Drew McIntyre Reveals Additional Scrapped Plans With John Cena Beyond Crown Jewel Match

Drew McIntyre is opening up again about missing out on John Cena’s retirement tour — but this time, he’s revealing there was even more planned behind the scenes than fans realized.

After it was previously confirmed that McIntyre was originally set to face Cena at WWE Crown Jewel 2025 before plans shifted to AJ Styles, Drew had already addressed the situation publicly in February, taking a calm approach and accepting WWE’s decision to pivot.

Now, while speaking to Chris Van Vliet on April 2, 2026, McIntyre revisited the situation — and revealed that the Crown Jewel match wasn’t the only plan that changed. When reflecting on how he handled being pulled from Cena’s retirement storyline, McIntyre made it clear that adaptability is part of the business, even when things don’t go as expected.

“Crap happens. Sometimes you go down one path, it doesn’t work, and you’ve got to go back on the path and deal with the fallout from it. I can be personally upset, or I can be like, ‘Alright, there would have been a tag match here.’”

When pressed further during the interview, McIntyre confirmed there were additional plans in place, but stopped short of revealing full details, suggesting multiple creative directions were explored before the company settled on Cena vs. Styles.

“There was another match prior to that involving more than I was supposed to give away all the details, like John out there. But yeah, there was a plan for something else, and then something changed, and then we had another pitch, and we ended up with the AJ match.”

McIntyre also made it clear that while the match with Cena never became public, it was something he personally would have liked to see play out — especially alongside the eventual Styles bout: “So it wasn’t public, myself and John. I would have liked to see what me and John could have done and still get the AJ match.”

Despite the missed opportunity, McIntyre isn’t looking at it as a setback. Instead, he’s treating it as just another example of how quickly plans can shift in WWE — and how important it is to stay ready no matter what direction things go.

Do you think WWE should have stuck with Drew McIntyre vs. John Cena — or did they make the right call pivoting to AJ Styles instead? Let us know your thoughts below.

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