The first week of Raw since Jerry Lawler’s heart attack saw them have their best week for wrestling since the show expanded to three hours. Raw won the week by more than twenty minutes over Impact and expanded the gap between second and third to one hundred forty minutes. While that gap has increased over the last eight weeks, the gap between first and second has decreased to one hundred and one minutes thanks to another week below thirty minutes.
Raw tied with NXT for the week while Superstars had the lowest total of the five shows that aired this week.
With nine matches on this week’s episode of Raw, the longest running weekly episodic show in television history became the first show to pass eight hundred matches since I started this back in February 2010. Smackdown should get there around Thanksgiving. If Impact keeps its pace of four matches a week, which it has done for the last four weeks, they will hit eight hundred matches in six months. If Raw maintains its pattern of eight or nine matches a week, which it has done for the last seven weeks, Raw will be over one thousand matches.
Raw passed thirty-six hundred minutes this week while Smackdown passed thirty-seven hundred minutes. If Raw is going to stay over forty minutes of wrestling while Smackdown stays around twenty-five minutes, Raw will pass Smackdown in seven weeks. It is possible that Impact will pass thirty-five hundred minutes next week, but it could be the following week if they maintain their average over the last two weeks.
As I mentioned last week, Ring of Honor started its second year with this week’s show, another Road Rage episode from Providence. Next week, we will see Road Rage from Chicago before we get Survival of the Fittest which will air through October. In honor of the first year of Ring of Honor on Sinclair Broadcasting, I have prepared a review of the first year of the show.
This column does not include the match from WWE's Saturday Morning Slam show.
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
Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara versus Epico and Primo: 3 Minutes
Eve Torres versus Beth Phoenix: 2 Minutes
Brodus Clay versus Heath Slater: 2 Minutes
Dolph Ziggler versus Santino Marella: 4 Minutes
Wade Barrett versus Justin Gabriel: 4 Minutes
Kane and Daniel Bryan versus R Truth and Kofi Kingston: 10 Minutes
Randy Orton versus Tensai: 6 Minutes
Damien Sandow versus Zack Ryder: 6 Minutes
CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio versus Sheamus and John Cena: 10 Minutes
WWE NXT
Trent Barreta versus Johnny Curtis: 6 Minutes
Alicia Fox versus Paige: 5 Minutes
Jimmy Uso versus Conor O’Brian: 4 Minutes
Seth Rollins versus Rick Victor: 7 Minutes
WWE Superstars
JTG versus Ted DiBiase: 5 Minutes
Jinder Mahal versus Drew McIntyre: 5 Minutes
Tyson Kidd versus David Otunga: 3 Minutes
Darren Young and Titus O’Neil versus The Usos: 8 Minutes
TNA Impact
A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle versus Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez: 8 Minutes
Evan Markopolous versus Douglas Williams: 4 Minutes
Bobby Roode versus James Storm: 6 Minutes
Austin Aries versus Bully Ray: 8 Minutes
WWE Smackdown
Kane versus Damien Sandow: 3 Minutes
Layla versus Natalya: 2 Minutes
Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler versus Randy Orton and Sheamus: 8 Minutes
Daniel Bryan versus Cody Rhodes: 2 Minutes
Brodus Clay versus Heath Slater: 1 Minute
Santino Marella versus Antonio Cesaro: 2 Minutes
Daniel Bryan and Kane versus Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow: 4 Minutes
Ring of Honor
No New Matches: Road Rage Episode
This Week’s Totals
Total Amount of Wrestling on Shows:
WWE Raw: 47 Minutes in 9 Matches (last week: 43 Minutes)
TNA Impact: 26 Minutes in 4 Matches (last week: 26 Minutes)
WWE Smackdown: 22 Minutes in 7 Matches (last week 26 Minutes)
WWE NXT: 22 Minutes in 4 Matches (last week: 20 Minutes)
WWE Superstars: 21 Minutes in 4 Matches (last week 25 Minutes)
Ring of Honor: No New Wrestling This Week (last week: No Wrestling)
Total Wrestling for the Week: 138 Minutes in 28 Matches (Last Week: 140 Minutes in 26 Matches)
Hourly Averages
WWE NXT: 22 Minutes (up from 20 Minutes)
WWE Superstars: 21 Minutes (down from 25 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 15.67 Minutes (up from 14.33 Minutes)
TNA Impact: 13 Minutes (No Change)
WWE Smackdown: 11 Minutes (down from 13 Minutes)
Ring of Honor: No New Wrestling (No Change)
Per Match Averages (this week):
TNA Impact: 6.5 Minutes (No Change)
WWE NXT: 5.5 Minutes (up from 5 Minutes)
