AJ Styles Almost Missed Out On Last Match With John Cena

From the moment that John Cena announced his plans for a retirement tour, fans immediately went into fantasy booking mode. And one of the matches at the top of most fans' lists was one more clash between Cena and AJ Styles.

However, with just a handful of appearances remaining on Cena's run, the match still hadn't happened.

But then, seemingly out of nowhere, the match was made via social media, and Cena and Styles tore the house down one more time at Crown Jewel. But Cena has now revealed that a match with Styles was never the plan.

Cena reveals how AJ Styles match came about

During a new interview with No-Contest Wrestling, Cena admitted that WWE pivoted after "listening to the data points," and hastily arranged a match with the Phenomenal One.

“I try to plan it as a year of creative experiences, but you have to be able to pivot. You don’t have Rock, you don’t have Travis (Scott).
John Cena

Cena added that in Australia, he was meant to face Drew McIntyre before the switch was made.

"AJ was supposed to be Drew. We pivoted. You want to have a feel-good moment because they were listening to the data points. They do. It’s real. You have the Brock moment; people are pissed off. You have the AJ moment, and things are great."

How a Brock Lesnar comeback stopped John Cena making history

Elsewhere during the interview, Cena also lifted the lid on another huge pivot that fans might never have been aware of.

Back in 2021, Cena was already in part-time mode as his acting career began to take off, but he made a shock return at Money In The Bank to confront Roman Reigns, who had just beaten Edge in the main event to retain the Universal Championship. This comeback set up a match between Cena and Reigns at SummerSlam with the World Title on the line.

At the time, Cena was chasing his elusive 17th World Championship, and he's now revealed that he was originally scheduled to win it on that night in Las Vegas. However, once Brock Lesnar agreed to make his own WWE comeback, plans were changed, and Reigns won. The win for Reigns played into Lesnar's return just before the show went off the air.

“In the last moment, we had a surprise guest booked. He came out after the match was over. Brock. They didn’t secure Brock until 5 pm that day. I was going to win 17."

Once the deal to bring Lesnar back was done, Cena and Reigns were told that the result of their match had been changed. Cena went on to say that he took the switch in his stride, as it happens regularly.

"Then, we secure Brock. They come and say, ‘I need to see you. We’re switching the finish.’ ‘To what?’ ‘Roman over. Clean.’ ‘Okay. Let me talk to Roman and Paul.’ We go in, ‘You got the news? What do we do?’ I said, ‘One spear. That’s it. Whatever match you want to have, that’s fine. You beat me with your finish once ... An hour before. It happens to everyone. I didn’t flip out. It happens all the time. I was supposed to win 17 that night.”

Cena did eventually win a 17th World Championship, but he had to wait until WrestleMania 41 where he defeated Cody Rhodes.

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