John Cena Says AJ Styles Match Is One of the Few He’s Watched Back

John Cena and AJ Styles had a largely-acclaimed match during Cena’s retirement tour, a bout that Cena recently reflected on. Cena battled Styles at WWE Crown Jewel: Perth in October, a match that proved to be one of both guys’ final PLE bouts. The match was filled with homages to both men’s careers, with Cena ultimately getting the win.

Cena was asked about the match during a Q&A at MegaCon 2026. He praised the crowd for the show as well as Styles, noting that it is one of the relatively rare matches featuring him that he has chosen to watch back. You can see the highlights below:

On the Crowd For the Match:

“The atmosphere in Perth was like something I’d never seen. I’d never seen that many T-shirts. I know for a fact we didn’t give them away, but it’s like we gave them away. I wore yellow that night, and the whole crowd was yellow. I’m used to you know, 50/50 or sometimes people will wear an older shirt. So the atmosphere I think really swept everybody up. And because the audience was smart enough to understand what we were doing as well? You can do all this cool stuff that you think is cool, but if you guys don’t get it, I’m kind of being selfish.”

On the Match Itself:

“So I think we had a moment of serendipity, where you have you have these two performers. And I knew AJ shared with me that he was going to retire in January. So I really think the world of him and wanted to do something special and make it special. And then you had an audience that kind of understood that. And man, like halfway through — I don’t watch a lot of matches back, because I like to live the moment, I don’t like to get into my head and I’m like, ‘What could I have done different?’ I can’t, it’s done. That’s one that I have watched back and like man, the audience was calling spots for us. It was great. It was just a moment where everyone in the arena was in on it.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit MegaCon with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.