The length of WWE PPVs, especially WrestleMania shows, has been a topic of contention among wrestling fans. While everyone wants to see their favorite wrestlers get the high-profile matches they feel they deserve, fewer people are vocal about wanting to watch a WWE Network program that could be six or seven hours long.
WrestleMania 34 was a little over five hours long in addition to a two-hour kickoff show (in contrast to WrestleMania 1’s 2:16 and WrestleMania X-Seven’s 3:45 total runtimes), and shortly afterward, rumors emerged that the following year’s event would be even longer. A recent compilation of the confirmed or likely WrestleMania 35 card by Forbes indicates that could still easily be the case, with seventeen matches either announced on WWE programming so far or likely to be announced due to WrestleMania convention or current storylines.
The matches currently announced for WM35 are:
- WWE Universal Championship match: Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar (c)
- WWE Raw Women’s Championship match: Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey (c)
- WWE Cruiserweight Championship match: Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Cedric Alexander or Tony Nese
- No Holds Barred match: Triple H vs. Batista
- Kurt Angle’s retirement match, opponent TBA
- Shane McMahon vs. The Miz
- AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton
The matches that are yet to be announced, but very likely, are:
- WWE Championship match: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Kofi Kingston
- WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship match: Asuka (c) vs. TBA (possibly Mandy Rose and/or Sonya Deville, given current Smackdown storylines)
- WWE Raw Tag Team Championship match: The Revival (c) vs. TBA
- WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship match: The Usos (c) vs. TBA
- WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match: Sasha Banks and Bayley (c) vs. TBA
- WWE United States Championship match: Samoa Joe (c) vs. TBA
- WWE Intercontinental Championship match: Bobby Lashley (c) vs. TBA
Also likely are a Roman Reigns singles match (given current Raw storylines, probably against Drew McIntyre), the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, and the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal. Each of these matches going ten minutes including entrances, plus ten minutes allotted for Alexa Bliss to host the show and Braun Strowman to murder Colin Jost with his bare hands as Michael Che looks on helplessly puts the show at three hours long, and that’s obviously not a realistic prediction at all.
So does WWE cut the battle royals for length? Do several of these matches go five minutes? Or is WrestleMania 35 another seven-hour show… and will that be an issue for the live audience and/or people watching on the WWE Network? Let us know your theories and opinions in the comments.
