AJ Styles has revealed that his final match with John Cena at Crown Jewel in October 2025 was called entirely in the ring by Cena, with no pre-planned structure going in.
Speaking on the Phenomenally Retro podcast, Styles described the level of trust he placed in his opponent that night.
“Our last match, we didn’t have anything called in the beginning. Nothing was called. He just said, ‘I’ll call it.’ I go, ‘Okay’ and I trusted him so much that I wasn’t worried about it. Let’s just go out there and call it, bro, I’m listening to you. That was it. There was a couple of matches that were very like that. He would take control of it and he would call the match. He’s different, man.”
The match was widely considered one of the best of 2025. Cena retired from in-ring competition in December 2025 following his farewell tour. Styles retired in January 2026.