Major WWE Royal Rumble match reportedly ran over time

WWE kept the card short for the 37th annual Royal Rumble event. However, officials were still forced to deal with some timing issues.

WWE had just four matches on the Royal Rumble card this year. As far as number of matches went, this was the shortest card since the inaugural Rumble event in 1988, which also had four matches. Not including the one-hour Kickoff pre-show, the 2024 Rumble had a run-time of 3 hours 50 minutes and 42 seconds. The Rumble in 1998 ran for 2 hours 23 minutes and 54 seconds.

Officials dealt with timing issues at Tropicana Field on Saturday, and among the impacted matches was reportedly the Women's Royal Rumble. Fightful Select noted that the match was listed internally for 55 minutes, but it ended up going around 10 minutes longer.

Multiple sources list the women's Rumble at around 65 minutes, give or take a few seconds. However, the official WWE website listed Bayley's win at 1 hour 3 minutes and 3 seconds.

The report notes that this was the second-longest 30-Woman Royal Rumble in history. The second-ever women's Rumble in 2019 went around 72 minutes. To compare, the 2023 match went just over 61 minutes and in 2022, they went just under 60 minutes.

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WWE Royal Rumble 2024 match stats

WWE packed Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Saturday for the 37th annual Royal Rumble Premium Live Event. The company announced a sold out crowd of 48,044 fans in attendance.

The 30-woman Royal Rumble opened the show. Bayley entered at #3 and has an official win time of 1 hour 3 minutes and 3 seconds. The Ironwoman of the match eliminated 7 competitors - Indi Hartwell, Candice LeRae, Maxxine Dupri, Tegan Nox, Bianca Belair, Tiffany Stratton, and Liv Morgan.

Cody Rhodes won the 30-Man Royal Rumble to close the show. Jey Uso entered at #1 and was the Ironman of the match, with an official time of 50 minutes and 55 seconds. He eliminated Gunther, with Cody's help. Rhodes won with an official time of 43 minutes and 21 seconds. He eliminated 4 wrestlers on the way to victory - Austin Theory, Shinsuke Nakamura, Gunther with Uso, and CM Punk for the win.

The shortest time in the Women's Rumble was Valhalla. She was eliminated by Nia Jax in just 5 seconds. JD McDonagh had the shortest run in the Men's Rumble. He was eliminated in just 3 seconds by Uso.

What was your favorite moment from the 2024 WWE Royal Rumble? Who will have a better WrestleMania 40 storyline - Bayley or Cody Rhodes? Sound off in the comments section below!