We’re finally on the way to one of the most hotly debated fantasy warfare matchups of all time: AJ Styles versus John Cena. After Cena’s legthly absence and patriotic return, he’s been put straight on a collision course with the Phenomenal One. Granted, there’s been no official match made yet, but Big Match John probably won’t take his beatdown on Raw lightly, so it’s safe to say these two will tangle soon.
What we might take for granted, though, is the fact that Cena and Styles have been on surprisingly parallel roads to this point. Reddit user notmartincameron started noticing some interesting similarities and put together a list. Maybe this match was destined to happened all along, we just had to wait until the time was right.
– Both men were born in 1977. (AJ’s birthday is actually tomorrow.)
– Each man originally started under a gimmick name: Cena was ersatz Terminator “The Prototype,” while AJ put on a mask and became “Mr. Olympia.”
– There was an opportunity for both men to start with WWE in 2002, but Styles declined the contract he was offered.
– Each arguably became the face of their company: Cena for WWE, and Styles for TNA.
– It took less than a year after signing their contracts for each man to main-event a pay-per-view.
This almost feels like a callback to the Cena vs. Kevin Owens feud, where Owens had been wrestling every bit as long as Cena, simply on a different stage. And of course, that feud started with a bang, so I’m obviously looking forward to Styles/Cena. One suggestion, though… if they’re going to make us wait until a major show for this clash, maybe have them settle things on UpUpDownDown first? Xavier Woods would probably have an unfair Styles bias, though. NWA Wildside guys have to stick together.
