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Posts Tagged ‘Lance Cade’

Lance Cade is an example of a wrestler who didn’t take advantage of the help available to him. On the roster of WWE as recently as a year ago, Cade was released for Wellness Policy violations, and later resigned to a development contract to give him a chance to come back, but then released a final time last spring after failing another WWE-mandated test.

Cade allegedly had used steroids, which led to both of his releases. His August 12 death has been determined to be caused by “ingesting multiple drugs combined with the effects of an enlarged heart,” according to the San Antonio, TX autopsy report recently released.

Cade had access, through a WWE program open to all former and current WWE employees, to seek drug counseling; it is a program he never enrolled in. This is just another unfortunate reminder that drug use is dangerous when the use of illegal substances is involved. And even when it involves legal, over-the-counter stuff, like diets for quick weight loss, that is typically considered safe, one should always seek the advice of medical professionals.

The writing had been on the wall for a while.

First, he was separated from tag partner Trevor Murdoch, who was released by WWE. Then, after being reinvented as Chris Jericho’s protege, Lance Cade disappeared from WWE TV for a while. Last Tuesday, the hammer finally fell: WWE released Lance Cade.

While Cade never really got over with the audience, and thus this news is probably going to be about as interesting as the latest developments in acne treatments, the real item of interest here is a transparency question.

The WWE never really stated directly why Cade was released. However, Jim Ross, on his blog, dropped hints, detailing enough of the circumstances about events leading up to Cade’s release that suggest the real reason is a violation of the WWE’s Wellness Policy.

About a year ago, in the wake of the Benoit Family Tragedy, WWE made it very public that they would soon be much more transparent when employees are released for Wellness Policy violations. Now, a year later, it seems the company may be slipping back into its old method of covering over the actual circumstances.

That’s unfortunate, as it reduces public trust in WWE and allows performers to remain in denial about possible problems they may be facing in their lives.

Let’s hope that if Cade is facing certain behind-the-scenes problems, he will face them down directly and get his life back on a positive and healthy track.

I’ll admit this right up front: I’m not a huge fan of Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch.

Sure, they became more entertaining after their “Gee, we’ve reformed, we wanna be good guys” routine they played out in their program against The Hardys, but really all that did is make me long for an extended reunion of Matt and Jeff as tag champs, rather than the short program to puff Cade and Murdoch. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Hardcore Holly does nothing for me, though, and he certainly does nothing for the young and promising Cody Rhodes. While he’s enjoying an extended babyface run, though, I think long-term, Cody needs to follow the Randy Orton path to truly become successful.

By which I mean, when he’s starting to become decently popular and over with the crowd, give him a shocking betrayal to play out and become absolutely HATED! But in the good, “I’m a bad guy and you’d just love to see me defeated but it ain’t happening” sort of way. The Triple H way, basically.

As for the match, even home theater chairs wouldn’t have made it a comfortable experience. A few years ago, the Hardys were doing TLC matches to defend their tag titles against Edge and Christian. This is a noticeable step down. Really noticeable.

WINNER: Cade and Murdoch to retain the tag titles
RATING: 5.5 (out of 10; just a very average tag match – nothing special.)