10 Longest Matches In WWE Raw And SmackDown History
Seth freakin' Rollins helping to break records...
Feb 20, 2018
Putting together a WWE televised event must be an absolute nightmare. It's the commercials. The commercials are an unruly mistress when it comes to WWE shows. It's a good job our favourite Superstars take a tumble to the floor when they do because those commercials swoop in with zero remorse to chop up the action. It's actually some kind of miracle - when you think about it - that opportune moments to cut to the break happen during a show that is aired live each week... what a happy reoccurrence.
Having watched every inch of WWE programming for a while now, I reckon you're doing well if you can wrangle a two-commercial match from one of the company's weekly shows. That's, like, 20 minutes or longer of airtime and plenty of time to get your sh*t in, as they say in the trade.
Because of the nature of the show it's hard to get lengthy matches in due to the amount going on. A number of feuds have to be built so WWE Network subscriptions are purchased ahead of the next special event. Imagine if WWE simply built one feud and then had the rest of the card filler on any given Sunday event on the Network - it would be an unmitigated disaster.
So with a 54-year-old record tumbling on this week's Raw in terms of the company's complete history, let's have a look at the 10 longest matches in weekly episodic WWE televised history - otherwise known as the really long ones from Raw and SmackDown...
The night after Badd Blood 2004 and an elimination 6-man tag match was the main event of Raw.
At the PPV, Chris Benoit had retained his World Heavyweight Championship against Kane, Randy Orton retained his Intercontinental Championship against Shelton Benjamin, and Chris Jericho had defeated Tyson Tomko in a barnstorming affair that lasted three seconds short of six minutes. Wow.
This match was everything you would expect it to be, with the heels getting the upper hand only for the underdog babyface to fight back and get the big win in the end.
Triple H, who defeated Shawn Michaels in
that
Hell in a Cell match the night before, was at ringside being an absolute bastard and almost allowed Evolution to come out on top. However, TEAM CANADA'S Benoit locked in the Sharpshooter on Orton to gain a massive win in a massively long match.
This match was so long, in fact, that Raw went off the air after 11:20 pm -
way
after the show was supposed to end.
The likes of A-Train, Big Show, Billy Gunn, Ernest Miller, Hardcore Holly, John Cena, Nunzio, Rhyno, Rikishi and Tajiri took part in this Rumble with the winner going on to face Brock Lesnar the very next month. Yes, this is the match that booked Eddie Guerrero's ticket to his WWE Championship winning night at No Way Out 2004.
It's a Rumble where The Big Show dominates, so what's new? The final 10 minutes leading up to the finish is pretty exhilarating, however, with Eddie looking like he's going over the top before reversing to dump Kurt Angle to the floor for the win. Eddie's big push had started, we're off to the races.
Thank goodness he won, or we'd never have had
that
moment. Well, we might have had
that
moment somewhere down the line, but you can't help but feel it wouldn't have been as perfect as the moment we got at NWO '04.
The night that Triple H turned his back on Seth Rollins to hand Kevin Owens the recently vacated WWE Universal Championship. One hell of a moment that set off the Road To WrestleMania™ XXXIII in many ways.
Four men had qualified for a huge Fatal 4-Way Elimination match, with The Prizefighter taking home the gold after The Game's Pedigree to the Architect.
NICKNAMES!
Naturally, because it involves Triple H, it's a finish that completely overshadows anything that happened during the match - even if Mrs Ladyballs herself Stephanie McMahon - the star on any show - along with her whipping boy Mick Foley, were sat at ringside.
Daddy Game's shock appearance from the crowd led to a Pedigree on the floor to Roman Reigns which saw THE BIG DOG sent home packing after Cass' early elimination.
It's a match that's all about the finish so if you're going to go back and watch it, just watch the last 10 minutes or so. The rest is mere filler in comparison - which is testament to the finish by the way because it's a mighty fine match till then.
Gauntlet Madness, they called it.
