WWE Talents Frustrated By WrestleMania 42 Match Times & Adverts

While there were positives from WrestleMania 42, notably the night two main event between CM Punk and Roman Reigns, there has been a huge amount of criticism aimed at WWE's biggest weekend of the year from fans and analysts, particularly over the length of matches and the amount of adverts that aired during the two-night event, with many noting that WrestleMania felt soulless in 2026.

The amount of adverts during WrestleMania was so excessive that people joked their preview of the Hulk Hogan: Real American docuseries on Netflix was being interrupted by WrestleMania.

Altogether, there was 1 hour 27 minutes worth of ads across both nights of WrestleMania 42, with 52 minutes of those ads airing on night one compared to 35 minutes of commercials on night two, according to USA Today. This accounted for 19.61 per cent of WrestleMania's total runtime.

Match times from bell to bell accounted for 2 hours 47 minutes of WrestleMania 42, or 37.29 per cent, while another 1 hour 57 minutes was spent on entrances.

Only 4 of the 13 matches that took place at WrestleMania 42 went over 15 minutes. Night one, which featured the bulk of adverts for WrestleMania 42, only had three matches that were over 10 minutes long.

The ratio of match times to adverts at WrestleMania 42 was a source of frustration amongst WWE talent, Sean Ross Sapp noted on Fightful's The Hump.

"Yeah, let's be real. There's a lot of frustration around the type of thing that's going on at WrestleMania. Match times, advertisements. They understand they've got to make money and, honestly, the wrestlers are making more money than ever before. This is the most financially rewarding period in pro wrestling history, but it is one of those Catch-22s where the majority of people are in this now, and they're saying, 'We need to make this money.' They want that money. It's hard to say no to the type of money that WWE is paying now. If you can get the art there, sure. But right now WWE is in a consume product, enjoy next product mode. That's the reality of where they are, and that's okay that they're there, but that is where they are right now. There's no mistaking it. And yeah, there is some frustration there," Sean Ross Sapp said. 

The number of ads airing on WWE programming has increased since the completion of the WWE-UFC merger under TKO in September 2023. WWE pay-per-views currently air on ESPN Unlimited in the United States and on Netflix internationally.

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