John Cena Names His Two Favorite Matches Of His Career

After years of having a dodge for the question, John Cena has finally named his favorite matches of his career. Cena has historically been able to avoid looking back at his previous matches, as he would always say that his favorite match was his next one.

Of course, Cena is retired now from the ring so when he was asked the question at SpaceCon San Antonio 2026, he wasn’t able to dig his standard answer out. He instead named his first WWE match where he faced Kurt Angle and coined “Ruthless Aggression,” as well as his retirement tour match against AJ Styles at WWE Crown Jewel: Perth. You can see the highlights below:

On Not Being Able to Dodge the Question Anymore:

“So, this used to be a cheat code of mine, right? When I was still a wrestler, I used to be like, ‘Oh, that’s easy. My favorite match is my next one.’ Because it’s true, I would always look forward to performing, but now I can’t cheat. I am retired.”

On His Picks:

“I don’t think you can have the journey without the first step. So, I really have a soft spot for a match in Chicago with an Olympic gold medalist named Kurt Angle.

“Speaking of matches that give me the emotions, and maybe the feels and a little bit of a tear or two, I was lucky enough on the retirement tour to face AJ Styles in Perth, Australia. And I really enjoyed that match as well. So, I’ll give you those two as a as a concrete answer for that.”

On the Styles Match:

“The reason I showcase that AJ match is because it wasn’t just me and him; it was all of us. I don’t know if you all saw it, but the crowd was calling out spots. Like, we had 55,000 people telling me to hit AJ with the RKO. Hell, I almost did a 619. It was like a 3-.5-4.5.

“But I don’t know if it can get better than that as far as interaction, because I’ve always encouraged our audience to interact. But man, they felt like they were all in the ring with us, and I just don’t know if it gets any better. I’ve never had that happen in my career, ever.”

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