John Cena’s WWE career retirement tour is winding down with only four more in-ring appearances left for one of professional wrestling’s GOATs.

It wasn’t very surprising when fans learned that Cena would face AJ Styles at last weekend’s premium live event, Crown Jewel, in Perth, Australia.

It’s especially hard to believe that it has been nearly a decade since Styles first arrived in WWE, hot off the heels of an amazing run with New Japan and, before that, as one of the major faces of TNA Wrestling.

The pair had a series of matches, culminating at 2017’s Royal Rumble, where Cena dethroned then-WWE champion Styles to claim his record-tying 16th world championship, which for many fans of both stands the test of time as one of the best matches of that era.

What isn’t very surprising or hard to believe is that in their final match ever — on the same day Styles officially announced the beginning of his own retirement tour, thus creating a sort of passing of the torch moment — was that the pair put on a master-class level showing; a love letter to pro wrestling that reminded many why we love this goofy athletic attraction so much.

This match may well go down in history as “The Battle of the Finishers,” because most of Cena’s big offense revolved around Cena using finishing moves of classic opponents from his two-decade career. The Miz’s Skull Crushing Finale, The Undertaker’s choke slam from off the mat and patented tombstone piledriver and Rusev’s Accolade lock were just a few of the fun callbacks fans in Perth and live on TV got to see. My personal favorite was Cena’s not-very-good-but-still-very-funny impression of Randy Orton leading to an RKO “out of nowhere.”

But we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about Styles here too, who sold every blow throughout the match like one of the best in the business. I thought it was also super classy of Cena to pen a personal and meaningful ring introduction for ring announcer Alicia Taylor to read, which received a thunderous applause from the Perth live crowd.

“The definition of total, non-stop action. The ace and undisputed boss of the Bullet Club. It is our honor as fans, and my honor as an opponent, to see if he can beat up John Cena, one final time. He is the face that runs the place, the phenomenal AJ Styles.”

Every crowd Styles has stepped in front of in recent years has been electric. In particular, the international crowds have gone all in on The Phenomenal One.

Fans in France last year during WWE’s “Backlash” 2024 in Lyon began singing “il est vraiment phenomenal,” a french song whose title roughly translates to “he is really phenomenal,” leaving the entire arena and the cameras recording the show shaking uncontrollably.

It’s a chant that, whenever Styles has made it back into the squared circle since, fans have taken the opportunity to serenade him, and it’s hard to argue against it.

Cena and Styles simply were phenomenal.

Digital content coordinator and copy editor Dan Isenberg can be reached at disenberg@altoonamirror.com or on X @TheseDanTweets