The recent social media campaign and storyline teasers surrounding a final match between John Cena and AJ Styles were reportedly part of a deliberate, long-term plan to build hype for the bout, which will now take place at WWE Crown Jewel. According to Dave Meltzer on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, the match was “always scheduled for Australia,” and the narrative that the match might not happen due to Cena’s limited retirement tour schedule was a creative strategy to increase fan demand for the bout.
Over the past week, John Cena made several posts on social media teasing a final match with Styles, even directly asking Triple H to make it happen, leading fans to believe the match was not yet set in stone. According to Meltzer, this was all part of the show. “The idea was they’d tell people ‘you’re not going to get this match’ — so to create a demand for the match, they basically told the story that Cena is paying tribute to him because he’s only got limited dates, and AJ ain’t getting it,”
Meltzer reported. He also noted that a recent off-air promo from AJ Styles on Raw, where he expressed frustration with his booking, was also a component of the storyline build for this specific match.
The rivalry between John Cena and AJ Styles produced a series of classic, critically acclaimed matches between 2016 and 2018. Their bout at the 2017 Royal Rumble, where Cena defeated Styles to win his record-tying 16th world championship, is considered by many to be one of the best matches of the last decade.
The strategy to create demand appears to have worked, as fans are looking forward to seeing it at the upcoming WWE Crown Jewel premium live event on October 11 in Perth, Australia. After Crown Jewel, Cena is only scheduled for two episodes of Raw in November, the Survivor Series event on November 29, and his final match at a special Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13.
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