Next month will be the third anniversary of the death of one of Shawn Michaels' trainees, Lance Cade. It was very sad on when he died, but, I will never forget his time in WWE and afterwords. I remember that when Lance debut in June of 2003 as Garrison Cade, due to the fact that Lance Storm was there, due to him from the huge story WWE done against WCW and ECW. Cade was started off in singles matches, before teaming up with Mark Jindrak. The two lasted for nearly a year and they had some odd moments. For instance, the night, that Evolution's leader, Triple H, has put up a bounty on Bill Goldburg for $100,000. During the night, Randy Orton, who was in charge of holding the briefcase of the bounty, has an unwelcome visitors, Cade and Jindrak. The duo demanded that they wanted the briefcase that has the bounty, but, Randy said that if they want the bounty, they need to take out Goldburg. Well, that did not happened. Instead the duo end up taking the bounty after Cade sucker punched Randy in the stomach. Randy got mad and end up looking for the tag team. He even told Ric Flair about it after Flair had a match.
When Cade and Jindrak was leaving the arena, they got hit by a 2 by 4. The one who hit them, was none other then Triple H. Triple H knew that the duo had the briefcase that has the bounty. He got it back and went inside the arena. Of course the one who got the bounty, well it's does not matter. Cade and Jindrak had got an opportunity to become WWE World Tag Team Champions, but felt short of it. The last time they got an opportunity for the tag team titles was at Wrestlemania 20. The tag team parted at the WWE draft, when Jindrak was drafted to Smackdown.
Cade ended up in some kind of an alliance with Jonathan Coachman, who was in a feud against Tajiri. It was very odd about it and it was crazy. I nearly could not remember as much, but I read that the feud ended up into a tag team match at WWE Vengeance 2004, where Cade and Coachman took on against Tajiri and Rhyno. Coachman and Cade lost the match. Cade was not seen again, until August of 2005, when promos where playing of Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch happened.
Lance was repackaged as the smooth talking southern gentleman cowboy and his tag team partner, Trevor Murdoch, was packaged as the hard-ass redneck trucker. The duo this time was working. At their first pay-per-view, WWE Unforgiven 2005, Cade and Murdoch beat Rosey (Current WWE Superstar, one half of the WWE tag team champions, and member of the Shield, Roman Reigns' brother) and The Hurricane. I remember that they held it for 44 days, until they lost it to Kane and Big Show at the pay-per-view, Taboo Tuesday (Yes, it was on a Tuesday). Cade and Murdoch got their rematch six days later on RAW in a hardcore match against Kane and Big Show, but felt short, as Kane and Big Show win again, after sending Lance Cade through the commentary table and win the the match when Show uses his big boot to pin Cade.
The tag team fell apart after the match. Cade was seen on WWE Heat (Which it was online Friday on WWE.com, but, not anymore), while Murdoch was trying to be on RAW. Sometime in 2006, after trying to qualified for the Royal Rumble and didn't make it. Cade was trying to be the best, without Trevor Murdoch. He went through a change with new ring gear like two times, dyed his hair black, and started to gain weight. I really didn't understood about this transformation, but, it was shedding of what he was before when he was teaming up with Trevor Murdoch. Cade was trying to be in the fast track to being a singles competitor, but, somehow, he and Murdoch reunited and try to reclaim the WWE World Tag Team Titles. However they had a few things to dealt with. They helped Mr. McMahon and his son Shane, to ambush, Shawn Michaels and Triple H, which they did. I remember what the lines were. Cade ask them, "Whoa! Where you boys think you're going?" Shawn laugh and Triple H responded, "Well right through you!" and both teams brawled. It led them to a limousine, where out of nowhere, Big Show, with Shane McMahon cheer him on, came out and thrown Shawn Michaels on the sunroof of the limousine like a basketball player taking a free shot and get it in the basket. Cade and Murdoch done a huge damage on Triple H and after that, Mr. McMahon joined the tag team, Shane, and Big Show. It was in the storyline, that Triple H was suppose to face against Mr. McMahon in a match, which Mr. McMahon added a stipulation which the match is a no holds bar match.
