WWE Night of Champions 2012 PPV buys estimated at 189,000 for 'Punk vs Cena' main event

This year has been a strong one for WWE on pay-per-view (PPV), what with the booming success of WrestleMania 28, which did indeed break the record for buys at 1,253,000, and that's continued onto Night of Champions just last month.

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Night of Champions did 189,000 buys for the Sept. 16 event at the TD Garden Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. That's up from the 169,000 buys the show did last year.

The breakdown:

2012 domestic: 102,000
2012 worldwide: 87,000
2011 domestic: 109,000
2011 worldwide: 60,000

This year's show saw CM Punk defend the WWE championship against John Cena in a rematch from their Raw 1000 encounter that saw Cena become the first Money in the Bank winner to fail to cash in the briefcase. Undercard support saw Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio for the world heavyweight championship, Team Hell No win the tag team titles from Kofi Kingston and R-Truth, and Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler.

Last year's show, meanwhile, was heavily promoted for the CM Punk vs. Triple H main event that had the added stipulation that if "The Game" lost, he would resign as COO of the company. That didn't happen, of course, and Kevin Nash made his return at this event to lead to their feud. Undercard support for this show saw John Cena win the WWE championship from Alberto Del Rio and Mark Henry defeat Randy Orton for the world heavyweight championship to kick off his big run as heel champion.

As noted, WWE is keeping the gravy train rolling with each event this year doing better than the year prior. In order to keep the streak alive with Hell in a Cell, Punk vs. Ryback is going to have to sell more than 182,000 buys.

Anyone think they'll pull it off?