WWE shortchanged its women at Elimination Chamber

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WWE featured five total matches on the main card of Elimination Chamber 2023, which took place on Feb. 18.

The main card of this pay-per-view (PPV) lasted 3 hours, 16 minutes, and 42 seconds (3h 16m 42s). Here is a sorted list of the bell-to-bell times for the five matches that took place during this event:

32m 18s: Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn
31m 30s: Men’s Elimination Chamber
19m 30s: Women’s Elimination Chamber
13m 48s: Edge & Beth Phoenix vs. Rhea Ripley & Finn Balor
4m 40s: Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley

These times add up to 1h 41m 46s, which is roughly 51.7% of the show. For comparison’s sake, the overall match time percentage for all 138 WWE PPVs since the start of 2013 is 53.7%.

The beginning of the match between Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn lasted 4m 13s before physical contact was made between the two wrestlers, falling about 27 seconds short of Brock Lesnar’s overall match time of 4m 40s. However, Roman’s entrance music played for about 4m 45s before the match began, so he beat Brock there.

Here are some quick numbers on the timing of both Elimination Chamber matches.

First up are the approximate lengths of the four waiting periods in the women’s chamber match:

Period 1: 3m 00s
Period 2: 3m 26s
Period 3: 3m 24s
Period 4: 3m 21s

After period four ended, the final portion of the match lasted about 5m 59s, during which four women were eliminated and Asuka emerged as the winner.

Now here are the approximate lengths of the four waiting periods in the men’s chamber:

Period 1: 2m 42s
Period 2: 3m 42s
Period 3: 3m 31s
Period 4: 2m 57s

After period four ended, the final portion of the match lasted about 18m 18s, during which five men were eliminated and Austin Theory was declared the winner.

Just like last year, WWE didn’t state how long the Elimination Chamber waiting periods were supposed to last. The stated rules used the phrase “regularly scheduled intervals” to describe this waiting time. The listed times above indicate that WWE was hovering around the three minute mark for the intervals, with some going longer due to planned spots at the end of the period. All eight intervals fell within the range of 2m 42s to 3m 42s.

The biggest timing difference between the men and women’s chamber match was the final portion of the bout, after all four pods were opened. WWE booked rapid fire eliminations for the women’s chamber and wrapped up their match in about six minutes, whereas the men’s chamber more than tripled that time during the final portion of the match.

Most previous Elimination Chamber matches have featured waiting periods of four or five minutes in length. So when you combine this year’s shorter waiting intervals with rapid fire eliminations at the end of the women’s chamber, it made for one of the five shortest chamber matches of all-time. However, this year’s women’s match still ran longer than both of last year’s very rushed Elimination Chambers in Saudi Arabia.

For the sake of completeness, here are the approximate survival times of the participants in the Elimination Chamber matches:

17m 26s: Natalya
16m 40s: Liv Morgan
15m 15s: Raquel Rodriguez
9m 20s: Carmella
5m 59s: Asuka
4m 58s: Nikki Cross

31m 30s: Seth Rollins
28m 41s: Austin Theory
23m 01s: Johnny Gargano
18m 15s: Damian Priest
14m 33s: Montez Ford
7m 45s: Bronson Reed

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

 

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