The week after that, Cade and Murdoch got their chance to be in a main event on RAW, as Jonathan Coachman booked the main event for a six man tag team match, between John Cena, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels vs. Edge (with Lita), Cade, and Murdoch after John Cena open RAW, which Edge crash it. The main event proved that the tag team can be good for a main event. Another episode of RAW, Cade and Murdoch faced against Michaels and Triple H in a street fight. Both tag teams where in the fact that made RAW a very good night. A whole lot of change happened sometime in December of 2006, when Lance had change again. He dyed his hair again back to blonde and have much new ring gear. I could not much telling of Lance has gain weight or losing weight. By 2007, Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch was on the road to becoming WWE World Tag Team Champions. It started after Wrestlemania 23, when Jonathan Coachman not only do one ten tag team battle royal, but two against Shawn Michaels and John Cena, who had the World Tag Team titles. Michaels and Cena have already survive the first wave of nine tag teams, the second nine tag teams, featuring Cade and Murdoch happened. During the match, Michaels got himself and Cena eliminated, due to Shawn wanting to get back to the feud over the WWE Championship. The last two tag teams of the battle royal was left with Matt and Jeff Hardy and Cade and Murdoch. Matt and Jeff Hardy win the match as they eliminated Trevor Murdoch. After that, the two tag team much feuded, which Cade and Murdoch tried to become face in the progress. Sometime during May of 2007, when Matt and Jeff Hardy defend the World Tag Team Titles against John Morrison and Kenny Dykstra and successfully retain them, the brothers have been attack by their opponents, but, they also got attack by Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. Cade and Murdoch came to rescue the brothers.
This led off a eight man tag team match, which I guess, since no one made the announcement of it. It was Cade, Murdoch, Matt, and Jeff vs. Haas, Benjamin, Morrison, and Dykstra. It was a crazy eight man tag team match, but in the end, Cade, Murdoch, Matt, and Jeff won the tag team match. More into this, Cade and Murdoch get their opportunity for the World Tag Team titles the following RAW after Matt and Jeff Hardy beat Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. What happened was the night Lance wanted to wait for Matt and Jeff to recover after having a brutal match defending the World Tag Team Titles, but, a very no so happy Mr. McMahon booked the tag team match for the tag team titles. Both tag teams where not happy about it. So, the match happened and Cade and Murdoch defeated Matt and Jeff Hardy. They became the WWE World Tag Team Champions for the second time. There was a rematch at the pay-per-view, WWE Vengeance: Night of Champion. Cade and Murdoch did retain the titles. During the summer, Cade and Murdoch have been defending the tag team titles. But, one night on RAW, Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch were booked into a handicap tag team match. They team up with the late Umaga against John Cena and Candice Michelle in the main event on RAW. I was in shock of seeing this happened. First of all, why would you put a diva in the main event without another diva? Second, why would this be booked? Well I remember seeing that the match ended that Candice Michelle ran for her life, Jeff Hardy attacking Umaga, leaving Cade and Murdoch to lose to John Cena. I saw Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch defend the tag team titles at a house show in Wildwood, New Jersey, on August 10th, 2007. The next month, when WWE was going to South Africa the first time, Cade and Murdoch defend the WWE World Tag Team Titles against Paul London and Brian Kendrick in Cape Town, South Africa (Current WWE Superstar, Justin Gabriel's hometown) and lost the tag team titles to them on September 5th, 2007, just two years after they debut on WWE RAW. Three days later, Cade and Murdoch won back the WWE World Tag Team titles in Johannesburg, South Africa (Current WWE NXT Superstar Leo Kruger's hometown) on September 8th, 2007.