Three weeks before SummerSlam and Brad Maddox opened Raw being as useless as he always was in his role of GM. He invites John Cena out to the ring to explain why he chose Daniel Bryan to challenge for his WWE Championship at the biggest party of the summer, berating the leader of the Yes Movement for being small and hairy and not what WWE look for in their premier champion.
You can imagine the back and forth that went on here, with Cena defending Bryan before comparing him to the likes of Shawn Michaels, Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio.
Out comes Bryan, with Maddox giving the little goat man an opportunity to prove his doubters wrong - as if he needed to do so. He booked him in a match which actually turned out to be three matches in one, the cheeky scamp. What's Brad like, hey?
Bryan took on and defeated Jack Swagger thanks to a Yes Lock, Cesaro thanks to a rollup and Ryback following a DQ for going through a table - his path to SummerSlam looked like getting a lot bumpier after this.
At least Ryback hit the table this time I suppose...
This is the one with JBL and Booker T and. Chris Benoit and. Christian and Muhammad Hassan. The Undertaker - the latter pair scrotum deep in their highly controversial feud. Taker would actually get himself disqualified from this match by taking a chair to Hassan's head - the silly goose.
This match had nothing to do with a dinosaur - I just like seeing JBL in faintly uncompromising positions.
Christian was revealed to be the latest Raw draftee to join SmackDown by GM Teddy Long, moments before the first bell. which of course gave Captain Charisma the advantage because his adversaries didn't have any time to prepare for him. That's how wrestling works. Christian replaced Big Show in the match because reasons.
Eventually we're down to Christan and JBL in the final two, with the self-proclaimed Wrestling God winning the match, and seemingly the SmackDown title... that's until Long reveals that there is no SmackDown title and John is merely the new number one contender to Batista's World Heavyweight Championship with The Animal the newest member of team blue.
This was a match with only one clean fall, with Chris Benoit of all people succumbing to a DDT.
Simply put, the greatest match in Raw history and absolutely worth the 55 minutes and 49 seconds it was afforded. And hey, it happened in England, so bonus Mars Bars all round for that too.
This was a match where GOAT Shawn Michaels led and John Cena followed - and rightfully so, since Shawn is a GOAT and John maybe isn't.
Everything about his match is great. The pacing, the action - a lot of it looking very familiar to HBK's WrestleMania XII classic against Bret Hart it must be said. But there are far worse matches to steal from, in all fairness - and the finish just hit the right nail in the right spot on its head.
Cena looked to have the match won with an STFU, only for Michaels to escape and hit a desperation Sweet Chin Music for the win. The way he flopped down on top of Cena for the cover told the story, and then some.
And to think, the pair would be involved in a huge championship Fatal 4-Way six days later. This match kind of makes Seth Rollins' decision to go the distance on Raw this week feel almost sane.
If Michaels vs. Cena is the greatest match in Raw history then Angle vs. Lesnar is the greatest in SmackDown history. No arguments.
Olympic Gold Medalist Angle and WWE's current Universal Champion were attached at the hip for large parts of the early noughties. A feud that culminated at WrestleMania XIX saw Angle forced to take time off due to well-documented neck complications, with this match taking place after his return.
It's a match that has everything - Brock even gets himself disqualified for one of the falls thanks to the use of a steel chair. The Beast dominated for large periods, with Angle fighting back sporadically - the contest really told the tale of the young upstart and wily veteran really well, mixed in with some incredible action as you would expect.
With the score 5-4 in Lesnar's favour and Kurt on the offensive, an Angle Lock was applied and it looked for all the world that the scores would be tied. However, time ran out - huge drama - limbs all over - what a marvellous end to a marvellous match.
The only reason this Iron Man Match ranks above the other Iron Man Match in this list is because it's marginally better. That's all I have for you. This is the kind of insight you have all come here for, I know.
Maybe it's because this match took place on live television rather than being taped and aired a couple of days later meaning you were more in the moment with Benoit and Triple H - but it really is one of those moments when you sit down side-by-side to watch something and firmly believe one is better than the other for reasons that aren't exactly clear.
