination of the Banger Bros, which took quite a while to play out. Once GUNTHER got rid of them, the countdown clock appeared on screen.
The final waiting period of the match was next, and it lasted 2m 25s. Logan Paul entered the match during this time. This is not where he had the memorable mid-air collision with Ricochet. I can’t really find an obvious reason for why this period went so long other than they just wanted Paul to have some time to show off once he entered the match.
If WWE strictly adhered to legitimate 90 second waiting intervals, the median entrance time of 38.5 seconds would take up 42.8% of the entire waiting interval, leaving just 51.5 seconds until the next buzzer. That’s just not enough time left to fit everything planned in between buzzers, and it leads to extended waiting periods. The very long walkway to the ring was a factor in why WWE had trouble sticking more closely to the rules, and why 90 seconds was actually more like two minutes in WWE’s Royal Rumble math this year.
The reason why this ended up being the longest 30-man Rumble ever is because the timing resembled a Rumble match with 2 minute intervals rather than 90 second intervals, and the final 7m 15s fight between Cody and GUNTHER at the end was enough to put it over the top.
Ring Crowdedness
If you add up each wrestler’s survival time, it results in a total survival time of 6h 39m 37s. Given that the match lasted a total of 71m 40s, that comes out to an average of 5.6 competitors in the ring at any given second. This is the 24th or 25th most crowded Royal Rumble match ever out of all 43 matches, depending on whether or not you adjust the count for the most egregious examples of superstars who were still active but took significantly long absences from the ring, like with Vince McMahon in 1999.
The average was actually 6.0 at the point when Cody and GUNTHER began their final one-on-one fight at the very end of the bout. Their lengthy battle brought the average down to the aforementioned value of 5.6.
When I talk about how many superstars were “in the ring,” I’m counting all active superstars in the match, whether they are literally inside the ring or not. It does not, however, count a wrestler’s time outside the ring prior to initially stepping foot into the ring.
Here is a more accurate way to understand how many men were active at any given time. This chart shows the total time that the ring was filled with an exact number of discrete superstars at once.
2023 Men’s Royal Rumble Ring Crowdedness
Active Wrestlers
Total Time
% of Match Time
Cumulative %
Active Wrestlers
Total Time
% of Match Time
Cumulative %
2
9m 50s
13.7
13.7
3
2m 15s
3.1
16.9
4
5m 01s
7.0
23.9
5
13m 22s
18.7
42.5
6
12m 13s
17.0
59.6
7
19m 48s
27.6
87.2
8
8m 15s
11.5
98.7
9
0m 56s
1.3
100.0
The table shows there were five to seven active wrestlers for a total time of 45m 23, which is 63.3% of the match. There were always at least five active wrestlers between the timestamps of 7m 30s and 60m 38s.
There were four separate instances of at least five minutes lapsing with zero eliminations. The first two instances occurred in the very beginning of the match. There were zero eliminations from 0m 00s to 6m 58s, as the ring filled up with 5 wrestlers. Miz was tossed out at that point. The next elimination didn’t occur until 7 minutes and 4 seconds later, at the timestamp of 14m 02s, when the ring was filled with 8 men. That’s when Karrion Kross was eliminated.
A few minutes later, the ring reached its maximum depth of 9 active wrestlers between the timestamps of 17m 02s and 17m 58s. The nine active wrestlers during that time were GUNTHER, Sheamus, Kingston, Gargano, Woods, Gable, McIntyre, Escobar, and Dawkins.
Brock Lesnar entered the match at 19m 46s and quickly eliminated three guys, dropping the number of active wrestlers down to 5 by the timestamp of 20m 28s.
The ring depth fluctuated between 6 and 7 wrestlers for almost the entirety of the period between the timestamps of 25m 57s (when Corbin’s lifeless body was rolled into the ring) and 39m 59s (when Montez Ford joined the match to bring the depth up to 8). The only time the ring depth dropped below 6 during this span was when the Banger Bros eliminated Otis during Dominik’s entrance.
The ring depth dropped down to 5 again by the timestamp of 42m 48s. This happened after the rapid fire eliminations of Priest, Balor, and Edge.
This kicked off a stretch of 6 minutes and 10 seconds with zero eliminations, between the timestamps of 42m 48s and 48m 58s. Theory, Omos, and Strowman joined the match during this time.
The double elimination of the Banger Bros brought the ring depth down to 6 wrestlers by the timestamp of 52m 34s.
End of the Match
Once Cody Rhodes entered the ring at the timestamp 56m 33s, the match essentially turned into an 8-man Battle Royal between Gunther, Rollins, Dominik, Theory, Strowman, Ricochet, Logan Paul, and Rhodes.
This final segment of the 2023 men’s Royal Rumble match lasted 15m 07s. The first 7m 52s of this period was needed to whittle the field down to just Cody and GUNTHER. Cody and GUNTHER then went at it for 7m 15s, and that’s when Rhodes emerged as the winner. The fight between Cody and GUNTHER was the longest stretch of time between successive eliminations in the match.
That’s all you need to know about the timing of the 2023 men’s Royal Rumble match. Which numbers do you find to be the most interesting?
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