London and Kendrick got their rematch at the WWE pay-per-view Unforgiven 2007 against the tag team champs, but Cade and Murdoch stand their ground and retain the WWE World Tag Team titles. The tag team continue their long reign, until the RAW 15th Anniversary show. As, I remember, Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch defend the WWE World Tag Team titles against the odd duo of Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly and lost to Rhodes and Holly on December 10th, 2007. On December 28th, 2007 at a RAW house show, Lance Cade separated his left shoulder. The news did not happened until December 30th, 2007. It was reported on WWE.com, that Lance was going to be out for at least two to three months, however, Cade resurface on February 4th, 2008 in a tag team match with Trevor Murdoch, with a new thing to add their ring gear. I was happy to see him, but, I should been worry about him. No one should been back in action after five weeks! Well, it was just bad as the two were in a losing streak. However, things got crazy as I recall that one night after they lost a tag team match, Trevor Murdoch started to sing! I will say that Lance's expression of what happened has definitely explains how I feel too, just shocking and confused. Well, that did not last long, as the tag team was losing and Trevor singing, was the last straw for Lance. After they lost one more match, Lance sure enough punched Trevor out cold (
Sort of like on what happened on RAW weeks ago when Fandango was saying his name, Wade Barrett punched Fandango out cold, because no one wanted to hear him). I remember that Joey Styles interview Lance about the punch. Lance explains the whole situation about it. This is what he said:
Are you that stupid Trevor? You want to know why I punch you in the face? The reason why I punch you in the face is because you embarrassed me in front of million and millions of people. You sang to me on Monday Night RAW! I done a lot of things on Monday Night RAW before, but I think that's the first. You know what Trevor, we were never going win back the World Tag Team Championships, you know why, because you're an anchor. You're an anchor that weigh me down.
Well, that's most I can interpreted. Thankfully for YouTube. You can watch the whole interview by clicking at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaDcMR-Ggf0
Lance did take on against Trevor in a match and beat him. Around mid to late June of 2008, Lance align himself with Chris Jericho to end up into a huge feud against Shawn Michaels. That was happened during the summer of 2008. Especially, when Chris Jericho was ending off his most crazy segment he has done, The Highlight Reel, which he had Lance and the two has talk about it. It was weird about it, but, it was nuts. The feud between Jericho and Michaels did get more into the fall. During the RAW 800th episode, in a handicap match between Chris Jericho, Lance Cade, and JBL vs. Shawn Michaels and Batista, Lance pinned Shawn without cheating for a win. It was a huge shocker. Around October at the pay-per-view, WWE Hell in a Cell 2008 was the last pay-per-view appearance for Lance. He tried to help Chris Jericho retain the World Heavyweight title. After the pay-per-view, on RAW, Lance Cade took on against Shawn Michaels in one last match, where Shawn beat him. That was the last time I saw him on WWE program. It was then announced on WWE.com, that Lance Cade was released from his contract. I really did not know what happened. Some news websites said that he got sick and WWE ring announcer, Lillian Garcia was there and she make sure that he needed the help. I really learned is that Lance has some kind of seizure, but, I did not know what cause of it. After Lance was released, I was more focus on the WWE program. However by 2009, I had to learn what happened with Lance. It seems that Lance Cade had reunited with Trevor Murdoch in the National Wrestling Alliance and had tag team matches and done a promo with Nick and Matt Jackson (Before the brothers was shown on TNA Wrestling's show, Impact and get in a huge feud against the Motor City Machine Guns). Lance did travel to Japan and wrestled in a promotional called HUSTLE Wrestling where he team up with Rene Dupree. I forgot to mention that before Lance debut in WWE back in June of 2003, when he was in Ohio Valley Wrestling, Lance teamed up with Rene Dupree in tag team matches. They never became the OVW tag team champions. Anyway, while teaming up with Rene, the two gain a manager, a Japanese woman, which I forgot her name. Anyway, they feuded against some of the wrestlers there. Lance was going back and forth between the United States and Japan to wrestle.
By sometime in September of 2009, Lance wrestled in Lisbon, Portugal for a wrestling promotion for two shows in two days. Lance faced off against Trevor Murdoch again at the first show and by the second show, he faced off against Rob Van Dam. Lance beat Trevor on the first show, but lost to RVD by the second. I heard rumors that Lance was resigned with WWE sometime in 2009 and worked in then before Florida Championship Wrestling, now known as NXT Wrestling. I was not sure to the truth of this rumor. Sometime around 2010, Lance Cade return to Japan and he and Rene Dupree wrestled in All Japan Pro Wrestling and was in a stable called Voodoo Murders. Lance and Rene were schedule sometime in August of 2010 they were suppose to go for the All Japan Pro Wrestling Unified World Tag Team titles, but sadly that is when Lance Cade died on August 13th, 2010, just three days after Wade Barrett's 30th birthday and two days before the WWE Pay-per-view, Summerslam, where I remember the night that Bryan Danielson, who used to team up with Lance Cade in Japan, returned to be part of the seven on seven tag team match against the Nexus. I was really sad about it. I remember being on twitter and saw many tweets from Shawn Michaels, Candice Michelle, Matt Hardy, Shannon Moore, and Nick and Matt Jackson. It was a very sad day in wrestling. I later learned how he died. The reports say that he died of enlarge heart due to him taking pain medication. I think that was the cause of him to have some kind of seizure back in 2008.
