John Cena v/s AJ Styles, Crown Jewel: Perth

There was almost zero indication AJ Styles would be involved in John Cena’s retirement tour, and Cena had no dates between Wrestlepalooza and Crown Jewel, all signs implying it to be Lesnar v/s Cena again for Cena to win. Then, Cena starts a twitter hashtag wanting CenavsStyles, and it was made official within a day. There was 0 build on TV, Cena didn’t appear, AJ Styles had a couple promos about ‘beating up John Cena’ and that was pretty much it. Styles had been very comfortably in the mid-card, the match-up makes practically zero sense outside of the history behind the two professionals. Whenever they’ve battled it out, it has been magical. Will they be able to re-create it one last time?

I had my hopes low, as I have had for almost all of Cena’s bouts in this tour, after the shitshow of Wrestlemania. And, most of the later fights have been good (re: non Brock Lesnar ones), yet, I’ve been burned before so I would rather just have no expectations and then be surprised if there’s any actual value.

This match had everything, man. Especially for the hardcore, long term fans. It was absolutely perfect. From Cena surprising AJ with his own special pre-match announcement, highlighting his work, to them having callback after callback to their own rivals through their finishers, this match was pure fanservice, and I ate it all up, just like all other fans.

These are two men at the end of their ropes, both about to retire in the next few months, both older. You can’t expect them to put up a classic anymore, right? Wrong.

Whenever they’ve shared the squared circle, they’ve shown magic. And they still got it, man. I know this match wasn’t necessarily the best in-ring work but who really cares.

This match was a love letter to all wrestling fans of the past twenty years. Who grew up believing in these two generational talents. Mr WWE and Mr TNA. From AJ’s in ring gear being his first ever TNA gear, to Cena giving him a specialized introduction to all the tributes.

Match starts, they both hit some of their moves, even an AA, and it was a fairly standard, decent match and then Cena pulls out a Skull Crushing Finale (The Miz). And the match just transcends. You see tribute after tribute. It is the Leo pointing at the TV meme one after another. You get to relive several superstars through this match, both gents paying respects to their career building rivals.

Anyone who has experienced these careers will be filled with joy seeing two legends doing so many iconic moves. I am someone who really hasn’t experienced these too much, but even I felt extremely nostalgic watching it.

When someone dies before their time, at their peak, that is how you remember them, and the loss feels even more tragic than death by default does. That is why the moment of the match was Cena performing Sister Abigail and the whole stadium lighting up their phones for the fireflies to come out. Death sucks, I never really followed Bray Wyatt’s career but he certainly was one of a kind and you can see the outpour of love and it just hits you so damn good.

This whole thing shows very subtly how Cena does things. Selflessly. This could have been very much focused on Cena, as most his matches this year had been, but he went out of his way to make this match a Cena and AJ Styles affair. He made sure people cheered for Styles, gave another veteran his due and shared the limelight for the night with him. And, boy is it wholesome to see AJ Styles get his flowers, too. He deserves it as much as Cena does. And that is why, they both are GOATs.

There will never be another match like this.

There will never be another AJ Styles.

There will never be another John Cena.

If the retirement match sucks, this is the defining retirement match of Cena’s for me.