This Saturday, WWE returns to Perth, Australia for the 2025 iteration of Crown Jewel, with five matches officially confirmed for the card. Among them, WWE star Natalya is most excited for the final faceoff between John Cena and AJ Styles. As a long-time advocate and pioneer in women's wrestling, however, she's also looking forward to the tag team match pitting four of WWE's best females on opposite sides.
"I love the story that the girls are telling," Natalya said on "Busted Open Radio." "It's very intriguing. Besides Maxxine versus Becky, I'm loving this Asuka, Kairi, IYO, Rhea storyline because it's got so many layers to it. Kairi, I think will be the standout character of all of it because she's become very fascinating to me. She's torn between these friendships and she doesn't know where she stands. She loves IYO, but she's loyal to Asuka. It's just cool. You see this different partnership between Rhea and IYO, that they've been very organically brought together."
At Crown Jewel, IYO SKY and Rhea Ripley will take on Asuka and Kairi Sane. For several weeks, Asuka became increasingly agitated with SKY's growing bond to Ripley, so much so that she warned Ripley to stay away from "The Genius of the Sky." Ripley, of course, refused to give in, as did SKY, causing Asuka to attack them both and Sane to appear conflicted.
According to Asuka, SKY owes her success to her as "The Empress of Tomorrow" had acted as her mentor in Japan before they all joined WWE. SKY, while acknowledging that, still then created a wall between herself and Asuka, leading to a tag team match being announced for Crown Jewel.
Elsewhere at Crown Jewel, former rivals AJ Styles and John Cena will meet once more in a singles match, with the latter having just five dates left on his retirement tour. According to Natalya, Styles is definitely among the candidates for discussions regarding the greatest professional wrestlers of all-time, especially given his in-ring skills and passion both during and before his time in WWE. Meanwhile, Cena remains on the same level as a certain baseball legend.
"We got a lot of wrestling influence in this house, but we really think, TJ [Wilson] really thinks AJ's in that conversation of one of the best to ever do it," Natalya said. "Then, of course, you have John Cena. He's been talked about as being the Babe Ruth of professional wrestling. It's coming down to the wire of some of his last matches. So I want to see what magic John and AJ are going to do, especially in that big setting with that big fight feel. I think it's going to be exciting. I think AJ is going to bring out the very best in John."
Much like the past, Styles has publicly exclaimed his eagerness to beat up Cena. Unlike the past, though, both he and Cena are babyfaces this time, with fans already divided on who they're rooting for.
Cena and Styles' last one-on-one encounter took place on the February 27, 2018 episode of "WWE SmackDown." Cena emerged victorious. This go-around, Natalya believes Styles will force Cena to step up.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
