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This week saw Smackdown take the honors for most wrestling for the second straight week after ending Impact’s streak last week. Impact remained in second place but the gap between second and third decreased from twelve minutes to seven minutes.
Ring of Honor returned to the position of having the longest match of the week with the battle of the two singles champions in the company as Jay Lethal faced Davey Richards. The battle in the WWE of the champions of the Raw and Smackdown brands was the second longest match of the week.
On the other side of the ledger, Raw and Smackdown each had two one minute matches. After three weeks with more ten minute matches than one minute matches, the shortest matches outpaced the longest matches.
The totals for the week dropped by seven minutes from last week and are down almost twenty minutes from two weeks ago. This does not bode well for the upcoming weeks because some of the lowest totals since I started this column occurred last year in the build to Wrestlemania 27. Raw had its second straight week under twenty minutes and it has been twelve straight weeks that Raw has had less than thirty minutes of wrestling. In that time period, Impact has passed thirty minutes six times and Smackdown has had two weeks with more than thirty minutes.
Next week, Superstars should pass the twenty-one hundred minute barrier while Impact may be able to pass the twenty-seven hundred minute barrier. We may even see Impact pass Raw because Impact has averaged seven more minutes a week of wrestling over the last four weeks and the gap between shows is less than one hundred minutes. Smackdown is about two weeks away from three thousand minutes. Fourteen thousand total minutes is probably achievable before Wrestlemania.
Raw passed six hundred matches while Superstars passed three hundred fifty matches. Impact should pass five hundred fifty matches next week. If the recent totals are matched for the matches on these shows, we could see our twenty-six hundredth match.
The time for the Big Show/Mark Henry match on Smackdown goes from the bell until Show goes after Cody Rhodes.
The wrestling times below cover the wrestling that takes place during the show so commercials are not included. All times are rounded to the closest minute (examples: a 4:23 match will be listed as 4 minutes while a 4:32 match will be listed as 5 minutes and anything under a minute is rounded up to a minute).
Breakdown of the matches on each show:
WWE Raw
Mark Henry versus Sheamus: 3 Minutes
Kofi Kingston and R Truth versus Epico and Primo: 2 Minutes
David Otunga versus Ezekiel Jackson: 2 Minutes
Daniel Bryan versus Santino Marella: 1 Minute
Aksana and Kelly Kelly versus The Bellas: 1 Minute
Battle Royal: 9 Minutes
WWE NXT
Tyler Reks versus Tyson Kidd: 8 Minutes
Titus O’Neil versus Alex Riley: 5 Minutes
WWE Superstars
Michael McGillicutty versus Alex Riley: 8 Minutes
Tyler Reks versus Mason Ryan: 4 Minutes
Jinder Mahal versus Justin Gabriel: 7 Minutes
TNA Impact
Crimson and Matt Morgan versus Samoa Joe and Magnus: 4 Minutes
Zema Ion versus Alex Shelley: 4 Minutes
ODB versus Gail Kim: 6 Minutes
A.J. Styles versus Robbie E: 5 Minutes
Bully Ray and Kurt Angle versus Jeff Hardy and James Storm: 9 Minutes
WWE Smackdown
Sheamus versus Miz: 6 Minutes
R Truth and Kofi Kingston versus Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler: 3 Minutes
Drew McIntyre versus Great Khali: 1 Minute
Big Show versus Mark Henry: 5 Minutes
David Otunga versus Ezekiel Jackson: 1 Minute
CM Punk versus Daniel Bryan: 13 Minutes
Ring of Honor
Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman versus The Young Bucks: 5 Minutes