WWE Superstars: 5.25 Minutes (down from 6.25 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 5.22 Minutes (up from 4.78 Minutes)
WWE Smackdown: 3.14 Minutes (down from 5.2 Minutes)
Ring of Honor: No New Wrestling (No Change)
Longest Matches
Kane and Daniel Bryan versus R Truth and Kofi Kingston: 10 Minutes (WWE Raw September 17)
CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio versus Sheamus and John Cena: 10 Minutes (WWE Raw September 17)
Darren Young and Titus O’Neil versus The Usos: 8 Minutes (WWE Superstars Spetember 20)
A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle versus Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez: 8 Minutes (TNA Impact September 20)
Austin Aries versus Bully Ray: 8 Minutes (TNA Impact September 20)
Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler versus Randy Orton and Sheamus: 8 Minutes
Shortest Matches
Brodus Clay versus Heath Slater: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown September 21)
Santino Marella versus Antonio Cesaro: 2 Minutes (WWE Smackdown September 21)
Layla versus Natalya: 2 Minutes (WWE Smackdown September 21)
Daniel Bryan versus Cody Rhodes: 2 Minutes (WWE Smackdown September 21)
Eve Torres versus Beth Phoenix: 2 Minutes (WWE Raw September 17)
Brodus Clay versus Heath Slater: 2 Minutes (WWE Raw September 17)
Overall Totals
Total Wrestling Time by Show
WWE Smackdown: 3,712 Minutes
WWE Raw: 3.611 Minutes
TNA Impact: 3,471 Minutes
WWE Superstars: 2,737 Minutes
[On WWE.com: 1,584 Minutes]
[On WGN: 1,153 Minutes]
Ring of Honor: 2,233 Minutes
[On HDNet: 1,350 Minutes]
[On Sinclair: 883 Minutes]
WWE NXT: 2,043 Minutes
[Season 6: 299 Minutes]
[Season 5: 1,164 Minutes]
[Season 4: 161 Minutes]
[Season 3: 90 Minutes]
[Season 2: 158 Minutes]
[Season 1: 171 Minutes]
Overall Wrestling Time: 17,807 Minutes
Total Number of Matches by Show
WWE Raw: 804 Matches
WWE Smackdown: 762 Matches
TNA Impact: 693 Matches
WWE Superstars: 450 Matches
[On WWE.com: 256 Matches]
[On WGN: 194 Matches]
WWE NXT: 383 Matches
[Season 6: 62 Matches]
[Season 5: 197 Matches]
[Season 4: 29 Matches]
[Season 3: 24 Matches]
[Season 2: 31 Matches]
[Season 1: 40 Matches]
Ring of Honor: 286 Matches
[On HDNet: 174 Matches]
[On Sinclair: 112 Matches]
Total Number of Matches: 3,378
Hourly Averages
Ring of Honor: 23.76 Minutes (No Change)
[On HDNet: 25.96 Minutes]
[On Sinclair: 21.0238 Minutes (No Change)]
WWE Superstars: 20.435 Minutes (up from 20.42 Minutes)
[On WWE.com: 21.12 Minutes (down from 21.122 Minutes)]
[On WGN: 19.54 Minutes]
Overall Average: 14.964 Minutes (up from 14.961 Minutes)
WWE NXT: 15.25 Minutes (up from 15.20 Minutes)
[Season 6: 21.36 Minutes (down from 21.31 Minutes)]
[Season 5: 17.64 Minutes]
[Season 4: 12.38 Minutes]
[Season 3: 6.92 Minutes]
[Season 2: 12.15 Minutes]
[Season 1: 11.4 Minutes]
WWE Smackdown: 13.75 Minutes (down from 13.769 Minutes)
TNA Impact: 12.9515 Minutes (up from 12.9511 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 12.45 Minutes (up from 12.42 Minutes)
Per Match Averages
Ring of Honor: 7.81 Minutes (No Change)
[On Sinclair: 7.88 Minutes (No Change)]
[On HDNet: 7.76 Minutes]
WWE Superstars: 6.082 Minutes (down from 6.089 Minutes)
[On WWE.com: 6.19 Minutes (down from 6.202 Minutes)]
[On WGN: 5.94 Minutes]
WWE NXT: 5.334 Minutes (up from 5.332 Minutes)
[Season 6: 4.82 Minutes (up from 4.77 Minutes)]
[Season 5: 5.91 Minutes]
[Season 4: 5.55 Minutes]
[Season 3: 3.75 Minutes]
[Season 2: 5.1 Minutes]
[Season 1: 4.28 Minutes]
Overall Average: 5.271 Minutes (down from 5.274 Minutes)
TNA Impact: 5.01 Minutes (up from 5 Minutes)
WWE Smackdown: 4.87 Minutes (down from 4.887 Minutes)
WWE Raw: 4.49 Minutes (up from 4.483 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
297 Total Matches at 1 Minute
The Last Ten Matches that Qualified:
Brodus Clay versus Heath Slater: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown September 21)
Sheamus versus David Otunga: 1 Minute (WWE Raw September 10)
Brodus Clay versus Ryan Collins: 1 Minute (WWE NXT September 6)
Madison Rayne versus ODB: 1 Minute (TNA Impact August 30)
Chase Donovan versus Big E Langston: 1 Minute (WWE NXT August 30)
Ryback versus Mike Skinner and Andy Tavares: 1 Minute (WWE Raw August 20)
Sin Cara versus Tensai: 1 Minute (WWE Raw August 13)
Rhino versus Todd Sople: 1 Minute (Ring of Honor August 11)
Jinder Mahal versus Two Random People: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown August 10)
Ryback versus Jinder Mahal: 1 Minute (WWE Smackdown August 3)
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