‘I’m tearing up’ – Deleted WWE social post threatens to blow Royal Rumble surprise as fans make plea

While John Cena was retiring to the fanfare of a lifetime, another send-off looks to have been happening in plain sight.

Cena brought down the curtain on an incredible WWE career at Saturday Night’s Main Event last month.

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His defeat to Gunther was the final outing of a memorable if slightly controversial retirement tour packed full of great matches.

Up there with one of the best was his clash with AJ Styles in Australia, the veteran pair bringing the house down in Perth at Crown Jewel.

The grappling legend turned Hollywood success was ticking off the emotional goodbyes, and all the while, another long farewell was unfolding before our very eyes.

Cena delivered a heartfelt tribute to Styles before their Australia match that later landed him in hot water backstage. He said he’d wanted to do something special for The Phenomenal One – we now have a big hint as to why.

Styles has made no secret that 2026 will be his final year of wrestling after a stellar career not just in WWE but across the globe.

Fans looking forward to seeing him tour the world with WWE one last time over the next 12 months may be in for a shock, however. It might be that he has just days left.

That’s at least the theory being feared by fans after reading a now-deleted Instagram Story from Shinsuke Nakamura – another WWE star and a longtime, respected colleague of Styles.

WWE star deletes social media post

In a post he titled “The Diary I wrote the day before,” he pays tribute to the multi-time former champion as “Truly one of a kind.”

Styles, Nakamura says, confided in him his plan to retire at WWE’s Royal Rumble – an event that takes place this weekend in Saudi Arabia.

The Styles Clash master heads into a match against Gunther vowing to hang up his boots if he loses – a stipulation many fans took only at storyline, face value.

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Nakamura’s revelation has turned it all upside down, however. He penned: “During last year’s Australia tour, at a house show in Melbourne, AJ gave a speech after the match.

“Listening to it, it was clear he was thanking the fans. But somehow, it also felt like he was hinting that retirement might not be that far away.

“The tour continued to Japan, and before the shows there, I asked him something. We were in a van on the way to the meet and greet. I asked him: ‘When are you going to retire?’

“He answered: ‘The Royal Rumble. I’ve already decided.’”

Nakamura insisted there and then that he wanted to wrestle Styles one more time before that event and, last weekend, got his wish.

The scheduling of their meeting is chilling in so much that it tallies with the idea Styles might really be ready to call it quits just a month into the year.

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WWE

If that was their final outing, it would bring to an end a storied in-ring relationship that began a decade ago – the two battling one another across the planet before colliding in WWE, even sharing the ring at WrestleMania.

In tribute, the Japanese sensation added of Styles: “He’s straightforward, easy to read, and impossible to hate.

“His everyday clothes are terrible, and he’s got that Southern American accent. What a lovely American.

“And yet, when it comes to professional wrestling, his balance of expression and technique is the best in the world. Truly one of a kind.”

Styles beat Nakamura after a 20-minute collision in Canada – it seems, their final meeting in a wrestling ring.

Attention now turns to the Rumble, and a very real fear that a storyline stipulation might actually be a way of saying farewell to another wrestling great.

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While coy on Saturday’s meeting, WWE’s Chief Content Officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque has at least said the countdown for Styles is on.

He told ESPN: “So we’re gonna have to see [if Sunday is the end].

Triple H makes AJ Styles statement

“AJ Styles has not made it a secret, this year, ‘26 is going to be his last in-ring year.

“He has a lot of goals… he’s with me every week making a list of people that he would wanna face and he wants to meet in the ring before he retires.”

Levesque added of Styles vowing to avenge what he perceives as the Austrian’s disrespect of Cena: “He put his career on the line against Gunther, saying that if he can’t beat him, if he can’t end this streak for Gunther, then he’s done.

“I, for one, hope that that doesn’t happen. I hope AJ Styles continues because he’s an incredible talent. But if it does, what an unbelievable run he’s had.”

WWE

Fans, though, are adamant. One said with a crying emoji: “No way bro retires at the Royal Rumble.”

A second added: “I’m tearing up right now. It can’t be done this soon.”

A third said: “No way AJ is actually retiring already I refuse to believe it.”

The Story soon disappeared from Nakamura’s Instagram, fuelling speculation it had blown the surprise of Royal Rumble heartbreak this weekend – others confident it’s all a ruse to draw attention to the event.

2026 will, all told, be the end for AJ Styles – plenty will be hoping his iconic career lasts at least beyond Saturday.