This match also has the story behind it that the Lesnar/Angle offering doesn't. Nobody thought Chris Benoit could defeat both Triple H and Shawn Michaels, yet he did. And I'm almost certain that there was a similar feeling from the WWE Universe heading into this one, with a dastardly Game seemingly having a sleeve full of tricks to call upon when needed.
All I know is for sure is that talking about Benoit in such glowing terms like this feels really, really wrong. So we'll leave this long match here and move on.
Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz & Damien Mizdow vs. The Usos vs. Los Matadores vs. Heath Slater & Titus O'Neil vs. The Ascension vs. The Big Show & Kane - yes, this is a thing that happened and yes, somehow, this a match that lasted over an hour in television land once all of the adverts were accounted for.
In all fairness, WWE were in the midst of telling a main event level story here, with Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns heading towards their Fastlane meeting with THE BIG DOG's WrestleMania match against Brock Lesnar on the line.
Would the two coexist against a bunch of lowly jobbers and a few others?
Yes.
They'd see off Kane and Big Show - who absolutely murdered the Royal Rumble a couple of weeks prior, how could anyone forget? - last to romp home to victory. The pair would look at each other and the WrestleMania sign before nodding approvingly at each other. On to Fastlane we go.
The Seth Rollins Show.
Even though there was absolutely nothing on the line, The Architect's quest to turn Monday Night Raw into 'Monday Night Rollins' saw him go for a staggering 65 minutes to open the February 19 2018 show.
Taking the traditional formula for a go home event and throwing it in the bin, WWE went for a different feeling Raw by having this 7-man gauntlet last for the first two hours of the show (adverts included). It's weird how WWE have subtracted the ad time from the total, presumably meaning the competitors in the ring must have stood still during the ads until the show came back on the air each time...
Forget about that though, Rollins got over with the crowd thanks to a gutsy performance that produced as much grit as it did flamboyance - the stretch with John Cena really is essential viewing and wouldn't have looked out of place on a WrestleMania card.
Some could argue it went a bit too long but there's no denying that it was an entertaining bout throughout. Every Superstar had their chance to shine, with the pacing, character-driven spots and scenarios making the first two hours of Raw fly by.
Braun Strowman eventually came out on top after dismantling The Miz and his Miztourage, but it's Rollins who undoubtedly stole the show on the road to the Elimination Chamber.
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Mark Henry's descent into a tawdry addiction may have given him the fantastic moniker 'Sexual Chocolate' but, on the whole, the entire thing was risible Attitude Era shock TV that has aged about as well as your average banana.
In late 1999, The World's Strongest Man confessed that he was a sex addict, confiding in his therapist (and millions watching on television) that he had first lost his virginity to his sister when he was eight years old, among other salacious gems.
Thankfully everyone's favourite neighbourhood pimp The Godfather was on hand to cure him of his illness and, in the aftermath, Henry became a babyface.
The saga took another interesting turn when the former European Champion began an on-screen romance with septuagenarian Mae Young. This oddest of odd couples then announced that they were, against all odds and science, expecting a child.
Despite being with child, the unbreakable Mae was still out there taking a beating every week (including an Angle Slam from Kurt Angle). After receiving first a clothesline from Hardcore Holly and then a splash from Viscera, Young was taken away by ambulance and, the next week on Raw, went into 'labour'.
And then she gave birth to a rubber hand covered in pink goo.
Speaking on the Edge & Christian Pod of Awesomeness in 2018, former WWE writer Tommy Blacha (who played the unfortunate EMT in the skit) said that there was no real idea behind the ending of the angle, other than Vince McMahon decided one day that he wanted it to stop immediately and this is what they came up with.
Bruce Prichard has also discussed in the past how Vince thought Mae giving birth to a hand was absolutely hilarious because 'it's a hand', without elaborating further as to why that is so funny.
I'm telling you, the WWE CEO could keep a team of the best psychologists in the world busy for a decade and I still don't think they'd even begin to scratch the surface...
WWE did call back the angle in 2012 at Raw 1,000 when Mae Young introduced her 'son', which was a young man wearing a giant hand costume.
