Lance "Cade" McNaught Passes Away

[Troy]

I am extremely sad to confirm that Lance McNaught, who was one of Shawn Michaels' first wrestling students and worked for WWE under the ring name Lance Cade, has passed away at the age of only 29 years old. We are still working on further details at this time.

Cade was part of the original class of students trained by Shawn Michaels and Rudy Boy Gonzales at Michaels' Wrestling Academy in San Antonio, Texas, a class that also included Bryan Danielson and Brian Kendrick. Due to his lanky frame and athletic ability, there were comparisons to a young Barry Windham. Cade was immediately signed to WWF developmental after a few appearances for FMW in Japan and went through OVW and HWA.
Cade was brought to the main roster in 2003 to form a team with Mark Jindrak (now Lucha Libre USA's Marco Corleone), going as far as to work the Wrestlemania XX card as Jindrak's partner. Cade was eventually sent back to developmental and returned as Trevor Murdoch's partner. That team clicked a little better and eventually had a WWE Tag Team championship run.
Cade's most prominent run in WWE was as a second to Chris Jericho during Jericho's excellent feud against Shawn Michaels. In the midst of that run, however, he was released from the company after an incident on an airplane where Cade took too many painkillers and went into a seizure. The plane had to be diverted in order to save his life and WWE opted to release him.
The company eventually brought Cade back and had him under a contract for about a year, but released him without doing anything. At the time, Cade claimed in an interview with me that the company let him go because he asked for help due to personal issues he was having stemming from addictions to sleeping pills that he began using to deal with pain while getting himself clean. Sources within WWE scoffed at the claim at the time.
Cade worked for independents and Japanese dates after his release. Sadly, he leaves behind two young daughters.

Another gone too young and he leaves behind two young daughters.

Why people even touch drugs I don't know, it only leads to bad things. Nothing good ever comes from drugs and people must be so weak and stupid to try them.

Another wasted life that could have been avoided if they stayed clean.

29 years old, damn.

 

[OJR]

This is just sad. The fact that his two young dauhters have to grow up without a father due to drugs is just awful, but the fact that it's not a shock is much worse. I was saying to Troy earlier how weird it is that an apparently fake sport has so many deaths, and that something definitely needs to be done to prevent it. The WWE's wellness policy looks to have been a success due to the lack of wrestler's meeting their end, and something similar clearly needs to be done in TNA and the indy's. But I guess the attraction of working with Dixie Carter and in the indy's is the lax standards, and sadly, to most succesful promoters, the chance of a wrestler dying is less than the risk of losing money. Sad but true.

 

[Dademo]

It's a shame that he died so young. I think Cade was a big part of the WWE mid-card scene (on Raw at least) from like 02-06, and I remember watching him. RIP definitely.

 

[Canadian Pothead]

Sad news for sure, Lance Cade could have been a future World Champion.. Terrible to see another guy go far far before their time, he was one of my favorite guys that never got a massive chance. I truly believe that if the plane incident didn't happen he would have been main eventing right now. Wish his family all the best in their time of need, death is never an easy thing to have happen.

Also, Troy! I do drugs now and again, and I'm not to worried