Nic Nemeth says Vince McMahon once paid half a million dollars for breaking curfew at a WWE live event at Madison Square Garden so he and John Cena could give the fans “their money’s worth” in the main event match on the show:
“One of my absolute favorite matches I ever had with him was at Madison Square Garden in a Steel Cage, not televised, and here’s the best part. There is a curfew at MSG and if you don’t hit that curfew the bill becomes a half a million dollars more.
“Everyone at MSG gets excited and we’re excited to be there, and we’re down to the main event in a Steel Cage and we’re about to go out and there’s eight minutes till ‘hey after this there’s half a million dollars on Vince’s tab’.
“I’m like what are we doing we can’t short change these guys? He goes ‘absolutely not we’re talking to the boss’. Boss goes ‘give them their money’s worth’.
“We went out there for 30 minutes.”
(source: KVIA ABC-7)