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One of the reasons the Invasion storyline (more on that in a bit) was such a letdown is because most of the top stars had guaranteed contracts with WCW parent company Time Warner, meaning they could afford to sit out and collect a boatload of cash for doing absolutely nothing.
Some, like Diamond Dallas Page, accepted a buyout in order to join WWE. Given how his WWE run turned out, I'm sure he wishes he hadn't bothered.
For weeks, Undertaker's then-wife had been stalked by some unseen presence who filmed her and aired the footage on WWE television. Naturally, this sent The American Badass apoplectic and he vowed to find the stalker and make them pay.
It was an intriguing premise in theory and an example of WWE attempting to do something more gritty and based in 'reality'.
In the end, the stalker was revealed to be none other than DDP. The reveal was very well done and the unmasking resulted in a huge reaction from the live audience.
Of course, when you sat and thought about it for a minute, the whole thing seemed a little bit off.
After all, this was a huge departure for the already established Page and, as he has rightly pointed out in recent years, the idea of him pining over someone else's missus was a bit daft when he had former head Nitro Girl Kimberly waiting for him at home.
Things went from bad to worse for Dallas, as he was routinely pummelled during his and 'Taker's ridiculously one-sided feud, which ended when Sara herself beat the former WCW Heavyweight Champion in a singles match on Raw.
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Bray Wyatt/The Fiend was a magnet for silly nonsense during his WWE career. Some of it was rotten, some of it merely OK and some it was actually quite good.
His 2017 feud with Randy Orton certainly ran that gamut, as the initial storyline of The Viper joining the Wyatt Family, only to turn on them in spectacular fashion, was well done.
Then the two met in a WWE Title match at WrestleMania, where maggots and other creepy-crawlies were projected onto the ring canvas and you thought, 'jeez, that was bad but at least things can't possibly get any dumber'.
And you know something? You'd be dead wrong. Because the next month at Payback, the two had their big blowoff match inside the 'House of Horrors'.
Said house supposedly belonged to the Eater of Worlds, and Orton showed up there in a limo. Without a shirt on. But wearing regular pants and shoes. Hmmmm. Right from the off, you could sense this thing was going to be a strange disaster.
They then had a crap brawl around the gaff that ended with Bray chucking a fridge onto Randy, before turning everything red (I'm assuming via Google Home?) and knicking the limo.
Later in the show, the match continued in the arena, where fans had booed the previous 'cinematic' claptrap. Miraculously, Orton managed to free himself from the haunted fridge, but he ended up losing a short, poor match after the Bollywood Boys and Jinder Mahal interfered leading to Sister Abigail.
Just unbelievably bad on every conceivable level and a genuine horror show for all involved.
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The Summer of Punk in 2011 had the makings of being one of the best WWE storylines, well, ever, featuring some incredible moments like the Pipe Bomb promo and a series of great matches between CM Punk and John Cena.
Despite being an easy story to tell, WWE decided to dump a cold bucket of ice water all over this red-hot feud and somehow turned it into Triple H versus Kevin Nash.
Big Sexy returned to WWE for the first time in eight years (minus his Royal Rumble cameo earlier in the year) after the main event of SummerSlam 2011, attacking the Straight-Edge Superstar after his successful WWE Title defense against Cena and allowing Alberto Del Rio to cash-in his Money in the Bank contract and become new champ.
The next night on Raw, Nash explained his actions in a promo by revealing that Triple H had told him via text to 'stick it to the winner', accusations that The Game denied.
The whole thing devolved into a confusing mess and, in the end, it turned out that big Kev had broken into his pal's office, stolen his phone and sent the text to himself, supposedly because he couldn't sit idly by while Punk talked trash about the Cerebral Assassin and his family.
Right. Sure. Okay. That all seems perfectly fine then. Nothing hollow and untrue about that whatsoever.
Then we didn't even get the expected match between Nash and Punk, because Triple H replaced his Kliq buddy at Night of Champions (and went over Punk too, naturally).
The storyline eventually culminated in a Ladder Match between Kevin Nash and Triple H at TLC 2011. Another smart call, that, booking two men who legally don't have quads in a bout where the whole point is to repeatedly climb something.
