WWE surprisingly releases Lance Cade

Photo courtesy of wwe.com

A little while ago, it was posted on wwe.com that Lance Cade was released from the company after being on the main roster for a little over four-years.

The move was shocking to say the least and has left people scratching their heads as it appeared Cade was being groomed for big things in the company and was in the midst of his biggest singles push of his career, feuding with Shawn Michaels, the main who trained him, and being Chris Jericho's sidekick.

Honestly, while the release came out of left field, it shouldn't be that surprising when one considers how much time and effort WWE has spent trying to get Cade over with the crowd. When he first debuted in the fall/winter of 2003, he was paired with Mark Jindrak and the two made for a decent, young tag-team.

After the WWE 2004 draft, Jindrak was drafted to Smackdown and Cade was paired with Jonathan Coachman, who served as Cade's mouthpiece. After it was apparent the pair wasn't working out, Cade went to the developmental area for a while before coming back in Fall 2005, teaming with Trevor Murdoch in a "Western Cowboy Redneck" tag-team that lasted until a few months ago and the duo had several tag-team title reigns.

It could just be a case of WWE cutting their losses as pairing Cade with Jericho could have been a last resort effort and they must have felt it wasn't working out. That or Cade did something or got caught with something we don't know about because I thought he would have a job for life since he was trained by Michaels.

I think what hinder and hurt Cade's career was he couldn't connect with the fans as he is plain as vanilla ice-cream. There is nothing about him that oozes charisma, unlike another Michaels trained student, Brian Kendrick, who despite his small statute is close to becoming the top-heel on Smackdown behind Vladimir Kozlov.

I'm reminded of a Raw event I attended in San Jose in May 2004 and during one of the matches that was taped for the international version of "Sunday Night Heat," Cade was having a match against Val Venis and the annoying gentlemen behind me, who thought they knew everything, said the following when one asked if he brought his camera, "Yeah I brought it but I'm not gonna waste film on Lance Cade." That about sums up Cade's career in WWE.

However, like others who are released, he may be back one-day. For the WWE to give him a seal of approval by keeping him employed for so long and giving him all these chances, I don't see them just releasing him outright in what was their biggest try to get him over.

Lastly, does anyone else find it ironic that Cryme Tyme was brought back to the company earlier this year and now, Cade and Murdoch are now both gone from WWE and this time last year, Cryme Tyme was released after an incident at a house show involving them and Cade and Murdoch? That type of irony writes itself.