While reminiscing on his personal memories with Cena, Nemeth pulled back the curtain on a live event match they had in New York City’s Madison Square Garden back in December 2012.

“One of my absolute favorite matches I’ve ever had with him was at Madison Square Garden in a steel cage, not televised,” Nemeth said. “Here’s the best part. There is a curfew with MSG, and if you don’t hit that curfew, the bill becomes a half-a-million dollars more. 

“Everybody at MSG gets excited because they’re excited to be there. We’re down in the main event in a steel cage. We’re about to go out and there’s eight minutes until hey, after this, it’s a half million dollars on Vince [McMahon]’s tab. I’m like, ‘What are we doing? We can’t short change these guys.’ [Cena] goes, ‘Absolutely not.’ We’re going to talk to the boss. The boss goes, ‘Give them their money’s worth.’ We went out there for 30 minutes.”

The result of this cage match saw Cena emerge victorious, while Nemeth left with his front teeth knocked out and his face covered in blood. Still, Nemeth said the most important thing was giving back to the fans by creating that special, extended memory.

At the time, Nemeth and AJ Lee were freshly immersed in a romantic storyline on television, which stemmed from the latter turning on Cena just days earlier at WWE TLC. Outside of that, Nemeth also proudly owned the Money in the Bank briefcase.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “KVIA-TV” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.