John Cena Regrets Not Getting Permission For Special AJ Styles Intro At WWE Crown Jewel

John Cena says he didn’t get permission for AJ Styles’ special introduction during their match in his retirement run, something he says was entirely on him. The two competed at WWE Crown Jewel in Perth, Australia. Cena handed Alicia Taylor a special intro for Styles that referenced his TNA and Bullet Club tenures.

Cena was asked about the ring intro and the match as a whole during his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He acknowledged that no one knew about the intro, not even the people running the show in Gorilla. He said that he shouldn’t have done that, calling it going into business for himself. You can see highlights sent along by the show below:

On the Intro For the Match:

“I just wanted to do something nice for my guy. I didn’t even show Alicia until I handed her the paper. You don’t get those moments unless you get the sh*t beat up. I wanted to do something special; I went about it the wrong way. I went into business for myself, I should have gotten permission to do that, and I would have gotten permission to do that. But I told no one about it, because I wanted to do something special, and in doing so, the people running the show felt surprised, and that’s not a position I ever want to put them in because they award me such creative liberty.”

On Feeling He Should Have Gotten Permission:

“We’re all trying to make these moments special, and we’re all on the same team, and it shouldn’t be me doing something outside that realm. If I tell my teammates, hey, let’s do it. I can keep it from AJ, I can keep it from Alicia, but if I tell my teammates who are crafting this show, maybe they make it look better. The first thing I did was thank AJ, the second thing I did was pull a few creative individuals aside and say, ‘I’m sorry. That will never happen again. I know where I f**ked up. I’m so sorry, and I went into business for myself. That’s not me. I hope you look at my body of work, and all the times I’ve asked for permission, and this is the one time I ask for forgiveness.’ It got the best of me, but I wanted to do something nice for AJ.”

On Accomplishing What He Wanted With That Match:

“I just want to get that ball rolling. All right, they’re wasting the heel turn at WrestleMania, and they’re like, Oh, the Randy thing. And then the Punk, and then Cody, and then Logan in Paris was even kind of dope. And then you go to Brock, what? What are they gonna do next? And then you get the payoff, and we look at them all in individual moments, but it’s why, until now, I have refused to give anyone any information about any of this, because I don’t want to lead the witness.

“The last one is going to be the last one. We have told the story, everybody knows the drill, a tournament to decide, this is going to be it. I want the last one. I want people to look at the road ahead, 26 and beyond; I want them to take away some Superstar’s name from the 13th. But now we can reflect on the year. We get caught up in these moments, thinking that’s all you get and not realizing that this is the commercial spot before the reveal, before the big finish. We’ve just had to digest it as it has been a year storyline, and reflecting back on it, I get excited and again, I don’t feel I could have given anything else. So I’m very happy with how it’s gone so far.”