Harrowing statistic shows just how little WWE relies on in-ring action

WWE's episode of Friday night SmackDown last week ran for two hours, and in that time there was just 13 minutes and 40 seconds of in-ring action.

Instead of wrestling, the company relied on several in-ring promos, video packages and backstage segments to fill the course of the show.

WrestlingInc's recent report revealed that the longest match on the show ran for just six minutes and 40 seconds. This was the match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Ludwig Kaiser which later led to Gunther attacking his long-time companion.

The source did note that there was a match between Los Lotharios and The Usos on the show which began as part of the ad break, which meant that the actual length of the match was difficult to determine.

Lack of in-ring action appears to be a running trend in WWE

WrestlingInc went on to note that while there were no other episodes this year that dipped below 20 minutes of cumulative match time, there were three episodes in February, March, and April respectively that contained just 25 minutes of action across the two-hour show.

The report also pointed out that several matches on SmackDown this year have been longer than the total of all the in-ring matches on Friday Night's show.

These included WWE's Battle Royal on July 1st, Charlotte Flair vs. Naomi from February, and even Roman Reigns vs. Riddle for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, which were all around the 15-to-20 minute mark.

WrestlingInc even shared a chart highlighting just how extreme the lack of action was for last week's episode. The chart shows that this is the lowest cumulative amount of wrestling on a show this year.

While the company seems to be leaning more into sports entertainment lately, many fans are hoping that this isn't a permanent trend.