Drew McIntyre Reveals Cancelled Plans For Huge John Cena Match

Drew McIntyre has discussed missing out on being a stop on John Cena’s WWE retirement tour.

2025 was the final year of John Cena’s in-ring career in WWE. During that time, Cena had singles matches with the likes of Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, R-Truth, CM Punk, Sami Zayn, Brock Lesnar, Logan Paul, AJ Styles, and Dominik Mysterio. All of them before Gunther forced Cena to tap out in his final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event in December.

One man who never got a singles match with Cena during that time was the current WWE Champion, Drew McIntyre. But as he told Shakiel Mahjouri of SHAK Wrestling, it wasn’t for the want of trying:

I mean, I can’t change the creative direction. I talked about getting that match with Cena, getting in a situation on the microphone with Cena, just to prove what I’m capable of. Because I want to compete with the best, and he is, or was, the best on the microphone.

Drew McIntyre Replaced By AJ Styles

McIntyre was originally John Cena’s planned opponent for Crown Jewel in Australia, but that all changed when Cena sent a post out on social media asking if fans wanted to see him in the ring one last time with his old rival, AJ Styles. The Cena vs. Styles match was the one which took place, with Cena picking up the win. He later claimed that the switch came to give fans a “feel-good moment.”

Drew McIntyre noted that he heard all the noise around what happened, but as WWE Champion, he thinks things turned out just fine for himself:

I heard the quote. I heard what John said. Whatever people weren’t feeling what was going on, they decided to pivot. He outright asked, ‘Do you want AJ?‘ And the match was incredible. So, I could sit there and go, ‘Damn, what if?’ Or, ‘What if he Tweeted my name?’ But the reality is, he’s retired and I’m World Champion, so I think it worked out just fine for Drew McIntyre.

I keep my head down and I keep working, no matter what happens. I can’t take his phone and say ‘Just Tweet my name.’