John Cena may have left his sneakers, “Never Give Up” wristbands, and decades-long wrestling career in the ring at “Saturday Night’s Main Event,” but we all can still see him. Just days following his retirement match against GUNTHER, Cena sat down with recent title rival Cody Rhodes on his “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast to walk through their heart-pounding, storyline-ending SummerSlam match for the WWE Universal Championship.

“You called me to your unbelievable high-rise in Manhattan, overlooking Central Park — which, I don’t think I’d ever even seen like that — and you just said, “let’s get a cigar, and this place has a burger too,”” Rhodes recalled.

Many would assume that matches are called in the writer’s room, or in the ring — especially something as significant as a SummerSlam main event. According to Rhodes, however, their high-stakes SummerSlam match was planned out over one (or two) cigar, sips of “various spirits,” and a New York skyline view.

“But, somehow in there, an entire story and match was talked about in a way that — if that was the only conversation, I would’ve known exactly what we were doing in the ring the next day,” Rhodes added.

Rhodes praised the casual setting of their SummerSlam planning session, saying that he was pleasantly shocked at the seamless transition between socialization and match planning. Rhodes called the experience “wonderful,” and fondly recalled the nice picture he received from the interaction. As of writing, Rhodes has not posted said photo.

Cena and Rhodes’ face-face program — especially following Cena’s controversial heel turn — was an experimental in-ring venture, as highlighted by the preceding conversation about Cena’s retirement tour trials and errors. While fans may be critical of his brief heel run, Cena and Rhodes’ SummerSlam match was generally well-received, with the contest boasting an 8.63/10 ranking on Cagematch, gathered from 655 votes.