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With WrestleMania 35 just 24 hours away, one question is on every fan's mind: Just how will WWE fit 16 matches into a 7-hour show? On paper, 7 hours seem to be more than enough for 16 matches, but the 2-hour pre-show will host just 3 matches while the main card will have more segments other than the matches.
In addition to the 13 matches on the card, an Elias performance, radio host Yolanda Adam's rendition of "America the Beautiful" and the Hall of Fame Showcase will also be part of the show. Considering there will be more backstage segments, guest appearances, and a possible impromptu Alexa Bliss segment, it will be very difficult to fit 13 whole matches into the card.
With that in mind, let's take a look at the 5 longest cards in WrestleMania's 35-year history and find out how WWE handled those situations. Also, WrestleMania 2 has been excluded from this list as the event was basically 3 different shows in 3 locations advertised as one. I haven't placed WrestleMania 35 on the list as well because the card is always subject to change.
#5 WrestleMania V
WrestleMania V was a one match show. But that didn't stop WWE from cramming 14 matches on the card. This was also before the days of "Pre-Shows" or "Dark Matches", so all 14 matches took place on the main card live on PPV. As one might expect, it was a huge clustered mess.
The show had 9 singles matches: Haku vs Hercules, Brutus the Barber Beefcake vs Ted DiBiase, Mr Perfect vs Owen Hart (then in his Blue Blazer persona), Dino Bravo vs Ronnie Garvin, Jake Roberts vs Andre The Giant, Rick Rude vs The Ultimate Warrior for the Intercontinental Title, Bad News Brown vs Jim Duggan, The Red Rooster vs Bobby Heenan, and Hulk Hogan vs Macho Man Randy Savage for the WWE Title.
In addition to these 9 matches, Demolition defeated the Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji in a handicap tag team match for the Tag Team Titles, The Hart Foundation faced Greg Valentine and The Honky Tonk Man, The Brain Busters faced Strike Force, The Bushwackers faced the Fabulous Rougeaus and The Twin Towers faced The Rockers, all in regular tag team matches.
Only two matches on the card crossed the 10-minute mark, with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage's classic going 17 minutes 54 seconds and Brutus Beefcake and Ted DiBiase's match going 10 minutes and 1 second. The Red Rooster vs Bobby Heenan match was an impromptu match which lasted for just 31 seconds. Most of the matches were short and forced into the card except for the main event, which was given it's time to shine.
#4 WrestleMania 34
Last year's WrestleMania had 14 matches in total. There were 3 matches on the Pre-Show and 11 on the main card. A total of 9 championships were defended on the show, which is a record by itself.
There were 6 singles matches on the card: Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns for the Universal Title, AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE Title, Charlotte vs Asuka for the SmackDown Women's Title, Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women's Title, John Cena vs The Undertaker, and Cedric Alexander vs Mustafa Ali for the Cruiserweight Titlem which was on the pre-show. There were two battle royals, both on the pre-show, one for the men and one for the women.
Braun Strowman and Nicholas faced The Bar for the Raw Tag Team Titles, The Bludgeon Brothers faced The Usos and The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Titles, Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey faced Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, and Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn faced Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon in tag team matches.
Finally, Finn Balor, The Miz, and Seth Rollins competed in a triple threat for the Intercontinental Championship and Jinder Mahal, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, and Rusev competed in a fatal four-way match for the US Title.
The main card was over 5 hours long and the pre-show was 2 hours. The Mixed Tag Team match and the WWE Title match were the only two matches to cross 20 minutes. The Mixed Tag was the longest match of the night at 20 minutes and 40 seconds. A total of 5 matches failed to hit the 10-minute mark, and John Cena and The Undertaker's 2 minutes 45 seconds long squash was the shortest match of the night.
Although the matches were all given time to shine and tell the story they wanted to tell, none of them except the Mixed Tag match particularly worked. Most matches towards the end also felt rushed, especially after the WWE Title match, and the event even went into overtime, running 5 hours 14 minutes, crossing the allotted runtime.
#3 WrestleMania VII
Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter's patriotism-driven feud came to a head at WrestleMania VII. The match was one of the 15 matches on the show. There was one dark match on the show and 14 more matches on the main card. This event also marked the beginning of The Undertaker's legendary streak.
