One of the highlights of John Cena’s 2025 retirement tour was his match with AJ Styles, a bout built as a tribute to the wrestlers who shaped both men. Styles says he still does not believe he was meant to be in it.
Speaking on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Styles laid out how the match was constructed around throwing back to the talent they had faced across their careers.
“It was the opportunity to throw back to every guy that we ever wrestled that meant a lot to us, and that’s all it was. We didn’t have much of a story, so we had to tell one in the ring,” Styles said. “I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to wrestle him. I don’t care what anybody says.”
He was firm that something else had been in the works, even if he does not know the details.
“Maybe, I don’t know who called it, but I know that I wasn’t in the picture. Something else needed to happen,” Styles said. “I’m just positive that I wasn’t the guy that was supposed to wrestle him. Someone’s got to tell that story because I don’t know.”
The match itself, he said, came together over social media, with Cena guiding him through the setup.
“He kind of called me and let me know, hey, when I say this, you respond, and I’ll be okay. I got you,” Styles said. “This is weird, because again, when it comes to WWE, sometimes I’m left out, that you’re a WWE guy, and even though me and John had so many great matches, I don’t think I was in that story with him.”
Styles pushed back on the idea, which has circulated, that Cena called the entire match from inside the ring.
“No, that’s wrong. That is not true. Not at all,” Styles said. “We had something called for the beginning, and as we’re about to go walk out of Gorilla, he goes, hey, I’m just gonna call that beginning. I was like, okay, I trust you. That was it. So we called the beginning.”
The match wove in the finishers of wrestlers who mattered to them, including one Styles had never attempted, a shout-out to Frankie Kazarian.
“I’ve never done that move before, and I told John, I was like, man, I don’t know if I can do it, and he’s like, yeah, you can,” Styles said. “We watched it back, and I was like, freak, that’s great. Even I think Triple H said something like, I don’t know, man, and it turned out to look really good.”
Cena has said Styles is the best to ever do it. Styles is not sure he believes it, but he appreciated it.
“For John to say that after wrestling so many unbelievable professionals in the wrestling business means a lot to me. It really does,” Styles said. “In my head, I don’t know if that’s true, but for him to say that, my ego goes up a couple points.”
He credited an unusual chemistry between them for why their matches always worked.
“Every match that we ever had, we just gelled. I don’t know what it was. Our minds were in the same place. Our timing, everything was so good,” Styles said. “So I may have tricked him because we had the same mindset.”
