John Cena on AJ Styles as an Opponent, What AJ Should Do Next

AJ Styles will return to Monday Night Raw tonight for a proper farewell from WWE and the fans. At least that’s what it’s being advertised as, we won’t really know for sure until after it happens. Regardless of whatever happens, Styles has earned the respect of his peers for his work inside the ring and how he’s treated people outside the ring.

One person with a great amount of respect for Styles is John Cena. Cena & Styles had some incredible matches over the WWE Championship during their time together on SmackDown several years ago and faced each other last October in Australia as part of Cena’s (and as it turned out, Styles’s) farewell run. Cena’s personally written intro for Styles further showed Cena’s respect for the Phenomenal One.

John Cena spoke with The Takedown on SI about what AJ Styles means to him and what AJ should do next. Some highlights are below:

John Cena on AJ Styles as an Opponent

“Every opponent you have should mean something to you. You should learn from them. Where AJ is concerned, not only does he have such an incredible wrestling vocabulary, fluency, and ability, but I would be hard pressed to find somebody who would say, ‘AJ Styles treated me unfairly’ or ‘AJ Styles was mean to me’. Allen, AJ, is just a really good person.

So I guess what AJ Styles means to me is that you can do it at a high level for a long time and be kind. And that’s super important. I was privy to a bit of inside track on AJ’s career path, obviously working with him and discussing what we could physically do and not do, so I really wanted to do my best in Perth, to try to give him a send-off that I thought was worthy of such a gentleman.”

John Cena on What AJ Should Do Next

“What do I think AJ Styles should do next? Gosh, he has earned the right to do whatever he damn well wants. He has spent so much of his life really risking his health for all of the fans of sports entertainment. He was NWA World Champion, he dominated over in Japan, he worked for TNA, he worked for WWE. He can do whatever he wants. He has earned that right.”

AJ Styles will address the fans later tonight on WWE Raw with a special tribute planned for tonight’s show in Atlanta, Georgia. The show will air live on Netflix starting at 8:00 pm ET.