10 YRS AGO – WWE in Canton, Ohio (3-24-18): Cena vs. Orton, plus Ric Flair, Duggan, Jeff Hardy, Khali, Kane, Eugene, Carlito

The following was originally published 10 years ago this weekend on PWTorch.com…

WWE Raw house show
March 24, 2007
Canton, Ohio at the Canton Civic Center
Report by Paul Greer, PWTorch subscriber

(1) Jeff Hardy pinned Kenny Dykstra after a Swanton. Good opener. The crowd reaction for Hardy was off the charts. Not a quiet moment the entire match.

(2) Viscera defeated “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan by DQ. I think. The match ended with Viscera shoving the ref followed by Duggan hitting Big Vis with the 2×4. The ref rung the bell, but when the announcer tried to tell us the winner, Duggan took the mic and chanted USA,USA. Before the match they picked a little kid from the crowd to be Duggan’s manager for the match.

(3) Brian & Brett Majors defeated Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas. You read correct. The World’s Gretest Tag-Team can’t even get a win against some greenhorns on a small house show. The match itself was decent with Benjamin and Haas playing the bullies to the unkown team. The Majors were pretty much by the book of armdrag, headlock and dropkicks.

(4) Daniel Rodimer pinned Eugene. Not a good night for the B-listers on Raw. Rodimer took the mic and called Eugene a “retard” and made fun of him now being a “bald retard” and offered him a blonde wig to wear. Rodimer has a Brock Lesnar look to him. But I didn’t see any in-ring resemblance.

(5) Ric Flair & Carlito beat Johnny Nitro & Joey Mercury after Carlito hit the backcracker on Murcury. Good match with MNM taunting the crowd and Flair doing most of the work to set up the Carlito save. Flair looks as old as he his, but those chops still sound great up close.

(6) Ashley pinned Melina with a roll-up in a non-title match. This was an obvious practice match for Mania. From what I saw, they need till SummerSlam to make this one work. Melina was stalling outside the ring and Mickie James came out and threw her into the ring for Ashley to pin her. They picked a teenage girl from the crowd to be the guest ring announcer for this match.

(7) Kane wrestled The Great Khali to a double count-out. This was the quickest match of the night. Lots of punching and movement from Kane, and a lot of staggering and slow offense from Khali.

(8) John Cena pinned Randy Orton to retain the WWE Title. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat was special referee. I’ll say this about John Cena, the guy is a rock star. His reaction made Jeff Hardy’s seem like silence. Really good match between two wrestlers I don’t really care for. In the beginning of the match Cena and Orton did a little fighting in the crowd. Orton’s trademark chinlock seemed to be non-existent tonight. Near the end Cena went for the FU and Orton kicked Steamboat for the ref bump. Cena locked on the STFU and made Orton tap. Since Steamboat was down the match continued. Orton hit the RKO and asked for another ref. Cena kicked out. Orton beats up that ref and grabs a steel chair. By then Steamboat gets up, takes the chair and argues with Orton. Orton pushes The Dragon and Steamboat gives him the dragon chops to the chest and Cena picks Randy up for the FU and the pin.

NOTES: The show was a sell-out. The Civic Center looks to hold around 3000-4000 people. The crowd was hot and the atmosphere was great because of the small venue. Maybe being in the front row for the first time in ten years helped as well. Overall the crowd interaction from the wrestlers and some pretty decent matches made this a really fun house show. The WWE Sign Guy was there. I don’t know what to make of this guy. He was signing autogrphs and taking pictures with fans. He even was wearing a T-Shirt that said Sign Guy Army. As far as merchandise they were selling autograph copies of the Marine like hotcakes. They actually had a guy away from the merchandise table just selling the DVDs. He sold through at least three cases during intermission.

NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS 10 YRS AGO FLASHBACK: 10 YRS AGO – WWE in Louisville, Ky. (3-1-08): Orton vs. Hardy, Hardcore Holly & Cody vs. Santino & Carlito, Mickie & Maria vs. Beth & Jillian