John Cena Reveals the One Match From His WWE Retirement Tour He Watched Back

One match during John Cena's WWE retirement tour meant a great deal to him.

John Cena's historic WWE career came to an end in December against Gunther at Saturday Night's Main Event. While his final year as an active competitor was a roller coaster of emotions for the WWE Universe, we were treated to a few matches that really made his retirement run special.

Perhaps the one that stands out the most, not only in the eyes of the fans but also in Cena's, was his match against AJ Styles at WWE Crown Jewel in Perth, Australia. A match that many wrestling fans called the match of the year in 2025.

John Cena reveals the one retirement match he watched

WWE Legend John Cena recently appeared for a Q&A session at MEGACON 2026 in Orlando. When asked about his match against The Phenomenal One at Crown Jewel, Cena put it over in a big way and admitted it's the one match from his retirement tour that he decided to watch back.

"I think we had a moment of like serendipity, where you have these two performers, and AJ shared with me that he was going to retire in January. So I really think the world of him and wanted to do something special and make it special. Then you had an audience that kind of understood that.

"And man, I don't watch a lot of matches back, because I like to live the moment. I don't like to get into my head about what could I have done different? I can't. It's done. That's one that I have watched back, and like, man, the audience was calling spots for us. It was great.

"It was just a moment where everyone in the arena was in on it, which was cool, because the storyline -- sorry, I'm long-winded about this. I feel really good about it. The storyline going into the AJ match. It was a match that the public wanted. I had wrestled Brock, and everybody was disappointed. I had wrestled Logan, and everybody was disappointed.

"Not in the matches. The cool thing was like what Oba did to Brock last week. Oh, now we get it. Brock's a monster. Oba might be able to topple the monster. So you feel a certain way about watching stuff as it happens and then later on the story. But AJ and I came about because the sentiment was, you're wasting John on his retirement tour, and we want to see AJ Styles.

"I got to put it out socially. You guys overwhelmingly said I would love to see that. So going into the match was a product of the people. There were no promos about it, no buildup about it. It was done all socially, and it was just advertised. These two guys are going to fight for the last time in this special event, and it's because of your voice."

Has the absence of Cena and Styles hurt the build to WrestleMania?

While AJ Styles retired in January, he was essentially on his retirement run alongside John Cena throughout 2025. The fans just didn't know it at the time.

WWE losing two of its biggest stars months before WrestleMania 42 probably hasn't helped the overall hype and perception of this year's event.

Whether it's losing talent to retirement or untimely injuries, this year's WrestleMania doesn't seem to be hitting like the other ones we've had in recent years. With less than a month to go, it will be interesting to see if WWE will be able to right the ship before they arrive in Las Vegas for the company's biggest show of the year.