John Cena’s retirement tour had some edits along the way.
Billi Bhatti spoke on the Dirty Sheets Wrestling Informer podcast about this situation with John Cena’s retirement tour. He mentioned that a few possible opponents on that proverbial dry-erase board had to be removed.
While people like Kevin Owens and Adam Copeland are not available, because KO is injured and the former Edge is now with AEW, another big active name was also scrapped. According to Bhatti, AJ Styles was also on the list of opponents. However, they aren’t going to get to that now.
“As for who his opponents will be, I have absolutely no idea what they are planning to do. What I know they’re not doing is they are no longer doing John Cena versus AJ Styles.”
Kevin Owens was another one but Kevin Owens is injured. Adam Copeland — Edge — is no longer in the company.”
WWE has done a good job booking John Cena’s retirement tour in terms of opponents. Seeing him face AJ Styles again would have been a real treat. The two know each other well, as AJ Styles and John Cena started their rivalry in 2016. Their feud quickly became a highlight of SmackDown following the brand split, delivering several high-profile matches through 2017.
In singles action, Styles and Cena split wins at Money in the Bank 2016, SummerSlam 2016, Royal Rumble 2017, and SmackDown in 2018, leaving their record tied at 2–2. They also clashed in multi-man bouts at No Mercy 2016, Elimination Chamber 2017, and Fastlane 2018.
John Cena and Brock Lesnar’s match at WrestlePalooza on September 20 has not been announced just yet. However, it is very much expected. That being said, booking Cena vs Lesnar for one last time also apparently took AJ Styles out of the picture.
What’s your take on WWE nixing John Cena versus AJ Styles? Did you want to see that match instead of Brock Lesnar? Let us know what you think in the comments section!
