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By Matthew Couden
Contributing Writer
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WWE Crown Jewel 2025 featured one of the remaining matches on the John Cena retirement tour, as the multi-time champion battled another professional wrestling great, AJ Styles. The two put on an entertaining bout for fans in Perth, Australia, and, as with other recent Cena matches, included a trip down memory lane.
In previous matches along Cena's retirement tour, he performed moves that some of his former foes famously used against him. A notable example was Cena performing Edge's signature move, despite Edge, whose real name is Adam Copeland, appearing in All Elite Wrestling (AEW).
During his Crown Jewel match against Styles, he pulled out tributes to the late Bray Wyatt and Chris Jericho. During one part of the match, Cena used Wyatt's Sister Abigail, which Alexa Bliss currently uses as her finisher, to continue paying tribute to Wyatt and The Fiend.
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Styles is also on his own retirement tour, having recently confirmed that he will be retiring next year. That allowed him to pay tribute to former opponents he has faced in his career.
The match finish featured Cena using The Undertaker's famous Tombstone Piledriver, something that has put many opponents away. However, he achieved the pinfall win after also hitting his own move, the Attitude Adjustment, on Styles.
Read more: WWE Hall of Famer Sounds Off on The Undertaker Podcast Backlash
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Much like Cena performed AEW star Edge's move in a previous match, he paid tribute to another former WWE star who left for AEW, Chris Jericho, at Crown Jewel.
ESPN SportsCenter shared an update in which John Cena is seen applying Jericho's trademark submission move, The Walls of Jericho, on AJ Styles.
While the fans went wild and Cena seemed close to grabbing the win there, Styles didn't tap, and the match continued between the two former foes, who are now great friends.
As Crown Jewel aired on ESPN Unlimited, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful shared an X post listing many of the wrestlers' moves Cena and Styles used in their rivalry rematch.
Some of the other entries included TNA alum Samoa Joe, Christoper Daniels, and Frankie Kazarian, most likely due to AJ's longtime association with TNA, and WWE now doing crossover promotions with their former rival company.
As seen above, Cena and Styles paid tribute to wrestling legends that ran the gamut, including Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, Sting, and Rey Mysterio.
Many described this match on Cena's retirement tour as highly entertaining. Fans seemed to be eating up the various trademark moves he hit, including Sister Abigail, which was among the trends on X during the event.
At one point in the match, commentator Wade Barrett suggested it was as if someone had created a WWE 2K video game character and just used all of the possible finishers they could with that character.
Things are likely going to get a lot more serious, as Cena has two upcoming opponents who might not be as friendly as Styles. Rumors suggest he will challenge Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio at Survivor Series and face Gunther for his final match in December at "Saturday Night's Main Event."
Read more: Former WWE Star Reveals Major Reason for Joining TNA
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