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This one only kinda sorta counts, since it was basically used as a throwaway joke ages after the fact, but it's something that still rankles with fans.
Full disclosure here, but I kind of hated the Anonymous Raw General Manager. I know that was sort of the point, but the trope outlived its welcome and was an irritating aspect of WWE television when the quality of the product was already full of regressive comedy and dumb storylines.
For over a year, the Anonymous Raw General Manager reigned over WWE's flagship, with emails read out by spokesperson Michael Cole.
It was eventually phased out without the identity being revealed, after much speculation as to who it could be (fuelled by many red herrings contained within the emails).
It returned for one night on July 9, 2012, where Santino Marella stumbled upon the fact that it was Hornswoggle who had been running the show all that time.
Per former WWE writer Kevin Eck, the company had no plans when it came to the identity of the Anonymous Raw GM and the Hornswoggle reveal came about after someone had suggested it as a joke during a production meeting, referencing the poor reception of the Vince's illegitimate son payoff from years earlier.
There's something almost commendable about them making a decision they know is stupid and will annoy fans. Almost.
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Twice!
Yes, there were two terrible 'payoffs' to the John Cena and the WWE roster versus The Nexus storyline.
To recap, The Nexus were the gang of 'rookies' who had been contestants on the first season of NXT the game show, led by competition winner Wade Barrett and featuring the likes of Daniel Bryan, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater in their ranks.
They had made an impact on WWE TV by attacking anyone and everyone in brutal fashion, from legends like Ricky Steamboat, to current stars like Chris Jericho and Edge and even Vince McMahon himself.
They got themselves over in a big way during the summer of 2010 and found themselves booked against a team of WWE stars in the seven-man tag team elimination match in the main event of that year's SummerSlam.
Having such momentum and being presented as such a genuine threat, you would think the boys in black and yellow would go over on the night, as Edge and Jericho suggested happen, but Super Cena had other ideas and ended up shaking off a DDT on the concrete floor to dispatch Gabriel and then Barrett with relative ease.
He later admitted that he got it wrong, but the damage was irreparable and it was all downhill for the Nexus from there.
Downhill right until, after a few more storyline twists and turns, Cena beat Barrett in their Chairs Match blowoff at TLC 2010. The show ended with Cena victorious as Barrett was, quite literally, buried under a bunch of chairs.
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Though WWE were guilty of a rather shameful bit of bait-and-switch when they advertised Steve Austin for a triple threat WWE Title match at Survivor Series 1999 (despite knowing full well that he was injured and unable to perform), they did at least set up a tantalising storyline for his inevitable return when they shot an angle where he was run down by a mystery assailant in the arena parking lot.
When the Texas Rattlesnake came back full-time in the fall of 2000, much of WWE's televised output was dedicated to finding out 'who ran over Stone Cold'.
Austin himself was on the hunt, hitting Stunners on just about the entire roster in his bid to unearth the culprit.
But in the end, it was Commissioner Mick Foley who got to the bottom of things and found out that that Rikishi was the wheelman that night. Yes, the lovable, dancing babyface who had become one of the most over acts on the show, was the one who tried to murder the biggest star in the business.
As Rikishi explained himself, he didn't run Austin over for his own gain but rather to allow The Rock to emerge as a megastar in Stone Cold's absence, while basically accusing WWE of holding back non-white performers. The segment where it was revealed not only fell flat, but the whole episode turned a very hot babyface act into a lukewarm heel for no real reason.
While Rikishi got a very short main event run (and pay-per-view matches with Austin and Rock) out of it, fans didn't take to the Samoan superheavyweight's character change at all and his career arguably suffered as a result.
Making matters worse, Triple H sucked up all the heat for himself when he let the world know that he had orchestrated the whole thing and put Rikishi up to it.
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Sting's WWE debut at the 2014 Survivor Series was a moment that, for some, had been decades in the making.
The last holdout from WCW, the potential of The Icon wrestling in a WWE ring had been discussed to death and some had given up hope as it looked as though The Stinger was happy to ply his trade in TNA.
