John Cena has revealed he issued an apology for a moment which was completely unscripted during his retirement tour.
On Saturday, Cena steps into the ring for the final time when he squares off against Gunther - the man who won a tournament for the right to face him in Washington, D.C.
The 17-time champion will hang up the jorts and ride off into the sunset to continue his successful run in Hollywood but is poised to have some type of involvement with WWE after signing a five-year deal to work in an ambassadorial role.
Cena will complete 36 dates in a tour which began back in January at the Royal Rumble and featured match-ups with a host of opponents, including Cody Rhodes, Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, Logan Paul and Dominik Mysterio.
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Arguably the best match of his last run came against AJ Styles, with Cena personally requesting a showdown with 'The Phenomenal One' at Crown Jewel in Perth, Australia.
The two stole the show and rolled back the years in front of a lively Perth Crowd, who ate up all of the classic finishing moves and call-backs produced.
The atmosphere was electric before the pair of legends locked up and Cena paid tribute to Styles with a special introduction note that ring announcer Alicia Taylor read out for everyone to hear.
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The note read: "The definition of Total Nonstop Action. The ace and total boss of the Bullet Club. It is 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!"
Cena apologised afterwards
Styles was stunned by the announcement and appeared to say "Oh s***!" at one point. And his reaction makes even more sense after Cena revealed that he "went into business" for himself by producing the intro without the knowledge of anyone at all.
He proceeded to apologise to members of the creative team afterwards for not asking for permission.
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"I just wanted to do something nice for my guy and I didn't even show Alicia until I handed her the paper," Cena explained in an interview with Chris van Vliet.
"I wanted to do something special.I went about it the wrong way. I went into business for myself. I should have gotten permission to do that, and I would have gotten permission to do that, but I told no one about it because I wanted to do something special, and in doing so, the people running the show felt surprised, and that’s not a position I ever want to put them in because they award me such creative liberty.
"The first thing I did was thank AJ and the second thing I did was pull a few creative individuals aside and say, 'I'm sorry, that will never happen again - I f***ed up and I went into business for myself - that's not me and I hope you look at my body of work and all the times I've asked for permission and this is the one time I ask for forgiveness'.
"I wanted to do something nice for AJ."
Josh Lawless