John Cena finally reveals the real reason he decided to scrap one-on-one match with Drew McIntyre before WWE retirement

JOHN CENA has explained why his match with Drew McIntyre had to be changed during his retirement tour last year. The 17-time world champion left WWE after 23 years of action last December, but had one full-time year before departing for Hollywood. Drew McIntyre was in line to face John Cena in Australia But after Brock Lesnar squashed Cena, the 17-time champion had doubts the fans wanted it He battled Cody Rhodes, R-Truth, Randy Orton, CM Punk and many others during his swansong run and he was meant to face McIntyre after working with Brock Lesnar. However, he ended up facing AJ Styles in Perth, Australia instead. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! During series 3 of WWE Unreal on Netflix, Cena explained that the outcome of the Lesnar match tied his hands. When asked why he fought Lesnar, Cena explained: “That’s easy. He’s not once in a generation, he’s once in a genre. That’s it. They’ll be one Brock in wrestling. End, stop. “The why is, losing to Brock does not kill me at all because I’m on my way out. And we’re bringing him back with the intent to give him as much energy so he can begin to give it away. “What’s the best way to do that? Yeah, he’s gonna come back and destroy me. Physically, it’s gonna be a tough night, champ. That’s what we want. “If he can do that to someone who was just a champion… he gets mowed over. Oh my god, who’s next? That’s the why. “We told the right story with Brock, he’s on the right path. But, boy, the audience was upset. And now there is this growing resentment from the audience.” Most read in Sport Cena says the fan reaction to his Lesnar loss wasn’t what they expected Cena and McIntyre did wrestle in a tag match at least Cena believed that the fans were getting jaded with the type of opponents he was picking for his retirement tour and with only a few months left, he needed to serve them a matchup they really wanted. Cena said: “For my next opponent, it was originally supposed to be Drew McIntyre. “Sorry Drew, but you can’t ignore the indicators. ‘We’re sick and tired of this. Give us someone that we want.’ “Rewind: I had cut a promo in Dublin with Logan Paul. They popped for AJ Styles. Indicator that they want to see this match. What if we socially ask the people that are typing away that this sucks? Let me put something out. “Do you guys want the AJ match? ‘F***, that’s what we’ve been trying to tell you!'” Cena then tweeted again, this time with Triple H and AJ Styles tagged in to get their attention. That led to Triple H, who leads creative in WWE, to agreeing with the pivot. Now Cena is retired and McIntyre, a four-time world champion in his own right, never did get his one-on-one match with him. Comment now