Davey Richards versus Jay Lethal: 16 Minutes
This Week’s Totals
Total Amount of Wrestling on Shows:
WWE Smackdown: 29 Minutes in 6 Matches (last week 35 Minutes)
TNA Impact: 28 Minutes in 5 Matches (last week: 31 Minutes)
Ring of Honor: 21 Minutes in 2 Matches (last week 14 Minutes)
WWE Superstars: 19 Minutes in 3 Matches (last week 19 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 18 Minutes in 6 Matches (last week: 22 Minutes)
WWE NXT: 13 Minutes in 2 Matches (last week: 18 Minutes)
Total Wrestling for the Week: 128 Minutes in 24 Matches (Last Week: 135 Minutes in 26 Matches)
Hourly Averages
Ring of Honor: 21 Minutes (up from 14 Minutes)
WWE Superstars: 19 Minutes (No Change)
WWE Smackdown: 14.5 Minutes (down from 17.5 Minutes)
TNA Impact: 14 Minutes (down from 15.5 Minutes)
WWE NXT: 13 Minutes (down from 18 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 9 Minutes (No Change)
Per Match Averages (this week):
TNA Impact: 7.75 Minutes (up from 7 Minutes)
WWE Superstars: 6.33 Minutes (up from 5.75 Minutes)
WWE Smackdown: 5 Minutes (No Change)
Ring of Honor: 4.67 Minutes (down from 8.67 Minutes)
WWE NXT: 4.5 Minutes (up from 4.4 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 3.6 Minutes (down from 4.4 Minutes)
Longest Matches
Davey Richards versus Jay Lethal: 16 Minutes (Ring of Honor February 25)
CM Punk versus Daniel Bryan: 13 Minutes (WWE Smackdown February 24)
Bully Ray and Kurt Angle versus Jeff Hardy and James Storm: 9 Minutes (TNA Impact February 23)
Battle Royal: 9 Minutes (WWE Raw February 20)
Shortest Matches
Drew McIntyre versus Great Khali: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown February 24)
David Otunga versus Ezekiel Jackson: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown February 24)
Daniel Bryan versus Santino Marella: 1 Minute (WWE Raw February 20)
Aksana and Kelly Kelly versus The Bellas: 1 Minute (WWE Raw February 20)
Overall Totals
Total Wrestling Time by Show
WWE Smackdown: 2,948 Minutes
WWE Raw: 2,765 Minutes
TNA Impact: 2,669 Minutes
WWE Superstars: 2,090 Minutes
[On WGN: 1,153 Minutes]
[On WWE.com: 937 Minutes]
Ring of Honor: 1,762 Minutes
[On HDNet: 1,350 Minutes]
[On Sinclair: 412 Minutes]
WWE NXT: 1,427 Minutes
[Season 5: 847 Minutes]
[Season 4: 161 Minutes]
[Season 3: 90 Minutes]
[Season 2: 158 Minutes]
[Season 1: 171 Minutes]
Overall Wrestling Time: 13,661 Minutes
Total Number of Matches by Show
WWE Raw: 605 Matches
WWE Smackdown: 577 Matches
TNA Impact: 547 Matches
WWE Superstars: 352 Matches
[On WGN: 194 Matches]
[On WWE.com: 158 Matches]
WWE NXT: 271 Matches
[Season 5: 147 Matches]
[Season 4: 29 Matches]
[Season 3: 24 Matches]
[Season 2: 31 Matches]
[Season 1: 40 Matches]
Ring of Honor: 222 Matches
[On HDNet: 174 Matches]
[On Sinclair: 48 Matches]
Total Number of Matches: 2,574
Hourly Averages
Ring of Honor: 24.47 Minutes (down from 24.52 Minutes)
[On HDNet: 25.96 Minutes]
[On Sinclair: 20.6 Minutes]
WWE Superstars: 20.096 Minutes (down from 20.107 Minutes)
[On WWE.com: 20.82 Minutes]
[On WGN: 19.54 Minutes]
Overall Average: 14.897 Minutes (down from 14.904 Minutes)
WWE Smackdown: 14.038 Minutes (up from 14.034 Minutes)
WWE NXT: 13.72 Minutes (down from 13.73 Minutes)
[Season 5: 16.94 Minutes (down from 17.02 Minutes)]
[Season 4: 12.38 Minutes]
[Season 3: 6.92 Minutes]
[Season 2: 12.15 Minutes]
[Season 1: 11.4 Minutes]
TNA Impact: 12.83 Minutes (up from 12.82 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 12.63 Minutes (down from 12.66 Minutes)
Per Match Averages
Ring of Honor: 7.94 Minutes (up from 7.91 Minutes)
[On Sinclair: 8.58 Minutes]
[On HDNet: 7.76 Minutes]
WWE Superstars: 5.938 Minutes (up from 5.934 Minutes)
[On WGN: 5.94 Minutes]
[On WWE.com: 5.93 Minutes]
