John Cena Reveals He Was Supposed To Wrestle Drew McIntyre At WWE Crown Jewel Instead Of AJ Styles

John Cena wasn’t supposed to wrestle AJ Styles at Crown Jewel.

On October 11, 2025, the crowd in Australia watched on as John Cena took on AJ Styles for the final time. ‘The Phenomenal One’ was someone fans worldwide were clamouring to see be part of Cena’s retirement run, and their match at Crown Jewel acted as a celebration of both men’s respective careers as they paid tribute to some of their biggest rivals by including their moves. However, the 17-time world champion has now revealed what the original plans were before the company’s fanbase expressed their interest in seeing a fourth match between the two legends.

Appearing on No-Contest Wrestling, Cena revealed that his initial opponent for Crown Jewel was actually Drew McIntyre.

“AJ was supposed to be Drew, but it pivoted. We want to give them a feel good moment because they were listening to the data points. They listen to you guys. They do. It’s real.”

-John Cena

Regardless, Cena’s match with Styles was many fans’ favourite moment from his year-long retirement tour as the two veterans locked horns one last time. Plus, the theme of retirement carried on as AJ’s own WWE career was ended at the hands of GUNTHER just seven weeks after ‘The Ring General’ came out on top against Cena at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Speaking of altered plans, Cena revealed elsewhere in the interview that he was actually meant to win his 17th world championship in 2021. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the initial plans for John Cena’s retirement tour as soon as we hear more.

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