New Study Plots Relationship Between Wrestling Match Duration & Cagematch Rating

Pro wrestling never has a shortage of topics that can be debated to death. Two of those topics are the usefulness of the website Cagematch, which allows fans to rate matches from a score of one to ten, and whether the duration of a wrestling match matters when it comes to its quality.

Recently, Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics decided to combine the two topics, studying the relationship between wrestling match duration and the Cagematch scores for said matches. And it appears to confirm that fans, at least those that flock to Cagematch, are more likely to rate matches a high score if a match goes longer. Matches that go for five minutes or more (the lowest amount of time a match can have to be rated on Cagematch) average around 5, while matches lasting 10 to 15 minutes average a score between 6 and 7.

This trend continues for matches that reach the 20 and 30 minute marks; average scores for matches that long range from 7.5 to above 8.0. The peak for the ideal "great match" time appears to come around 35 minutes, with the score hovering around 8.5. This reflects in matches listed on Cagematch's Top 10 matches, or select hidden gems. Of those top tier bouts, only one was less than 20 minutes, 8 were 20 minutes or higher, and 9 were 30 minutes or higher.

However, Thurston's research shows that once matches go past 40 minutes, the scores tend to sag, with matches ranging from 40 minutes to 70 minutes seeing dropping from 8's and back into the 7's. Thurston concludes that while longer matches produce matches fans think more highly of, they also produce greater expectations, and matches that don't meet them tend to suffer as a result.