But now he was under Vince McMahon's employ and, not only that, he was going to be wrestling the boss's son-in-law at WrestleMania 31.
One would assume the heroic babyface would go over on the dastardly authority figure on the grandest stage, since it was his first WWE match and all and the storyline practically demanded it.
But why give the fans what they want when you can rehash the Monday Night Wars mid-match and remind everyone that you were the war winner ALMOST FIFTEEN YEARS AGO.
WWE's insistence on beating WCW's former stars is well-documented, and Triple H himself was guilty of doing the dirty on the likes of Scott Steiner, Booker T and Goldberg during his early 2000's 'reign of terror'.
But why do it to Sting, who had so much audience support and really needed to prevail more than Triple H on the night? The justification was that Trips needed to be built up for an eventual match with The Rock (which never ended up happening).
The match itself was decent and Sting looked good out there. It's just a shame he went down to a sledgehammer shot and then had to shake The Game's hand afterwards while getting patronised with a little tap on his painted face.
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Look, I'm not one to knock The Rock versus Steve Austin, because anytime the Texas Rattlesnake and the Brahma Bull met it was simply solid gold.
But when the WCW and ECW Invasion of WWE began in the summer of 2001, I don't think many foresaw it being settled by the two multi-time WrestleMania main-eventers.
As mentioned earlier, the Invasion was hamstrung from the beginning since most of WCW's top stars had guaranteed contracts with WCW parent company AOL TimeWarner.
Really, you didn't think Goldberg, Hogan and Nash were coming in to work for a paycut when they could sit by the pool and rake it in, did you?
Despite being bereft of proper star power, the Invasion had its moments. Rob Van Dam and Booker T both emerged as major stars, while some of those lower down the card started to establish themselves. There were a few standout matches and promos to savour here and there, too.
It wasn't all terrible, by any means, but definitely a squandered opportunity and something that fell well below fans' expectations.
As for the payoff, that came just five months into a storyline that could have (under different circumstances) lasted at least a year.
At the 2001 Survivor Series, Team WWE (Rock, Jericho, Big Show, Kane and The Undertaker) saw off Team Alliance (Austin, Kurt Angle, Van Dam, Shane McMahon and Booker T) to banish those dastardly WCW and ECW wrestlers forever.
Except, not really, because they were all just integrated into the roster in the weeks after anyway.
Just look at that Alliance team, folks. You've got Austin, one of the biggest WWE stars ever and someone who admittedly disliked much of his time working for WCW. Angle, a product of the WWE developmental system. And Shane McMahon, the boss's son and the man likely to inherit some of the empire one day.
Doesn't exactly scream 'us versus them', does it?
It was a far cry from the Hogan/Austin, Sting/Rock and Flair/Angle dream matches that wrestling fans had hoped for and, by the time the Invasion came to a close, the result was inevitable.
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The Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness's feud with Vince McMahon and the Corporation was soap opera sports entertainment silliness turned up to eleven.
Flaming teddy bears, kidnappings and ritual sacrifices - it seemed as though nothing was off limits as the tale unfolded every week on Raw with another twist, turn or cliffhanger leaving Attitude Era fans baying for more.
A lot of the content that came out of the feud was hokey, yes, but Undertaker's claim of a 'higher power' pulling the strings behind the scenes was genuinely interesting.
Was it a yet-to-debut wrestler? A brand new character destined for the main event? Someone from McMahon's past coming back to haunt him?
The possibilities were endless and wildly speculated on (Christopher Daniels and The Jackyl were often discussed as those who could be it) but, alas, it turned out IT WAS VINCE, AUSTIN! IT WAS VINCE ALL ALONG!
Yes, as shown on the June 7, 1999 episode of Raw, the Higher Power was none other than Mr. McMahon himself. The whole thing had been an elaborate and nonsensical ruse designed to get back at Steve Austin.
The de-hooding makes for a hell of a meme, but as a payoff it was weak and didn't make a lick of sense as the whole storyline was riddled with inconsistencies.
Swerve, bro.