Overall Average: 5.307 Minutes (up from 5.301 Minutes)
WWE NXT: 5.26568 Minutes (up from 5.26561 Minutes)
[Season 5: 5.76 Minutes (up from 5.75 Minutes)]
[Season 4: 5.55 Minutes]
[Season 3: 3.75 Minutes]
[Season 2: 5.1 Minutes]
[Season 1: 4.28 Minutes]
WWE Smackdown: 5.11 Minutes (down from 5.112 Minutes)
TNA Impact: 4.879 Minutes (up from 4.873 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 4.57 Minutes (down from 4.586 Minutes)
Longest Matches
Tyler Black versus Davey Richards: 27 Minutes (Ring of Honor October 18, 2010)
Davey Richards and The Briscoes versus Roderick Strong and the Kings of Wrestling: 26 Minutes (Ring of Honor April 4, 2011)
John Cena, CM Punk, Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, and Mason Ryan versus Alberto Del Rio, Christian, Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger and David Otunga: 21 Minutes (WWE Raw October 3, 2011)
Shortest Matches
212 Total Matches at 1 Minute
The Last Ten Matches that Qualified:
Drew McIntyre versus Great Khali: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown February 24)
David Otunga versus Ezekiel Jackson: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown February 24)
Daniel Bryan versus Santino Marella: 1 Minute (WWE Raw February 20)
Aksana and Kelly Kelly versus The Bellas: 1 Minute (WWE Raw February 20)
Tamina versus Brie Bella: 1 Minute (WWE Raw February 13)
Beth Phoenix versus Alicia Fox: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown February 10)
Natalya and Beth Phoenix versus Tamina and Aksana: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown February 3)
Alicia Fox versus Maxine: 1 Minute (WWE NXT February 1)
Brodus Clay versus Tyler Reks: 1 Minute (WWE Raw January 30)
Eve Torres versus Beth Phoenix: 1 Minute (WWE Raw January 30)
Instead of going a year back for the comparison, since this is the first column for year number three, I am going to go back to the pilot episode of By the Numbers. Just like with the Seinfeld Chronicles turning into Seinfeld after the first ‘season’, By the Numbers started as ‘The Week in Wrestling By the Numbers’
Wrestling on Raw in the first week of this column was current TNA star Gail Kim and current New Japan star Montel Vontavious Porter. Carlito also wrestled on this show. The main event was a one minute match between John Cena and Batista, which I believe was Batista walking out of the match.
On Ring of Honor, the two teams that will meet for the Tag Titles at the Tenth Anniversary Show faced off in the first main event. Colt Cabana was also in action on that show.
NXT debuted and we got to see the first match between Daniel Bryan and Chris Jericho in the main event as both men have made their way to the main events of Wrestlemania 28. We also got our first look on WWE television of the man who is affectionately called ‘The Latte Lawyer’ or the ‘Barrister Barista’ or ‘Counselor Coffee’ David Otunga and he did not have his bow tie on that evening.
On Superstars, William Regal teamed with Jack Swagger to face the unlikely team of Santino Marella and Chris Masters. Also wrestling on the show were Matt Hardy, Luke Gallows, Maria, and David Hart Smith, all of whom are no longer in the company.
On Impact, the Nasty Boys were in action against Team 3D in the feud that could not be unseen. Former TNA wrestlers Daffney, Brian Kendrick, and Desmond Wolfe were in action. Wolfe was in the main event this week against Abyss.
On Smackdown, John Morrison was in a Triple Threat Match against R Truth and Dolph Ziggler. Mickie James wrestled on this week’s Smackdown as well as Shelton Benjamin. Miz and Edge were in the main event of the final match of the week.
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