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Update on John Cena vs. AJ Styles WWE Crown Jewel: Perth match

Posted: Sep 26th 2025 By: Joseph Currier

WWE booking John Cena vs. AJ Styles for Crown Jewel: Perth wasn’t a decision that was made late in the game.

It was announced this week that Cena and Styles will face off at the Saturday, October 11 PLE in Perth, Western Australia. With Cena’s schedule not having any WWE appearances before Crown Jewel, the build for the match was done on social media. Cena called for the matchup and asked Paul “Triple H” Levesque to give the fans what they want — and Levesque responded by making Cena vs. Styles official.

Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Cena vs. Styles was always the plan for Crown Jewel. When Cena did an homage to Styles because they allegedly weren’t going to wrestle each other, that was actually part of the build to this eventual match.

“This match was always scheduled for Australia — always,” Meltzer said. “So the whole deal about Cena and AJ, you know, the idea that Cena was doing the tribute to him because he wasn’t going to get to wrestle him. That was actually to build to this match, that was not actually ever the case.”

Meltzer said that Styles’ worked-shoot promo that he cut during a Raw commercial break earlier this month was also part of the build to this match.

Some of the best matches of Cena’s career were against Styles during their rivalry. The two are now wrestling each other one-on-one for the first time since 2018.

Crown Jewel has a start time of 8 a.m. Eastern on October 11. After the PLE, Cena only has four dates left on his retirement tour.