John Cena Reflects on Struggling To Find Reason for 2016 AJ Styles Feud

John Cena and AJ Styles had a memorable feud during The Phenomenal One’s debut year in WWE, ten years ago. The idea of a feud between the two leading faces of WWE and TNA wrote itself. However, Cena admittedly initially struggled with the idea.

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Cena recalled the beginning of the storyline, when he struggled to come up with a logical reason for feuding with Styles.

Cena said:

“When we had our first issue together, our first program. Normally, I can go find a ‘why?’ Why are we fighting? Because I think that’s the attraction. I couldn’t find anything for AJ. Honestly, I thought that maybe in all of our years in separate promotions, with him being the lead dog in TNA, did he ever say anything or even hint at a notion that I could, in the heat of the moment, bring up and make people say, ‘I wanna see this! ’. No, not at all. Because he’s such a nice person.

“So I had to sit him down, and it was the day of our first promo, and I’m like, ‘Hey, we got to understand why we’re fighting.’ And honestly, this is how decent a human being he is; after two-and-a-half hours of prodding, he finally was like, ‘OK, listen, now this isn’t Allen, but maybe AJ might say that if it weren’t for John Cena, I would be the face of WWE,’ and I was like, ‘Bingo!’ and we’re off to the races.”

As it turned out, the rivalry proved to be a memorable affair, with Cena and Styles delivering epic matches at Money in the Bank 2016, SummerSlam 2016, and Royal Rumble 2017.

The iconic rivals battled for one last time during Cena’s Retirement Tour last October at the Crown Jewel PLE in Perth.

Elsewhere in the interview, John Cena explained what AJ Styles meant to him as an opponent and what he wants The Phenomenal One to do next. You can check out his comments HERE.