Nothing is universally praised — certainly not on Al Gore’s internet*. But we occasionally get things are celebrated by most of their audience. The John Cena/AJ Styles match from Perth, Australia today
(Oct. 11) seems to be one an example of those.
If you want to see two performers shoot for realism, you may not be in the larger group applauding Cena’s victory at WWE Crown Jewel. As you might expect from two retiring legends (Cena announced last year that he was done in the ring at the end of this one, and he and WWE are promoting Dec. 13’s Saturday Night’s Main Event as his final match; yesterday, Styles again said he won’t wrestle into 2027) who haven’t been given much from creative lately, Cena and Styles decided to pay tribute to each other, several of the men they’ve worked with and learned from over the years, and the business/artform itself. They told a story about competing, but their main goal was to entertain.
A couple of big WWE names whose moves were included in Cena and Styles’ story acknowledged their tribute on social media. One of them was their boss, Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque:
Another was a Hall of Famer they both lost to at WrestleMania, Mark Calaway. We mostly know him as Undertaker
Frankie Kazarian doesn’t have a job at WWE, or in management at any wrestling company that we know of. But Styles included his former TNA rival (and every once in a while his ally) in the match by using Kaz’s Fade To Black. The four-time X-Division champ noticed:
We can’t say it any better than that.
* Anyone under 40 have any idea what I’m talking about? Or even know our 45th Vice-President’s fascinating story? Sorry, I’m a few years older than Cena and Styles, and I had to get up really early this morning. Grant an old man his early internet jokes, okay?