Despite the bad and the sad. Lance Cade was really the best. However, this blog reading is not over. If you notice my blog title,
My memories of Lance Cade and which NXT Superstar can benefit this? There is more to this. You are wondering which NXT Superstar is it? Well I will tell you, it's not Scott Dawson and Garret Dylan, because they are a very poorly portraying a redneck tag team, namelessly, Cade and Murdoch, and they are managed by Sylvester LeFort, who looks like a cross breed of the late "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Damien Sandow, and Rene Dupree. If they want to become NXT Tag Team Champions, I say that Dawson and Dylan ditch LeFort, because if Cade and Murdoch became World Tag Team Champions, then Dawson and Dylan can become NXT Tag Team Champions, without Sylvester LeFort. But, who am I thinking of you might ask. Well there is one of who I can think of. To the WWE Universe he is Kassius Ohno, but to those who really know him as the international independent star, Chris Hero. Yes, like Lance, Chris has gone through changes himself.
When he started to wrestle, Chris would wear t-shirts and blue jeans. Somehow, Chris kept changing and he would have
t-shirts now with his logo and pants that has his wrestling surname down on one leg of the pants. That was sometime between 1998 and 2007. By sometime in late 2007 Chris change again, this time
he has wear long wrestling tights and t-shirt. Especially, when he was the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Champion. Sometime in 2009, Chris has finally wears
the short wrestling tights and he has been wearing it since.
I learned of Chris Hero in a year, due to the technology these days. But, somethings are different from Chris Hero to Lance Cade. To begin, Chris has been trained by Dory Funk Jr and Chris took seminars and camps by wrestling legends, including William Regal, who had shown Chris in the ways of how Regal was. Chris also trained other wrestlers, including Claudio Castagnoli, who became his tag team partner and formed The Kings of Wrestling. They dominated the tag team scene in Chikara Pro, Combat Zone Wrestling, and Ring of Honor Wrestling. However, Chris has struggling with his weight situation and he turn to help from his friend and wrestler, Mark Wolfe. Mark help out Chris to focus on losing the weight Chris wanted and Chris did his best. If you listen to the Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana, episode 51, Chris explains about it. It's just knowledgeable of learning of your favorite wrestler, when you listen to the Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana podcast.
But, why I am doing this? Well a rumor report by lets say an unknown news website were reporting that Chris has been punished for what, not being in shape like Seth Rollins? Well, that's inexcusable for saying so, because where is the proof? Some people do claim that Chris is offended of going at the weights. Well, again, where is the proof? Again, if everyone would listen to the Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana episode 51, you would know. There is some reason that maybe he is a little out of shape is because he is trying to do what he can do. If the reason why he was removed just for that and they want him to the way he was let's say 2010, then that's understandable. Okay, Chris is not like Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns. Chris reminds me of when Lance was still alive, Lance struggle with his weight and you can see about it in the videos by searching on YouTube and to be honest, I have not heard one ounce of problem with Lance, so why now going after Chris? Please tell me something that I miss here? I don't think there is one ounce of proof about this. To be honest as being a WWE fan for almost 15 years, no fan ever complain about how a wrestler's weight. If someone wants Chris to be like Seth Rollins, show him how! It's not that hard! Just be kind to the man.
Also, I am really disappointed that there are fans who are at the NXT live shows take at least one photo of Chris. I am really sad about it. If you are going to take photos and post them up. I want to see more then one photo of him at not just one show, but the weekend when WWE NXT is in the cities. I really miss watching Chris being on NXT.
Thank you for reading this.
Lindsie Starr
Follow me on twitter:
twitter.com/LindsieStarr
