All those who thought a pay-per-view (PPV) headlined by a John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis match would do respectable numbers raise your hand. Now all those who raised their hand, please, put it down, you look like an idiot.

Anyway, the Over the Limit event that went down on May 20 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and featured the aforementioned Cena vs. Laurinaitis match -- with the added stipulation that if "Ace" lost, he would be fired -- actually drew a good buyrate (by today's standards) for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

The latest Wrestling Observer newsletter (subscription required but recommended) has the word:

The first estimate for the 5/20 Over the Limit PPV from Raleigh, built around a John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis main event where Laurinaitis would be fired if he lost, was 171,000 worldwide buys and 123,000 domestic.

This is quite the nice surprise, in the sense that WWE gets relatively good numbers for a show widely expected to bomb but it's bad news for fans because it could very well lead to more angles involving non-wrestler authority figures clogging up the main event in silly matches.

And this match, by the time it was over, was an embarrassment.

Still, it did significantly better than the Over the Limit show in 2011, which was headlined by John Cena vs. Miz in an I Quit match for the WWE championship. That show did 145,000 buys with just 72,000 domestic.

Anyone as surprised as me at the number? And can we all just go ahead and say CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan is the actual cause of the jump?