Cena Talks Goldberg Match, WWE and AEW Rumors on Tiffany Stratton's Injury, Claudio

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe and All Elite Wrestling.

Cena Reveals Why Goldberg Match Never Happened

John Cena has only a handful of dates remaining in his career as an active in-ring performer, and it looks as though one much-discussed bout will go down as an unrealized dream match.

Although their careers overlapped and there were opportunities to make it happen, a singles match between Cena and WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg never came to fruition.

During a recent Q&A session at Fan Expo Boston (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), Cena was asked why he never faced Goldberg, and he gave a simple answer, saying, "Well, because nobody told me to. That's the best answer I can give, you know?"

Cena went on to add that while there are several Superstars he would have liked the opportunity to wrestle against, he also had the chance to lock horns with some of the best, saying, "Man, I'd have loved to wrestle Andre the Giant, Steve Austin—there's a lot of folks on the list I would have loved to—but I also got to wrestle CM Punk, The Rock, AJ Styles, Seth Rollins, Edge … you name it."

Goldberg had his retirement match at Saturday Night's Main Event back in July when he lost a World Heavyweight Championship bout against Gunther.

While Goldberg expressed some unhappiness over the way things went down with his final match, there is no indication that WWE plans to bring him back, much less for one of Cena's last matches.

All signs point toward Cena having his retirement match at Saturday Night's Main Event in December, and it isn't yet clear who his opponent will be.

Before that, he has a huge clash with Brock Lesnar on tap for Saturday at Wrestlepalooza. Coincidentally, Lesnar is one of Goldberg's greatest rivals.

Regardless of who Cena ends up facing in his final match, it promises to be one of the more emotional and significant matches in recent memory given how legendary Cena's career has been.

Updates on Stratton's Reported Injury

Tiffany Stratton reportedly came out of her WWE Women's Championship defense against Jade Cargill on last week's episode of SmackDown with an injury.

According to Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Stratton "appears to be okay," but he was told she was placed in concussion protocol after the match against Cargill.

The injury may have occurred during a high-risk spot to the outside when Stratton missed a moonsault and landed hard on the floor.

NXT general manager Ava essentially confirmed Monday that Stratton is injured, as she announced in a post on X that Stratton is not cleared to compete on Tuesday's NXT Homecoming show.

Last week on NXT, Fatal Influence was confronted by three former NXT women's champions in Stratton, Rhea Ripley and Stephanie Vaquer, setting up a six-woman tag team match for this week.

However, with Tiffany unable to compete, she will be replaced by another former NXT women's champ in Lyra Valkyria.

The fact that Stratton vs. Cargill ended in a double count-out suggests that a title rematch is in their future, but Tiffany will need to receive medical clearance before it can happen.

Claudio's Reported AEW Contract Details

Claudio Castagnoli reportedly isn't considered likely to be leaving AEW any time soon.

According to Fightful Select (h/t Steve Carrier of Ringside News), Claudio has a "significant amount of time" left on his AEW contract, AEW president Tony Khan wants him to remain with the company for a long time to come.

The report was born from some speculation regarding Castagnoli's contractual status, particularly after he wasn't part of the AEW Grand Slam Mexico event in June.

Claudio made his AEW debut in June 2022, and if he had been under a three-year contract originally, that would have marked the end of his deal.

Since missing that show in Mexico, however, Castagnoli has made several appearances on AEW programming, including wrestling at All In and Forbidden Door.

Most recently, Claudio teamed with Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta and The Young Bucks to beat Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, Katsuyori Shibata, Bandido and Brody King in a $500,000 10-man tag team match last week on Dynamite.

Castagnoli has long been a key member of the Death Riders stable, and all signs point toward that continuing to be the case for the former AEW world trios champion, WWE tag team champion and WWE United States champion.