There were 11 singles matches and 4 tag team matches on the card. The singles matches were: Koko B. Ware vs The Brooklyn Brawler in the dark match, The Texas Tornado vs Dino Bravo, The British Bulldog vs The Warlord, Jake Roberts vs Rick Martel in a Blindfold match, The Undertaker vs Jimmy Snuka, The Ultimate Warrior vs Randy Savage in a retirement match, Big Boss Man vs Mr Perfect in an Intercontinental Title match, Earthquake vs Greg Valentine, Virgil vs Ted DiBiase, The Mountie vs Tito Santana, and Sgt. Slaughter vs Hulk Hogan for the WWE Title.
The Nasty Boys faced The Hart Foundation for the Tag Team Titles, The Rockers faced The Barbarian and Haku, Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao faced Demolition, and The Legion of Doom faced Power and Glory in the night's 4 tag team matches.
Two matches crossed 20 minutes, including the WWE Title main event and the retirement match. The retirement match was the longest match, clocking in at 20 minutes and 47 seconds. The biggest shock here is the fact that 6 matches failed to even cross 5 minutes. The Legion of Doom's squash match lasted just 59 seconds. The fact that most of the undercard matches were rushed to make space for the bigger matches is pretty obvious here.
#2 WrestleMania VI
The legendary WrestleMania VI takes the next spot as the Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior main event was preceded by 14 more matches taking the total to 15. There was one dark match and 14 main card matches.
The match had 11 singles matches and 4 tag team matches as well. The 11 singles matches included Paul Roma vs Brooklyn Brawler in a dark match, Rick Martel vs Koko B Ware, Earthquake vs Hercules, Brutus Beefcake vs Mr Perfect, Bad News Brown vs Roddy Piper, The Barbarian vs Tito Santana, Jim Duggan vs Dino Bravo, Ted DiBiase vs Jake Roberts for the Million Dollar Title, Big Boss Man vs Akeem, Rick Rude vs Jimmy Snuka, and The Ultimate Warrior vs Hulk Hogan for the WWF and Intercontinental Title.
Demolition faced The Colossal Connection for the Tag Team Titles, The Hart Foundation faced The Bolsheviks, Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire fought Queen Sherri and Randy Savage in a mixed match, and The Orient Express faced The Rockers in the night's 4 tag team matches.
Only the main event exceeded 20 minutes, clocking in at 22 minutes and 51 seconds. Except for this legendary match, only one match exceeded 10 minutes - the Million Dollar Championship match. Every other match was under 10 minutes, with 5 matches being under 5 minutes. The Hart Foundation squashed the Bolsheviks in just 19 seconds.
None of the matches had any time given to them and just existed to kill time before Hogan and Warrior stole the show.
#1 WrestleMania 4
Considering the fact that WrestleMania 4 through 7 all made their way on to this list says a lot about WWE's booking during that period. WWE crammed as many superstars as they could into these events to give the fans the best experience possible. This caused WrestleMania 4 to have 16 matches in total. The joint highest in history, unless WrestleMania 35 tomorrow crosses it with an impromptu match.
The bulk of matches were part of the WWF Championship tournament, which took place in its entirety on the main card. The other matches on the card included a Battle Royal won by Bad News Brown, a singles match between The Ultimate Warrior and Hercules, the Intercontinental Championship match between Brutus Beefcake and The Honky Tonk Man, a 6-man Tag match between The Islanders and Bobby Heenan against the British Bulldogs and Koko B. Ware, and Demolition vs Strike Force for the WWF Tag Titles.
The first round tournament matches included Jim Duggan vs Ted DiBiase, Don Muraco vs Dino Bravo, Ricky Steamboat vs Greg Valentine, Randy Savage vs Butch Reed, Bam Bam Bigelow vs One Man Gang, and a time limit draw between Jake Roberts and Rick Rude.
The Quarter Finals had Hulk Hogan face Andre The Giant in a Double Disqualification, Ted DiBiase beat Don Muraco, and Randy Savage defeat Greg Valentine, while One Man Gang got a bye. The two semifinal matches had Ted DiBiase getting a bye to the finals and Randy Savage beating One Man Gang. Savage and DiBiase faced off in the main event to crown the new WWF Champion.
Jake Roberts and Rick Rude's 15-minute draw was the longest match of the night, with the Tag Team title match being the only other one crossing 10 minutes. The average match time was barely above 7 minutes. Hopefully, this year isn't a repeat of this.
