With every job, there is one aspect that is worse than the rest. As a writer, the worst thing to do is to cover a death. Unfortunately in the wrestling business, this type of news happens all too often, and in many cases, it happens to men and women far too young to go. Today's case is perhaps the epitome of this issue.
This morning, Lance McNaught, who wrestled under the name Lance Cade passed away of an apparent heart failture. He was 29 years old. His father broke the news to WWE and subsequently, the WWE universe learned of this tragedy soon thereafter.
For those who don't remember, McNaught wrestled as Garrison Cade and later Lance Cade while with WWE. He was a 3 time tag team champion with partner Trevor Murdoch, but was on the brink of success after their breakup in 2008. Cade, whose tall and muscular body was prototypical in wrestling success, was partnered with Chris Jericho. As a former student of Shawn Michaels, he was playing into Jericho's story that HBK could not be trusted. This was going to lead to a major push for Cade, but an incident on a plane where Cade reportedly had a seizure led to his immediate removal from the company. It was then that we learned of Lance McNaught's demons.
At the time, no one knew what to make of the situation, but soon thereafter, it was discovered that McNaught had an addiction to sleeping pills that he could not kick. He apparently got clean enough to warrant a second chance with WWE in late 2009, but by April of 2010, he was let go again for rumored drug issues. It became clear that his addictions were not gone, and perhaps they stemmed deeper than just sleeping pills.
It's a shame that a man so young ran into such trouble, but as we've learned all too many times in the wrestling business, cocktails of pills, steroids, and recreational drugs often lead to an early grave. I am not speculating that Mr. McNaught was invovled in all of these things, but when a 29 year old man dies of heart failure, one has to imagine that great stress was put on that heart, and generally that is a result of foreign substances in the body.
We here at Mouthofthesouthshore.com wish the McNaught family all the best as they deal with this terrible loss. It's truly a shame for a man to die so young, regardless of provocation. As I state at the end of all of these articles, none of which I enjoy writing, I hope that young wrestlers can learn from this tragedy and avoid the demons that have plagued so many before them. Unfortunately, this is another in a long list of wrestling tragedies. Let's hope we don't have to report another for a long, long time.
Lance Cade: 1981-2010 R.I.P.
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